Jamie Hannaford

Principal Hydrologist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
I lead the Hydrological Status and Reporting Group at CEH, which comprises scientists working on hydrological data management, hydrological monitoring and seasonal forecasting, analysis of past hydrological change and appraisal of future climate change impacts.

Much of my work surrounds the analysis and exploitation of datasets on the UK National River Flow Archive (NRFA), the UK’s principal archive of hydrometric data. I lead the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme, which appraises current hydrological conditions in the UK through monthly Hydrological Summaries and also reports on major hydrological events (such as the winter 2013/14 floods). I contribute to the Hydrological Outlook for the UK, in partnership with other CEH scientists and a host of external organisations.

One of my main research interests is the investigation of hydrological trends, to assess the evidence for climate change and other impacts on river flows in the UK and Europe. I have published extensively in this field and authored a recent synthesis of the evidence for climate-driven river flow trends in the UK.

A major theme in my work is investigating hydrological extremes (floods and droughts). I am PI on a Belmont Forum project “DrIVER” (Drought Impacts and Vulnerability Thresholds in Monitoring and Early Warning Research), working with partners in Europe, the US and Australia to provide a scientific underpinning for future improvements in drought monitoring and early warning. I am Lead PI on a £1.5m NERC-funded project “Historic Droughts”, running from 2014 – 2018, which aims to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of the drivers and impacts of past droughts in the UK. Previous projects on extremes include the EU FP-6 Project “WATCH”, Water and Global Change, which delivered European-scale analyses of historic and future drought and flooding using observations and global hydrological models.