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Tristram Hales

Professor Tristram Hales

(he/him)

Professor of Environmental Hazards

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Media commentator
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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

T.C. Hales is an interdisciplinary scientist and Professor of Environmental Hazards, interested understanding the relationship between ecological and social systems and environmental hazards.  T.C. works on two major projects that focus on the interplay between land use decisions and erosion by rivers and landslides. His work on the lower Kinabatangan River in Malaysian Borneo seeks to understand the drivers and effects of tropical deforestation on erosion and sequestration of carbon within soils. As Chair of the Regrow Borneo project, he is applying this research to develop a community reforestation programme to restore forests and sequester carbon. His work on erosional processes after the 2008 magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan Earthquake has investigated how persistent landslides and mudflows affect the vulnerability of communities recovering from earthquakes. He directed the Sustainable Places Research Institute in 2020-2021.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2013

2012

2011

2009

2008

2007

2005

Articles

Book sections

Conferences

Monographs

Research

My research focuses on understanding what processes act on the hillslopes between river channels and their rates. I am interested in how changes to Earth's climate and vegetation control these processes and the hazards they pose to humans. I pose questions about the role of frost in the development of mountain landscapes and how humans, vegetation, and climate interact to create landslide hazards.

Teaching

I teach students how the landscapes on which humans live are formed and how they change through time. My classes in the first and third year focus on understanding the fluvial, glacial, and hillslope processes that shape landscapes. We utilise GIS, computer models, and field-based observations to test hypotheses about how Earth's surface changes through time. In the field, I teach students about the development of sedimentary basins in Dorset, Quaternary landscapes in the Brecon Beacons, and the development of geohazards in Tenerife.

Biography

  • Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences - School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University (2007-present)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow-Department of Geography, University of North Carolina (2007)
  • PhD-Department of Geosciences, University of Oregon (2006)
  • BSc (Hons) Geological Sciences-University of Canterbury (2000)

Professional memberships

  • American Geophysical Union
  • European Geosciences Union
  • British Society for Geomorphology