Dr Darren John Beriro

Dr Darren John Beriro

Geoscientist

Location: Keyworth

Tel: 0115 936 3479

E-mail Dr Darren John Beriro

Summary

I am an interdisciplinary geoscientist with a background in risk based land management. As a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow at BGS I work with a wide range of external organisations, including land owners, developers, consultants and regulators. The aim of the Fellowship is to increase the impact of NERC geoscience in brownfield land redevelopment projects.

My research lines include: i) developing laboratory methods to measure the bioaccessibility of chemicals in soil that are harmful to human health; ii) spatial decision support tools to evaluate land suitability for different applications (e.g. renewable energy, land redevelopment); and iii) data driven modelling of rock and soil geochemistry.

Making a positive contribution towards sustainable development is important to me. I try and achieve this by working on co-designed innovation projects that involve end-users and expert groups within as well as outside BGS.

Biography

  •  2013 – ongoing : Geoenvironmental Scientist, British Geological Survey
  •  2010 –2014 : PhD in risk-based land management, University of Nottingham
  •  2008 –2010 : Principal Environmental Consultant, WD Environmental Limited
  •  2006 –2010 : Director and Principal Environmental Consultant, Grantham Cartwright and Associates and Integrated Resources Management
  •  2006 –2009 : MRES in Contaminated Land Management, University of Nottingham
  •  2002 –2006 : Senior Environmental Consultant, Integrated Resources Management
  •  2001 –2002 : Environmental Advocacy Project Officer, Environmental Assistance.
  •  1998 –2001 : BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science, University of Greenwich

Current projects and collaboration

  •  2016 – ongoing : NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow - focus on utilisation of geoscience in brownfield redevelopment projects
  •  2016 – ongoing : British Geological Survey are developing a method to measure and model the dermal bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in soil using passive diffusion cells and GC-MS/MS analysis. The work is funded by National Grid Property Holdings in collaboration with WSP|PB.
  •  2015 – ongoing : Data4Sustain: webGIS decision support tool for site-based selection of renewable energy technologies - funded by Innovate UK

Research interests

  • Risk based land management
  • Human bioavailability and bioaccessibility of potentially harmful chemicals in soil
  • Data driven modelling of the geochemistry and rocks and soils
  • Innovations in decision support tools for geoenvironmental applications

Boards and committees

  •  2017 – ongoing : AGS Contaminated Land Working Group
  •  2014 – ongoing : Land Quality Committee - Environmental Protection UK
  •  2014 – ongoing : Chair of the UK Chapter of the International Medical Geology Association

Commissioned reports

  • Validation of a gravimetric PM2.5 impactor using particle sizing techniques (Open Report OR/16/028)
  • Measuring the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of PAH in soil through the dermal absorption and inhalation pathways: A review of current methodologies and new developments with recommendations for further work (Commercial Report CR/15/009)

Published outputs

Key papers

Beriro, D. J., Cave, M. R., Wragg, J., Thomas, R., Wills, G. 2016. Toward developing a physiologically-based test for human dermal in vitro bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in soil: a review of the current state of knowledge. Journal of Hazardous Materials 305, 240-259.

Middleton, D.R.S., Watts, M.J., Beriro, D.J., Hamilton, E.M., Leonardi, G.S., Fletcher, T., Close, R.M., Polya, D.A., 2017. Arsenic in residential soil and household dust in Cornwall, south west England: potential human exposure and the influence of historical mining. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

Vane, C. H, Beriro, D. J., Turner, G. H. 2015. Rise and fall of mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1–12

Vane, Christopher H.; Kim, Alexander W.; Beriro, Darren J.; Cave, Mark R.; Knights, Katherine; Moss-Hayes, Vicky; Nathanail, Paul C.. 2014 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in urban soils of Greater London, UK. Applied Geochemistry, 51. 303-314. 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2014.09.013.

Beriro, D. J.; Vane, C. H.; Cave, M. R. and Nathanail, C. P. 2014. Effects of Physical Sample Preparation on the Concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Gasworks Contaminated Soils. Applied Geochemistry.

Beriro, D. J.; Abrahart, R. J.; Nathanail, C. P.; Moreno, J. and Bawazir, A. S. 2013. A typology of different development and testing options for symbolic regression modelling of measured and calculated datasets. Environmental Modelling and Software.

Beriro, D. J.; Abrahart, R. J. and Diplock, G. 2014. Genetic Programming in GeoComputation (2nd Ed.), Abrahart, R. J.; and See, L. CRC Press.