Professor Mark Trigg

Profile

I am a professional scientist and chartered engineer with experience in hydrology, hydrogeology and hydraulics, with particular interests in integrated catchment management, flood risk and water resource issues and have experience working in many climates and countries. The common theme throughout my career has been the movement of water in natural and modified environments and understanding these complex processes and their interactions with infrastructure over a range of geographical scales. 

• 2023-current: Professor of Water Risk
• 2020-2022: Associate Professor of Water Risk
• 2016-2020: Leeds University Academic Fellow in Water Related Risk
• 2011-2015: Willis Research Fellow – Global flood risk, School of Geography, University of Bristol, UK
• 2010-2011: Research Fellow – Surface water groundwater interaction, NCGRT, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
• 2009-2010: Research Assistant - Marine geophysical data analysis algorithms, School of Geography, University of Bristol, UK
• 2006-2010: Full time PhD by research - Amazon River and floodplain hydrodynamics, School of Geography, University of Bristol, UK. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) PhD studentship
• 2002-2006: Principal Hydrologist, Hyder Consulting Ltd., Cardiff, UK
• 2004: CEnv, Chartered Environmentalist, Society for the Environment (SocEnv)
• 2000-2002: Project Hydrologist, Environment Agency, Northwest Region, UK
• 2001: C.WEM, Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, (CIWEM)
• 1998-2000: Hydro Engineer, Action Against Hunger, International Emergency Relief Agency, Uganda, Albania, Cambodia, Kenya 
• 1997-1998: Water Engineer, Silsoe Aid for Appropriate Development, Guatemala
• 1996-1997: MSc in Soil and Water Engineering, Hunting Cup for Best Student, Jack Wright Memorial Trust Fund Travel Scholarship (Zimbabwe), Silsoe College Award (bursary) for postgraduate study
• 1995: CEng, Chartered Engineer, Engineering Council
• 1989-1996: Senior Design & Development Engineer, WH Allen, Rolls-Royce
• 1989-1991: Lloyd’s Register Scholarship and W.H.Allen BEng Sponsorship
• 1987-1991: BEng (Hons), Mechanical Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Responsibilities

• Associate Director water@leeds

Research interests

I study river systems from the global to the infrastructure scale. I am most interested in how we connect these scales and what new science we can learn from those experiments, as well as how that knowledge can help address key societal challenges. Core topic areas are river hydrodynamics and the connectivity of rivers and floodplains, with strong links to geomorphology, hydrology and environmental engineering. I am particularly motivated by data-scarce contexts where new, low cost – high tech, field methods, numerical modelling, remote sensing, and local knowledge can provide new insights and applications.

Current Projects

Global Flood Partnership (GFP): I collaborate with the Global Flood Partnership and provide expertise in assessing and applying state-of-the-art global flood models being developed within the group, in order to understand how credible (and useful) they are. While the answers of the research are of obvious use to global flood management, tackling these questions from a science perspective is providing new knowledge and understanding to improve the models and our comprehesion of flood hazard globally.

I have been working on a World Bank project (http://www.charim.net/) to support the generation and application of landslide and flood hazard risk information to inform the planning and infrastructure sectors, specifically targeting small countries in the Caribbean region. My input includes a contribution to a national flood hazard assessment for Belize, as well as writing technical methodologies, application use-cases and data guidance for the Governments involved in the project.

I am PI on a Royal Society-DFID funded project (CRISP) working in collaboration with the University of Kinshasa, Rhodes University, and Dar Es Salaam University, to study the hydrodynamics of the Congo River.

Qualifications

• PhD, Physical Geography, Supervisor; Professor Paul Bates, University of Bristol
• MSc, Soil and Water Engineering, Cranfield University, Silsoe College, Silsoe, UK
• BEng (Hons), Mechanical Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Professional memberships

• CEng, Chartered Engineer, Engineering Council
• CEnv, Chartered Environmentalist, Society for the Environment (SocEnv)
• C.WEM, Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, (CIWEM)

Research groups and institutes

• Water, Public Health and Environmental Engineering
• Cities, Infrastructure and Energy

Current postgraduate researchers

• Mark Bernhofen
• Hang Wu
• Molly Asher
• Andrew B. Carr
• Hafizul Aimme
• Victor Olajubu
• Thitipoom Chailert