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Saturday 19 May 2012

The CCRM Team

Prof. David Smith

Professor David E. Smith

BSc Manchester, PhD Edinburgh

David Smith is one of Europe’s leading sea level change experts. He is Distinguished Research Associate and Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow in the Centre for the Environment at Oxford University. He is currently College Lecturer at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Previously he worked at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, at Columbia University, New York, USA and at Coventry University where he was Associate Dean for the University’s School of Science and the Environment.

David has now published over 100 papers and contract reports, including over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Since 1989 he has led four major European contracts concerned with climate and sea level change, with funding in excess of ÂŁ3m, and involving over 20 European universities and research organisations. He has also led several national research projects, funded by both public and private sector organisations. He has been involved in several national and international climate and sea level related organisations and their committees. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he recently received the Murchison Award in recognition of his work.

Research Interests and Expertise

Thematic Areas:

  • Global sea level change and storm surges
  • Tsunami risk assessment

World Regions of Interest:

  • North Atlantic seaboard
  • Western Pacific Ocean

Examples of Research/Consultancy Topics

  • Sea level change risk assessment for Shetland Council
  • Tsunami risk for southern England
  • Tsunami run-up in the Philippines

Selected Recent Publications

  • Fretwell PT, Smith DE and Harrison S (2008). The Last Glacial Maximum British-Irish Ice Sheet: a reconstruction using Digital Terrain Mapping. Journal of Quaternary Science 23, 241-248.
  • De la Vega-Leinert A, Smith DE and Jones RL (2007). Holocene coastal environmental changes on the periphery of an area of glacio-isostatic uplift:an example from Scapa Bay, Orkney, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science 22, 755-772.
  • Smith DE, Foster IDL and Shi S (2007). Reconstructing the pattern and depth of flow onshore in a palaeotsunami from associated deposits. Sedimentary Geology 200, 362-371.
  • Soulsby RL, Smith DE and Ruffman A (2007). Reconstructing tsunami run-up from sedimentary characteristics - a simple mathematical model. In Kraus NC and Rosati JD, Coastal Sediments ’07. American Society of Civil Engineers, 1075-1088.
  • Smith DE, Fretwell PT, Cullingford RA and Firth CR (2006). Towards improved empirical isobase models of Holocene land uplift for mainland Scotland, UK. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 364, 949-972.
  • Smith DE (2005). Evidence for Secular Sea Surface Level Changes in the Holocene Raised Shorelines of Scotland, UK. Journal of Coastal Research, 42, 26-42.
  • Smith DE (2005). Tsunami: a research perspective. Geology Today, 21(2), 64-68.
  • Dawson S, Smith DE, Jordan J and Dawson AG (2004). Late Holocene coastal sand movements in the Outer Hebrides, NW Scotland. Marine Geology, 210, 281-306.
  • Smith DE, Shi S, Brooks CL, Cullingford RA, Dawson AG, Dawson S, Firth CR, Foster IDL, Fretwell PT, Haggart BA, Holloway LK and Long D (2004). The Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami in the United Kingdom. Quaternary Science Reviews, 23/24, 2295-2325.