Author Archives: Simon Dixon

unreasonable expectations

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Simon Dixon

Originally posted on Experimental Rivers Network:
One of the main problems with how we as a community have approached the study of river dynamics is that we have created unreasonable expectations for those that are charged with managing rivers. For…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Grant for Master’s study in Hydrology

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Simon Dixon

I’ve come across details of an excellent grant/award scheme for people looking to do an MSC in river and hydrology related courses with a view to moving into river/water management. The scheme is jointly run by the British Hydrology Society, … Continue reading →

Posted in Careers, Hydrology, prize, River Management, River restoration | Leave a comment

Looking into Selly Park Flooding

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Simon Dixon

In June this year intense rainfall led to localised flooding in South Birmingham in and around University of Birmingham. One area which was particularly badly hit was Pershore Rd near the Birmingham Nature Centre. This area is near to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Flooding, Geomorphology, Hydrology, River Management, Urban rivers | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can we justify preserving landscapes for heritage?

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Simon Dixon

This is a post I’ve mulling over for nearly a year on and off. As a society we now commonly restore rivers to improve water quality or for ecological benefits, and as recent posts on here have demonstrated we may … Continue reading →

Posted in Chalk streams, Ecology, Geomorphology, River Management, River restoration, Water quality | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

How wood in rivers affects flood risk – revisted

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Simon Dixon

Regular readers of the blog will remember a few years ago I blogged about some of my PhD research on trying to assess how changing volumes of wood in rivers affects the likelihood and magnitude of flooding. At the time … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Do we need rivers to secure water for development?

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Simon Dixon

To celebrate World Wetlands Day we have a special guest blogpost from Helen Parker & Naomi Oates of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Catherine Moncrieff & Dave Tickner (WWF). Do we need rivers to secure water for development? On … Continue reading →

Posted in guest blog, River Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What about beavers?

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Simon Dixon

My first research projects were on logjams, looking at their abundance, distribution, form and function. These logjams were naturally occurring as a result of wood being “recruited” to the channel via wind throw or overbank transport. However ever since I … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Flooding, Geomorphology, Hydrology, paper review, River Management, River restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is a flood?

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Simon Dixon

I read an interesting article on the BBC website today about the extensive flooding in Chennai, India. Tamil Nadu has seen huge amounts of rain recently, in the wettest December for 100 years and large parts of the city, including … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Not all logjams are created equal

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Simon Dixon

I was excited this week to have a paper accepted in the journal Ecohydrology, not least as I think the findings could prove to be really useful for river restoration and river management. In this post I want to try … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Celebratory Give Away

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Simon Dixon

At some point this week I anticipate we’ll pass 50,000 views for the River Management Blog, which was beyond our wildest hopes when we started it off a little over two years ago. To celebrate this milestone I am going … Continue reading →

Posted in prize | 2 Comments