Dr Christopher White

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Civil and Environmental Engineering

Personal statement

Dr White is the Head of the Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health, which undertakes fundamental and applied research that provides novel solutions to some of the most pressing global environmental challenges, including net zero and the circular economy, water and waste, environmental health, and climate resilience.

He leads the Engineering for Extremes research group that focuses on understanding extreme weather events and hydro-meteorological hazards such as floods and droughts, their impact on the built and natural environments in a changing climate, and the development and application of climate services for improved decision-making and climate resilience.

His research interests are cross-disciplinary, including the emerging fields of multi-hazard compound and cascading events, impact-based forecasting, and the prediction and application of predictions on extended-range weather and climatic timescales.

He leads a workpackage of the new MEDiate (‘Multi-hazard and risk-informed system for enhanced local and regional disaster risk management’) project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme of the European Commission. He is part of the Management Committee of the European COST Action CA17109 on compound events, and is co-leading a new applications sub-project of the World Meteorological Organization’s WWRP/WCRP S2S Prediction Project. Dr White is also the Secretary of the International Commission on Coupled Land-Atmosphere Systems (ICCLAS), one of the ten commissions of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in research or knowledge exchange collaborations or doing a PhD under my supervision.

*** We are hiring!! We have a fixed-term research position in multi-hazards open to applications *** We have a fixed-term research position currently advertised in multi-hazards as part of the new MEDiate (‘Multi-hazard and risk-informed system for enhanced local and regional disaster risk management’) project https://www.norsar.no/in-focus/mediate, which has recently been funded by the Horizon Europe programme of the European Commission: 
 
Research Fellow in Multi-hazards (485961) (fixed-term 18 months, with possible extension to 24 months)

To view the full position descriptions and/or apply, go to https://strathvacancies.engageats.co.uk/ and enter the relevant reference number 485961. If you wish to discuss either of these opportunities informally before applying, please contact me on chris.white@strath.ac.uk.

Applications close 24 February 2023

 

Publications

Consideration of compound drivers and impacts in the disaster risk reduction cycle
van den Hurk Bart JJM, White Christopher J, Ramos Alexandre M, Ward Philip J, Martius Olivia, Olbert Indiana, Roscoe Kathryn, Goulart Henrique MD, Zscheischler Jakob
iScience (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106030
Temporally-compounding heatwave–heavy rainfall events in Australia
Sauter Christoph, White Christopher J, Fowler Hayley J, Westra Seth
International Journal of Climatology (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7872
A review of early severe weather applications of high‐resolution regional reanalysis in Australia
Fox‐Hughes Paul, Su Chun‐Hsu, Eizenberg Nathan, White Christopher, Steinle Peter, Jakob Doerte, Black Mitchell, Dowdy Andrew, Brown Andrew, Nathan Rory, Acharya Suwash Chandra
Meteorological Applications Vol 29 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2087
A framework to assess the impact of flooding on the release of microplastics from waste management facilities
Ponti Marta G, Allen Deonie, White Christopher J, Bertram Doug, Switzer Christine
Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances Vol 7 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazadv.2022.100105
Evaluations of heat action plans for reducing the health impacts of extreme heat : methodological developments (2012–2021) and remaining challenges
Dwyer Ian J, Barry Sarah J E, Megiddo Itamar, White Christopher J
International Journal of Biometeorology Vol 66, pp. 1915-1927 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-022-02326-x
A Review of Interacting Natural Hazards and Cascading Impacts in Scotland
Simmonds Rebecca, White Christopher J, Douglas John, Sauter Christoph, Brett Louise
(2022)

More publications

Teaching

Modules taught:

  • Hydraulics and Hydrology (CL216)
  • Water Engineering 1 (CL315)
  • Water Engineering 2 (CL420)

Research interests

My research focuses on natural hazards (including floods, droughts and heatwaves), surface water hydrology and resources, risk management and climate change resilience. I specialise in understanding natural hazards and risk from both physical causative and impacts perspectives, centred on the understanding, modelling and prediction of extreme weather events (in particular, hydrological prediction) on both the extended-range 'subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S)' (e.g. weeks to months) and climate timescales (e.g. up to the end of the century) using regional high-resolution and global climate projections.

Much of my research involves working with end-users to make climate, weather and natural hazards science and information more usable though the exploration of improved applications, communication and promotion of appropriate risk information in support of resource management, emergency management and disaster risk reduction activities.

I am always keen to talk to potential students, collaborators and industry partners about future projects and opportunities.  

Professional activities

Developing a Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Forecasting System for Hydropower Reservoirs in Scotland
Contributor
30/4/2021

More professional activities

Projects

Cross-disciplinary research for Discovery Science (NERC Discipline Hopping)
White, Chris (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2023
Multi-hazard and risk-informed system for enhanced local and regional disaster risk management (MEDiate Horizon Europe CL3-2021-DRS-01)
White, Chris (Principal Investigator) Douglas, John (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2025
Low-cost sensor system for enhanced bridge flood resilience (TRIG)
Tubaldi, Enrico (Principal Investigator) Patelli, Edoardo (Co-investigator) White, Chris (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2022
RAMOBRIS Risk Assessment and MOnitoring for BRidges under Scour hazard (MSCA IF 2020)
Tubaldi, Enrico (Principal Investigator) White, Chris (Co-investigator)
07-Jan-2022 - 06-Jan-2024
Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions
White, Chris (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2022
Building Resilience to Interacting Extreme Weather-Driven Hazards and Cascading Impacts
White, Chris (Principal Investigator) Douglas, John (Co-investigator)
18-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2022

More projects

Address

Civil and Environmental Engineering
James Weir

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