Dr David Macdonald

David Macdonald’s Biography

•  2010 – ongoing : Head of Station, BGS Wallingford
•  1989 – ongoing : Hydrogeologist, British Geological Survey
•  2012 – 2019 : PhD University of Reading, Groundwater flows in an urbanised floodplain and implications for environmental management
•  1989 : MSc University of Newcastle, Water Resource Systems Engineering
•  1984 – 1988 : BSc University of Edinburgh, Geophysics

ORCID

• 000000033475636X

Research interests

• Groundwater flooding
• Groundwater policy and management
• Groundwater resource assessment
• Raising awareness of groundwater issues

Current projects and collaborations

• LANDWISE: LAND Management in lowland catchments for Integrated flood riSk rEduction – NERC Grant NE/R004668/1
• BRAVE: Building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa – NERC/ESRC/DFID Grant NE/M008827/1
• HYCRISTAL: Integrating hydro-climate science into policy decisions for climate-resilient infrastructure and livelihoods in East Africa – NERC/DFID Grant NE/M020452/1

Key publications

• Badjana, H M, Cloke, H L, Verhoef, A, Julich, S, Camargos, C, Collins, S L, Macdonald, D M J, McGuire, P C, and Clark, J. 2023. Can hydrological models assess the impact of natural flood management in groundwater dominated catchments? Journal of Flood Risk Management (accepted). p.e12912, doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12912
• Collins, S L, Verhoef, A, Mansour, M, Jackson, C R, Short, C, and Macdonald, D M J. 2023. Modelling the effectiveness of land‐based natural flood management in a large, permeable catchment. Journal of Flood Risk Management, e12896, doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12896
• Ascott, M J, Christelis, V, Lapworth, D J, Macdonald, D M J, Tindimugaya, C, Iragena, A, Finney, D, Fitzpatrick, R, Marsham, J H, and Rowell, D P. 2023. On the application of rainfall projections from a convection-permitting climate model to lumped catchment models. Journal of Hydrology, p.129097, doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129097
• Bianchi, M, Palamakumbura, R N, MacDonald, A M, and Macdonald, D M J. 2023. Assessing regional variation in yield from weathered basement aquifers in West Africa and modelling their future groundwater development and sustainability. Hydrogeology Journal, doi.org/10.1007/s10040-023-02594-w
• Kreibich, H, Van Loon, A F, Schröter, K. et al., 2022. The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management. Nature:1-7, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04917-5
• Ascott, M J, Macdonald, D M J, Sandwidi, W J P, Black, E, Verhoef, A, Zongo, G, Tirogo, J, and Cook, P A. 2022. Time of emergence of impacts of climate change on groundwater levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Hydrology, p.128107, doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128107
• Nyenje, P M, Ocoromac, D, Tumwesige, S, Ascott, M J, Sorensen, J P R, Newell, A J, Macdonald, D M J, Gooddy, D C, Tindimugaya, C, Kulabako, R, Lapworth, D J, and Foppen, J. 2022. Hydrogeology of an urban weathered basement aquifer in Kampala, Uganda. Hydrogeology Journal, doi.org/10.1007/s10040-022-02474-9.
• Cook, P A, Black, E C, Verhoef, A, Macdonald, D M J, and Sorensen, J P R. 2022. Projected increases in potential groundwater recharge and reduced evapotranspiration under future climate conditions in West Africa. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 41, 101076.
• Collins, S L, Christelis, V, Jackson, C R, Mansour, M M, Macdonald, D M J, and Barkwith, A K. 2020. Towards integrated flood inundation modelling in groundwater-dominated catchments. Journal of Hydrology, p.125755, doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125755
• Ascott, M J, Macdonald, D M J, Black, E, Verhoef, A, Nakohoun, P, Tirogo, J, Sandwidi, W J P, Bliefernicht, J, Sorensen, J P R, and Bossa, A Y. 2020. In‐situ observations and lumped parameter model reconstructions reveal intra‐annual to multi‐decadal variability in groundwater levels in sub‐Saharan Africa. Water Resources Research, p.e2020WR028056, doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028056
• Bianchi, M, MacDonald, A M, Macdonald, D M J, and Asare, E B. 2020. Investigating the productivity and sustainability of weathered basement aquifers in tropical Africa using numerical simulation and global sensitivity analysis. Water Resources Research, 56 (9), p.e2020WR027746, doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027746
• Larbi, I, Obuobie, E, Verhoef, A, Julich, S, Feger, K H, Bossa, A Y, and Macdonald, D M J. 2020. Water balance components estimation under scenarios of land cover change in the Vea catchment, West Africa. Hydrological Sciences Journal, pp.1-14, doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2020.1802467
• Yapiyev, V, Skrzypek, G, Verhoef, A, Macdonald, D M J, and Sagintayev, Z. 2020. Between boreal Siberia and arid Central Asia–stable isotope hydrology and water budget of Burabay National Nature Park ecotone (Northern Kazakhstan). Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 27, p.100644, doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2019.100644
• Cuthbert, M O, Taylor, R G, Favreau, G, Todd, M C, Shamsudduha, M, Villholth, K G, MacDonald, A M, Scanlon, B R, Kotchoni, D O V, Vouillamoz, J M, Lawson, F M A, Adjomayi, P A, Kashaigili, J , Seddon, D , Sorensen, J P R, Ebrahim, G Y, Owor, M, Nyenje, P M, Nazoumou, Y, Goni, I, Ousmane, B I, Sibanda, T, Ascott, M J, Macdonald, D M J, Agyekum, W, Koussoubé, Y, Wanke, H, Kim, H, Wada, Y, Lo, M-H, Oki, T, and Kukuric, N. 2019. Observed controls on resilience of groundwater to climate variability in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature, 572(7768), 230-234.
• Macdonald, D M J, Dixon, A J, and Gooddy, D C. 2018. Water and nitrate exchange between a managed river and peri-urban floodplain aquifer: Quantification and management implications. Ecological Engineering, 123, 226-237.
• Macdonald, D M J, Miller, J D, Winterbourn, J B, Warnaars, T A, Mwebembezi, L, Arwat, P, and Tanywa, S. 2018. High resolution meteorological data from a network of five stations in Kampala, Uganda. Centre for Environmental Data Analysis., doi.org/10.5285/a2a8100c46794985b410ea436f24812a.
• Ascott, M J, Marchant, B P, Macdonald, D M J, McKenzie, A A, and Bloomfield, J P. 2017. Improved understanding of spatio‐temporal controls on regional scale groundwater flooding using hydrograph analysis and impulse response functions Hydrological Processes, 31(25), 4586-4599.
• Punalekar, S, Verhoef, A, Tatarenko, I V, van der Tol, C, Macdonald, D M J, Marchant, B, Gerard, F, White, K, and Gowing, D J. 2016. Characterization of a highly biodiverse floodplain meadow using hyperspectral remote sensing within a plant functional trait framework. Remote Sensing, 8(2),112.
• Gooddy, D C, Macdonald, D M J, Lapworth, D J, Bennet, S, and Griffiths, K J. 2014. Nitrogen sources, transport and processing in peri-urban floodplains. Science of The Total Environment, 494, 28-38.
• Macdonald, D M J, and Edmunds, W M. 2014. Estimation of groundwater recharge in weathered basement aquifers, Southern Zimbabwe; a geochemical approach. Applied Geochemistry 42, 86–100.
• Macdonald, D M J, Dixon, A, Newell, A J, and Hallaways, A. 2012.Groundwater flooding within an urbanised flood plain. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 5, 68–80.
• Taylor, R, Tindimugaya, C, Barker, J A, Barrett, M, Macdonald, D M J, Kulabako, R, Nalubega, M, and Edwardmartin, R. 2010. Convergent radial tracing of ground water flow and storage in gneiss saprolite of Uganda. Ground Water, 48(2), 284-294.
• Macdonald, A M, Calow, R C, Macdonald, D M J, Darling, W G, and Ó Docharteigh, B É. 2009. What impact will climate change have on rural water supplies in Africa? Hydrological Sciences Journal, 54(4).
• Macdonald, D M J, Bloomfield, J P, Hughes, A G, Macdonald, A M, Adams, B, and McKenzie, A A. 2008. Improving the understanding of the risk from groundwater flooding in the UK. Proceedings of FLOODrisk 2008, European Conference on Flood Risk Management, Oxford, UK, 30 September to 2 October 2008. CRC Press, The Netherlands.
•  Smedley, P L, Kinniburgh, D G, Macdonald, D M J, Nicolli, H B, Barros, A J, Tullio, J O, Pearce, J M, and Alonso, M S. 2005. Arsenic associations in sediments from the loess aquifer of La Pampa, Argentina. Applied Geochemistry, 20(5), 989-1016.

Published outputs

• NERC Open Research Archive — David Macdonald

Skills

• Groundwater resource assessment and management in the UK and internationally
• Wide experience of project management in the UK and overseas
• Information Technology, including: GIS, R, databasing, HTML
• Communicating information on groundwater to non-specialists