Dr Andrew Barkwith

Andrew Barkwith’s Biography

• 2023 – ongoing: BGS Associate Director of Operations
• 2019 – ongoing: BGS Principle Numerical Modeller
• 2014 – 2019: BGS Senior Numerical Modeller
• 2009 – 2014: BGS Numerical Modeller
• 2004 –2009 : Salford University, PhD, Atmospheric Dynamics
• 2000 –2004 : University of Manchester, MEarthSci

Research interests

• Atmospheric dynamics
• Climate change
• Groundwater resources
• Urban water security
• Landscape and coastal evolution

Current projects and collaborations

• Enhancing urban water security in Mexico — Water security is defined as the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water. Growing populations and the increasing trend of human migration from rural to urban environments is leading to an expansion of the metropolitan landscape, which threatens water security. In semi-arid regions, water availability can be highly variable and a lack of sustainable water resource planning in metropolitan design has further exacerbated the problem. This Urban water security consortium of 26 UK and Mexican researchers is driven by a single goal; to enhance regional water security in semi-arid regions through improved metropolitan design. Our research base is informed by comprehensive empirical studies and high-quality data evaluation. We strive to build productive relationships with stakeholders and make a positive impact on society. This consortium feeds advice and expertise into the ReTGIA Thematic network.
• Philippines Groundwater Outlook (PhiGO) — Water security is of particular concern for Filipino cities, which have been designated amongst the worst in Asia for urban water security. Changing climate and increasing urban population density will put more stress on their water resources, having an acute impact on valuable groundwater resources. Through a programme of data gathering, knowledge exchange, fieldwork, numerical modelling and stakeholder engagement the PhiGO project seeks to undertake assessments of population and climate change impacts on regional groundwater resources and translate these into usable forecasts of flood and drought risk. To better understand the potential socio-economic impacts of groundwater level extremes and potential water management strategies, PhiGO is also focussed on quantifying the cascading impacts of flood and drought through key infrastructure and analysing the cost-benefit of differing water management and urban planning scenarios.
• Coastal evolution — Investigating the influences of oceanic and climatic variables on shaping soft sediment coastlines using the shoreline evolution models. These models simulates shoreline development in response to changes in deep-water wave climates, geological settings and beach properties. They are well suited to simulating decadal to centennial scale responses to change at the regional scale, for example from the addition or removal of coastal defenses. They are also well suited to improving our conceptual understanding of mesoscale coastline dynamics. These models are currently being further developed under the BLUEcoast project and are strengthening our ability to understand the resilience and recovery of UK and global coastlines to change.
• Decadal scale landscape evolution — The CLiDE environmental modelling platform is a geomorphological simulator that allows a variety of Earth systems, and their interactions, to be explored. The platform includes a variety of modules, representing key terrestrial Earth system components, which may be switched on/off as required. This versatility allows CLiDE to explore a variety of scenarios at a range of timescales. CLiDE may be used to further our understanding of a particular system or to simulate the impacts of changing driving conditions on terrestrial systems. The latter is particularly relevant to the current, unprecedented, rapidly changing environment we are now experiencing. This year the project is focussed on the representation of physical anthropogenic processes on groundwater, surface water and sediment fluxes in landscape evolution models.

Past and current students (co-supervised)

PhD

• Current – Ankita Bhattacharya – Bangor University: The influence of groundwater and soil conditions on future flood risk of UK estuaries.
• Current – Abhishek Samrat – University of Central Lancashire: Combining physical coastal change indicators with socio-economic projections to estimate the impacts and risks of climate change along UK coastlines.
• 2019 – Chloe Morris – University of Hull: Modelling the morphodynamics of sandy coastal systems under a changing climate.
• 2014 – Lisa Orme – University of Exeter: Reconstructions of Late Holocene storminess in Europe and the role of the North Atlantic Oscillation.

MSc

• 2025 – Priyanka Awatramani and Emily Bowerman – AA school of Architecture: Cultivating Commons.
• 2023 – Camila Arretche – Oxford University: Micro-catchment prioritisation for scaling Blue-Green Infrastructures (BGI) strategies in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.
• 2023 – Iain Geddis – University of Strathclyde. Enhancing Flood Predictions in Kingston upon Hull: Evaluating the effect of Evaporation and Manning’s Coefficient on Flood Modelling
• 2022 – Erika Rose Alejar – Ateneo de Manila University: Groundwater flood modelling and forecasting in Brgy. Balabago, Alimodian, Iloilo.
• 2021 – Shekinah Noa Shelomi Wenceslao – Ateneo de Manila University: The role of Facebook in disaster risk reduction and management. Case study of the Municipality of Cainta.
• 2019 – Niels Klaver – Utrecht University: Mass Movement Hazard in a Changing Climate: Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Hydrological Triggering at the Rest and Be Thankful Pass, Scotland.
• 2019 – Eilidh Stott – Glasgow University: Rainfall-to-reach, modelling of braided morphodynamics.
• 2016 – Dagmar Ewolds – University of Gent:Dynamics of gully erosion in Northern France.
• 2015 – Laim Mouritz, Chan Ting Fu and Xiabin Hu – AA school of Architecture: Littoral Negotiations.
• 2015 – Wouter Lannoeye – University of Gent: Dynamics of gully erosion in Ethiopia.
• 2014 – Hashim Alhawsawy – Cranfield University: Role of sediment distribution in the initialisation of landscape evolution models.

Published outputs

NERC Open Research Archive — Dr Andrew Barkwith

Key papers

• Lyddon, C., Chien, N., Vasilopoulos, G., Ridgill, M., Moradian, S., Olbert, A., Coulthard, T., Barkwith, A., and Robins, P. 2024. Thresholds for estuarine compound flooding using a combined hydrodynamic–statistical modelling approach. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 973–997, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-973-2024.
• Lyddon, C., Robins, P., Lewis, M., Barkwith, A., Vasilopoulos, G., Haigh, I., and Coulthard, T. 2023. Historic spatial patterns of storm-driven compound events in UK estuaries. Estuaries and Coasts, 46, 30-56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-022-01115-4
• Lonsdale, J.-A., Leach, C., Parsons, D., Barkwith, A., Manson, S., and Elliott, M. 2022. Environmental Science & Policy, 134, 75-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.04.001
• Barkwith, A., Beaubien, S. E., Barlow, T., Kirk, K., Lister, T. R., Tartarello, M. C., and Taylor-Curran, H. 2020. Using near-surface atmospheric measurements as a proxy for quantifying field-scale soil gas flux, Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems 9(2), 483-490. https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-9-483-2020.
• Goddard, M. A., Davies, Z. G., Guenat, S., Ferguson, M. J., Fisher, J. C., Akanni, A., Ahjokoski, T., Anderson, P. M. L., Angeoletto, F., Antoniou, C., Bates, A. J., Barkwith, A., Berland, A., Bouch, C. J., Rega-Brodsky, C. C., Byrne, L. B., Cameron, D., Canavan, R., Chapman, T., Connop, S., Crossland, S., Dade, M. C., Dawson, D. A., Dobbs, C., Downs, C. T., Ellis, E. C., Escobedo, F. J., Gobster, P., Gulsrud, N. M., Guneralp, B., Hahs, A. K., Hale, J. D., Hassall, C., Hedblom, M., Hochuli, D. F., Inkinen, T., Ioja, I.-C., Kendal, D., Knowland, T., Kowarik, I., Langdale, S. J., Lerman, S. B., MacGregor-Fors, I., Manning, P., Massini, P., McLean, S., Mkwambisi, D. D., Ossola, A., Pérez Luque, G., Pérez-Urrestarazu, L., Perini, K., Perry, G., Pett, T. J., Plummer, K. E., Radji, R. A., U. R., Potts. 2021. A global horizon scan of the future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on urban ecosystems. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5, 219-230. DOI: 1038/s41559-020-01358-z
• Payo, A, Jigena Antelo, B, Hurst, M, Palaseanu-Lovejoy, M, Williams, C, Jenkins, G, Lee, K, Favis-Mortlock, D, Barkwith, A, and Ellis, M A. 2018. Development of an automatic delineation of cliff top and toe on very irregular planform coastlines (CliffMetrics v1.0). Model Dev., 11, 4317-4337. DOI: 10.5194/gmd-11-4317-2018
• Orme, L C, Charman, D J, Reinhardt, L, Jones, R T, Mitchell, F J G, Stefanini, B S, Barkwith, A, Ellis, M A, and Grosvenor, M. 2017. Past changes in the North Atlantic storm track driven by insolation and sea-ice forcing. Geology. DOI: 10.1130/G38521.1
• Brown, J M, Phelps, J C C, Barkwith, A, Hurst, M D, Ellis, M A, and Plater, A J. 2016. The effectiveness of beach mega-nourishment, assessed over three management epochs.Journal of environmental management, 184, 400-408.
  Barkwith, A, Hurst, M D, Jackson, C R, Wang, L, Ellis, M A, and Coulthard, T J. 2015. Simulating the influences of groundwater on regional geomorphology using a distributed, dynamic, landscape evolution modelling platform.Environmental Modelling & Software, 74, 1-20.
• Hurst, M D, Barkwith, A, Ellis, M A, Thomas, C W, and Murray, A B. 2015. Exploring the sensitivities of crenulate bay shorelines to wave climates using a new vector‐based one‐line model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 120(12), 2586-2608.
• Van Maanen, B, Nicholls, R J, French, J R, Barkwith, A, Bonaldo, D, Burningham, H, Murray, A B, Payo, A, Sutherland, J, Thornhill, G, Townend, IH, van der Wegen, M, and Walkden, M J A. 2015. Simulating mesoscale coastal evolution for decadal coastal management: A new framework integrating multiple, complementary modelling approaches. Geomorphology, 256, 68–80.
• Barkwith, A, Thomas, C W, Limber, P W, Ellis, M A, and Murray, A B. 2014. Coastal vulnerability of a pinned, soft-cliff coastline – Part I: Assessing the natural sensitivity to wave climate. Earth Surface Dynamics 2, 295-308.
• Beaubien, S E, Jones, D G, Gal, F, Barkwith, A, Braibant, G, Baubron, J-C, Ciotoli, G, Graziani, S, Lister, T R, Lombardi, S, Michel, K, Quattrocchi, F, and Strutt, M H. 2013. Monitoring of near-surface gas geochemistry at the Weyburn, Canada, CO₂-EOR site, 2001–2011. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. DOI: 1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.013
• Prudhomme, C, Haxton, T, Crooks, S, Jackson, C, Barkwith, A, Williamson, J, Kelvin, J, Mackay, J, Wang, L, Young, A, and Watts, G. 2012. Future Flows Hydrology: an ensemble of daily river flow and monthly groundwater levels for use for climate change impact assessment across Great Britain.Earth System Science Data, 5, 101-107. DOI: 5194/essd-5-101-2013

Skills

• Operations management
• Socio-hydrology
• Numerical analysis
• Water security
• Landscape and coastal evolution
• Climate change impacts
• Numerical modelling
• Digital twins and model integration

Professional associations

• • Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS)
  • Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP)