Dr Jonathon Finch

Dr Jon Finch

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Maclean Building
Benson Lane
Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BB
Tel: +44 (0)1491 838800
Fax: + 44 (0)1491 692424
E-mail: Dr Jon Finch
 

Background

I graduated with a degree in geological sciences from the University of Swansea and then went to Birmingham University and obtained an MSc and a PhD in applied geophysics before joining the then Institute of Hydrology in 1978. Initially my skills were in geophysics and hydrogeology, mainly applied to water resources overseas. Through the 1980s my interests evolved to include remote sensing and GIS and work in the UK began to dominate. Early in the 1990s I took an interest in land surface/atmospheric interactions and how they vary in the landscape, with an emphasis on groundwater recharge, and this has continued to the present.

Current research

My research is concerned with understanding and predicting the water, energy and carbon balances of the land surface with an emphasis on how these processes vary in time and space in the landscape.

Current activities include:

  • Evaporation at the catchment scale – co-principal investigator on a project in the NERC LOCAR programme
  • Eco-hydrological impacts modelling, based on the JULES model of the land surface
  • Hydrological impacts and yields of energy crops – leading the CEH components of projects funded under the TSEC and RELU programmes
  • Hydrological processes in the soil and unsaturated zones of the Chalk
  • The impacts of land-use change on the physical environment of the landscape
  • Aggregation, disaggregation and uncertainty in numerical models

 

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Oliver, Rebecca J.; Finch, Jon W.; Taylor, Gail. 2009 Second generation bioenergy crops and climate change: a review of the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and drought on water use and the implications for yield. Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 1 (2). 97-114. 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2009.01011.x

Haughton, Alison J.; Bond, Alan J.; Lovett, Andrew A.; Dockerty, Trudie; Sunnenberg, Gilla; Clark, Suzanne J.; Bohan, David A.; Sage, Rufus B,; Mallott, Mark D.; Mallott, Victoria E.; Cunningham, Mark D.; Riche, Andrew B.; Shield, Ian F.; Finch, Jon W.; Turner, Martin M.; Karp, Angela. 2009 A novel, integrated approach to assessing social, economic and environmental implications of changing rural land-use: a case study of perennial biomass crops. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46 (2). 315-322. 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01623.x

Ireson, A.M; Mathias, S.A; Wheater, H.S.; Butler, A.P; Finch, J. 2009 A model for flow in the chalk unsaturated zone incorporating progressive weathering. Journal of Hydrology, 365 (3-4). 244-260. 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2008.11.043

Ireson, A. M.; Wheater, H. S.; Butler, A. P.; Mathias, S. A.; Finch, J.; Cooper, J. D.. 2006 Hydrological processes in the Chalk unsaturated zone - Insights from an intensive field monitoring programme. Journal of Hydrology, 330. 29-43. 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2006.04.021

Smith, R. N. B.; Blyth, E. M.; Finch, J. W.; Goodchild, S.; Hall, R.L.; Madry, S.. 2006 Soil state and surface hydrology diagnosis based on MOSES in the Met Office Nimrod nowcasting system. Meteorological Applications, 13. 89-109. 10.1017/S1350482705002069

Blyth, E. M.; Evans, J. G.; Finch, J. W.; Bantages, R.; Harding, R. J.. 2006 Spatial variability of the English agricultural landscape and its effect on evaporation. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 138. 19-28. 10.1016/j.agrformet.2006.03.007

Finch, J.W. and Hall, R. L. (2005) Evaporation from lakes, In Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences, (Ed, Anderson, M.G.) John Wiley & Co, Ltd.

Finch, J.W., Hall, R. L., Rosier, P. T. W., Clark, D.B., Stratford, C., Davies, H.N., Marsh, T.J., Roberts, J.M., Riche, A.B. and Christian, D.G. (2004) The hydrological impacts of energy crop production in the UK, Department for Trade and Industry, B/CR/000783/00/00 pp. 151.

Finch, J.W. and Best, M.J. (2004) The accuracy of downward short and longwave radiation at the Earth's surface calculated using simple models. Meteorological Applications, 11, 33-39.

Finch, J.W., Bradford, R.B. and Hudson, J.A. (2004) The spatial distribution of groundwater flooding in a Chalk catchment in southern England. Hydrol. Process., 18, 959-971.