Hugh Smith

Dr Hugh Smith

Job title: Marie Curie Research Fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science and Technology)
Address: Room 207, 8-11 Kirkby Place, Drake Circus,
Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA
Telephone: +44 (0)1752 584985
Facsimile: +44 (0)1752 585998
Email: hugh.smith@plymouth.ac.uk

Role
Marie Curie Research Fellow

Qualifications & background
2003: BSc (Environmental) Honours (First Class), The University of Sydney
2008: PhD, The University of Sydney
2008-2011: Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Professional membership
International Association of Hydrological Sciences
British Society for Geomorphology
American Geophysical Union
Australian and New Zealand Geomorphology Group

Roles on external bodies
Honorary Fellow
Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science
The University of Melbourne

Teaching interests
River catchment processes and management, forest hydrology and water quality, fluvial geomorphology

Research interests

1. Fine sediment and associated contaminant transfer in river basins:

• Sources and residence time of fine sediment transported through river networks
• Development of sediment and contaminant budgets in agricultural and mining-impacted catchments
• Application of fallout radionuclides (Cs-137, excess Pb-210, Be-7, Pu-239,240) as sediment source tracers

2. Fire disturbance effects on hydrological and geomorphological processes in forest environments:

• Wildfire and prescribed fire effects on runoff, soil erosion and water quality
• Wildfire and debris flow processes in steeplands
• Modelling wildfire risk to water supply catchments

3. Scale and processes in river basins:

• Scale effects and sediment dynamics in nested catchment systems
• Downstream trends in channel change following large flood events

UoP Research group membership

Centre for Research in Environment and Society (CeRES)

Grants & contracts

£9,982 $10,000 $4,914 €202,050	Vice-Chancellor’s Community Research Awards 2011/12, Plymouth University, with Will Blake (CI), Alex Taylor, Kevin Solman and Peter Downs, 2012. Project title: Wrong connections: water quality problems in urban nature reserves. Australian Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) scholarship for honours project with Tim Ralph (CI) and Adam Wethered (student), 2012. Project title: Identification of sediment source contributions in a large inland river using environmental radionuclides. Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Award with Tim Ralph (CI), 2012. Project title: Tracing sources of deposited sediment in floodplain wetlands of the Macquarie River. European Union-FP7 Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship with William Blake, 2011-2013. Project title: Quantifying sources and residence times of contaminated sediment in human-impacted river basins: an integrated approach.
$37,758	University of Melbourne Early Career Research Grant, 2010. Project title: Determining sources of pollutants delivered to streams after wildfire.
$25,824	Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Award, 2010. Project title: Determining sources of sediment delivered to streams after wildfire.
$6,352	Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts consultancy with Gary Sheridan, 2010. Project title: Revised Desktop Review- Impact of bushfires on water quality.
£64,306	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency Grant NE/F00131X/1, 2009, collaborator with Stefan Doerr (CI), Richard Shakesby, Gary Sheridan, Patrick Lane and William Blake. Project title: The catastrophic Victoria wildfires: impact of extreme burn severity on the soil system.
$27,786	Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts consultancy with Gary Sheridan (CI) and Patrick Lane, 2009. Project title: Desktop Review- Impact of bushfires on water quality.
$19,000 p.a.	Commonwealth Government Australian Postgraduate Award, 2004-2007.
$3,000 p.a.	Richard Claude Mankin Scholarship for Water Conservation, 2004-2007.
$2,200	Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Science Program Scholarship, 2007.
$850	Ernest Jackson Memorial Research Grant from the River Basin Management Society, 2006.
$4,050	Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Award with Deirdre Dragovich, 2005. Project title: Effects of catchment land use on sediment movement and sediment sources.

Publications

International peer-reviewed journal articles:

Smith, H.G., Blake, W.H., Owens, P.N. In review. Determining sediment sources following wildfire: a review of the application of sediment tracers in burned forest environments. Hydrological Processes.

Cawson, J., Sheridan, G.J., Smith, H.G., Lane, P.N.J. In press. Surface runoff and erosion after prescribed burning and the effect of different fire regimes: a review. International Journal of Wildland Fire.

Santin, C., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Bryant, R., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Smith, H.G., Bell, T.L. In press. Carbon loads, forms and sequestration potential within ash deposits produced by wildfire: new insights from the 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ fires, Australia. European Journal of Forest Research.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Nyman, P., Child, D.P., Lane, P.N.J, Hotchkis, M.A.C., Jacobsen, G.E. 2012. Quantifying sources of fine sediment supplied to post-fire debris flows using fallout radionuclide tracers. Geomorphology, 139-140: 403-415.

Smith, H.G., Hopmans, P., Sheridan, G., Lane, P.N.J., Noske, P.J., Bren, L.J. 2012. Impacts of wildfire and salvage harvesting on water quality and nutrient exports from radiata pine and eucalypt forest catchments in south-eastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 263: 160-169.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Noske, P., Heijnis, H. 2011. Changes to sediment sources following wildfire in a forested upland catchment, south-eastern Australia. Hydrological Processes, 25: 2878-2889.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Bren, L. 2011. Wildfire and salvage harvesting effects on runoff generation and sediment exports from eucalypt and radiata pine forest catchments, south-eastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 261: 570-581.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Nyman, P., Haydon, S. 2011. Wildfire effects on water quality in forest catchments: a review with implications for water supply. Journal of Hydrology, 396: 170-192.

Nyman, P., Sheridan, G.J., Smith, H.G., Lane, P.N.J. 2011. Evidence of debris flow occurrence after wildfire in upland catchments of south-east Australia. Geomorphology, 125: 383-401.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Sherwin, C.B. 2010. Paired Eucalyptus forest catchment study of prescribed fire effects on suspended sediment and nutrient exports in south-eastern Australia. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 19: 624-636.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2009. Interpreting sediment delivery processes using suspended sediment-discharge hysteresis patterns from nested upland catchments, south-eastern Australia. Hydrological Processes, 23: 2415-2426

Smith, H.G. 2008. Estimation of suspended sediment loads and delivery in an incised upland headwater catchment, south-eastern Australia. Hydrological Processes, 22: 3135-3148.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2008. Improving precision in sediment source and erosion process distinction in an upland catchment, south-eastern Australia. Catena, 72: 191-203.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2008. Sediment budget analysis of slope-channel coupling and in-channel sediment storage in an upland catchment, southeastern Australia. Geomorphology, 101: 643-654.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2008. Post-fire hillslope erosion response in a sub-alpine environment, south-eastern Australia. Catena, 73: 274-285

Peer-reviewed papers in conference proceedings:

Smith, H.G., Blake, W.H., Owens, P.N. In press. Application of sediment tracers to discriminate sediment sources following wildfire. Wildfire and water quality: processes, impacts and challenges, IAHS ICCE Conference, Banff, Canada, 2012.

Lane, P.N.J., Sheridan, G.J., Noske, P.J., Sherwin, C.B., Costenaro, J.L., Nyman, P., Smith, H.G. 2012. Fire effects on forest hydrology: lessons from a multi-scale catchment experiment in SE Australia. In: A.A. Webb, M. Bonell, L. Bren, P.N.J. Lane, D. McGuire, D.G. Neary, J. Nettles, D.F. Scott, J.D. Stednick, Y. Wang (eds.), Revisiting Experimental Catchment Studies in Forest Hydrology, Proceedings of a Workshop held during the XXV IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne, July 2011. IAHS Publication 353, pp 137-143.

Marren, P.M., Smith, H.G. 2012. Channel changes on Corryong Creek, NE Victoria following drought-ending floods: implications for channel and riparian vegetation management. In: J.R. Grove, I.D., Rutherfurd (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Australian Stream Management Conference: Managing for Extremes. River Basin Management Society, Canberra, Australia, pp 31-38.

Mason, C., Sheridan, G.J., Smith, H.G., Chong, D., Tolhurst, K. 2011. Wildfire risk to water supply catchments: a Monte Carlo simulation model. In Chan, F., Marinova, D. and Anderssen, R.S. (Eds), MODSIM2011, 19th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, December 2011, pp. 2831-2837.

Cawson, J.G., Sheridan, G.J., Smith, H.G., Lane, P.N.J. 2011. The effect of prescribed fire severity and burn patchiness on runoff and erosion. In Thornton, R.P. (Ed), Proceedings of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre/AFAC Annual Conference, September 2011, pp 105-119.

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Nyman, P., Lane, P.N.J, Haydon, S. 2009. A framework for modelling suspended sediment flux following wildfire in forested water supply catchments, south-eastern Australia. In Anderssen, R.S., Braddock, R.D., and Newham, L.T.H. (Eds), 18th World IMACS Congress and MODSIM09 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, July 2009, pp.3549-3555.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2008. Multi-scale sediment dynamics in an upland catchment, southeastern Australia: a synthesis. In Schmidt J, Cochrane T, Phillips C, Elliott S, Davies T, Basher L (Eds), Sediment dynamics in changing environments, IAHS Publ. No. 325, IAHS Press: Wallingford; pp.291- 297.

Smith, H.G., Dragovich, D. 2007. Sediment supply from small upland catchments: possible implications of headwater channel restoration for stream management. In Wilson, A.L., Dehaan, R.L., Watts, R.J., Page, K.J., Bowmer, K.H., Curtis, A. (Eds), Australian rivers: making a difference. Proceedings of the 5th Australian Stream Management Conference, Charles Sturt University, Albury; pp.366-371.

Reports & invited lectures

Reports

Smith, H.G., Cawson, J., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J. 2011. Desktop review- impact of bushfires on water quality. Report to the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts. Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia (peer-reviewed)
http://www.environment.gov.au/water/publications/quality/impact-of-bushfires.html

Sheridan, G.J., Sherwin, C., Feikema, P., Lane, P.N.J., Smith, H.G., Nyman, P. 2011. Post-fire hydrologic risk algorithims: GIS code and instructions for the 2010/11 fire season. Technical report produced for the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia. 51 pages. ISBN 978 0 7340 4416 7

Smith, H.G., Sheridan, G.J., Lane, P.N.J., Bren, L. 2010. Best Management Practice guidelines for mitigating impacts on erosion and water quality from post-fire salvage harvesting of plantation forests. Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry Technical Report 207. CRC Forestry, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia.

Sheridan, G.J, Lane, P.N.J., Smith, H.G., Nyman, P. 2009. A rapid risk assessment procedure for post-fire hydrologic hazards; 2009/10 fire season. Technical report produced for the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia. ISBN 978 0 7340 41470

Invited Lectures

Smith, H.G. 2011. Hydrologic and geomorphic effects of fire in the forested highlands of south-eastern Australia. Invited lecture, United States Geological Survey, Golden, Colorado, USA.

Smith, H.G. 2011. Fire effects on water quality: findings from the forested highlands of south-eastern Australia. Invited lecture, United States Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Smith, H.G. 2010. Sediment transfer and water quality in upland catchments, south-eastern Australia. Invited lecture, University of Plymouth, UK.