Dr Mark Davidson

Research interests

I am an Associate Professor (Reader) in Coastal Processes within the School of Biology and Marine Science. My main research interests are in the fields of coastal and estuarine, hydo- and morpho- dynamics. My work in this area includes in-situ measurement, video remote sensing and numerical modelling. My PhD was in Physical Oceanography, focusing on infragravity oscillations on high-energy dissipative beaches.

Following this I was involved in two research programmes as a post-doctoral researcher. The first of these, the British Beach and Nearshore Dynamics (B-BAND) programme, focussed on improving our understanding of sediment transport processes on beaches of varied morphology through the application of in-situ measurements. The second programme also involved using full-scale in-situ measurements to examine the processes of wave reflection from a variety of different coastal structures.

Whilst still involved in in-situ measurements, I have also led the introduction of remote sensing of the coastal zone using video techniques in the UK. I have been the principal investigator for the University of Plymouth on the EU funded I.N.D.I.A. project, which utilised the coastal video systems to examine the morphodynamic evolution of a coastal inlet in southern Portugal. An interest in coastal remote sensing and large-scale, long-term coastal evolution has also facilitated my involvement in the US Office of Naval Research, NICOP project that that centred on intermediate scale coastal behaviour. I lead the coastal video research in the University of Plymouth and co-ordinated the £1.3M European (CoastView) project aimed at developing coastal video systems in support of coastal zone management. This project involved 13 institutions form six countries, including universities and national-scale coastal managers. Since the successful completion of the CoastView project coastal video research continues to be strongly supported by the scientific community and was recently co-investigator on two EPSRC programmes which investigated a Risk-based Framework for Predicting Beaches in the Long term (RF PEBL), and the large-scale morphodynamic impacts of shore parallel breakwaters in areas of high tidal range (LEACOAST2).

Recently, I was co-investigator on two EPSRC projects looking at the storm response of gravel barriers and the resilience of UK coastlines fronting nuclear power plant installation. My main research focus currently is developing models for predicting shoreline change as part of a Australian Research Council sponsored project working, amongst others, with the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University.

Research groups

• CMAR - Coastal Marine Applied Research
• Coastal Processes Research Group

Other research

NB For Journal Publications - see Selected Publications 

Consultancy:

• Sea defence design at Fistral beach.
• Bournemouth DC - Boscombe artificial surfing reef
• Environment Agency - Coastal video monitoring project
• Valeport Ltd, Dartmouth – Design of wave recorder software for the analysis of wave statistics
• Peterhead Port Authority – Modification of Peterhead Harbour
• Brixham Port Authority – Modification of Brixham Harbour

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Successful Ph.D. Completions:

• Suzana Ilic. 1999. Transformation of Multidirectional Seas (EPSRC)
• Ken Kingston. 2003. Application of complex adaptive systems approaches to coastal systems. (Office of Naval Research USA)
• Ismael Marino Tapia. 2003. Cross-shore sediment transport processes on natural beaches and their relation to sandbar migration patterns. (Brazilian Government)
  
• Eduardo Siegle. 2003. Sediment transport and morphodynamics at an estuary mouth: A study using remote sensing and numerical modelling. (Brazilian Government)
• Marcos Bernardes. 2005. Modelling the long-term morphodynamic evolution of estuaries. (Brazilian Government)
• Richard Thain. 2005. Understanding and prediction of tidal intrusion fronts. (Britannia Royal Naval College)
  
• Daniel Buscombe. 2008. Shingle beach morphodynamics. (UoP)
  
• Nigel Aird 2009. Coastal sediment dynamics. (EU)
  
• Iain Failey 2010- Video monitoring of shoreline response to offshore segmented breakwaters (EPSRC)
  
• Emma Rendle 2016 - Artificial surfing reefs (UoP)
• Luis Melo de Almeida 2016 - Applications of LIDAR to the measurement and understanding of coastal processes (EPSRC)
• Erwin Bergsma 2017 - Morphodynamic modelling (UoP)
• Kris Inch 2017 - Infragravity wave dissipation during storms (Int. Coastal Symposium Studentship)
• Melissa Mole 2017 - Monitoring and modelling of coastal evolution (Australian Research Council)
• Sam Prodger 2018. Sediment variability and beach morphodynamics (WCE Ltd Studentship)

• Oliver Billson. Infragravity wave variability on natural beaches

Grants & contracts

• Australian Research Council (Co-investigator) Observation Network: monitoring and forecasting coastal erosion in a changing climate, (£199,788). 
  
• EU THESEUS (Co-investigator) (approx £500,00). 
• E.P.S.R.C. A Risk-based Framework for Predicting Long-term Beach Evolution (RF PEBL). (Value: £423,123)
• E.P.S.R.C. Large scale morphodynamic impacts of segmented shore-parallel breakwaters on coasts and beaches (LEACOAST2). (Value: £345,203)
• EU Framework V CoastView Project (Co-ordinator). The development of coastal video monitoring systems in support of Coastal Zone Management (current). (Value: £1.34M)
• EU INDIA, (Principal Investigator). Inlet Dynamics Initiative Algarve. (Value: £130,000)
• EU SWAMIEE (Co-investigator). Sediment & Water Movements in Industrialised Estuarine Environments. (Value: £167,000)
• NICOP, Naval International Co-operative Opportunities in Science & Tech. Programme, (Co-investigator). Intermediate-scale coastal behaviour. (Value: £740,000)