Dr Michael Hutchins

Water Quality Modeller

Research interests

My research on water quality focuses mainly on two areas, diffuse pollution and in-river processes, and understanding their effects in large river basins.

I have developed and applied a model of river nitrate concentration that is sensitive to land management. It represents diffuse leaching from agricultural soils, transport to rivers, mixing with nitrate from other sources and fate in the river channel. In conjunction with farm economic analysis, the model has been applied across the Humber river basin district as part of the RELU ChREAM project to explore potential impacts of implementing the EU Water Framework Directive. Together with researchers from PEER organisations, I have been making use of these applications to help quantify ecosystem service provision across Europe (in terms of nitrogen retention as a water purification process) and determine whether estimates are sensitive to the spatial scale of the approach.

Prior to joining CEH I have modelled soil erosion and phosphorus transfer from fields to rivers and explored how this understanding can be summarised to represent key processes operating at larger scales.

I use the QUESTOR river quality model to investigate how water quality responds to management interventions and other potential future change. A specific objective is to improve understanding of river phytoplankton dynamics, and to what extent blooms are controlled by factors such as temperature, light, nutrients and river hydraulics / residence time. Studies are focusing on the Thames and Yorkshire Ouse river networks.

Brief CV

2003: Catchment Water Quality Modeller, CEH's Wallingford site.

1999: Research Consultant, Environment Modelling and GIS Group, ADAS Wolverhampton.

1996: Higher Scientific Officer, Analytical and Regional Geochemistry Group, British Geological Survey Keyworth.

1996: PhD (Upland Hydrochemistry), Imperial College London.

1995: Post Doctoral Research Assistant, Royal Holloway Institute for Environmental Research, University of London.

Selected publications

Hutchins, M.G., Anthony, S.G., Hodgkinson, R. A. and Withers, P.J.A., (2002). Modularised process-based modelling of phosphorus loss at farm and catchment scale. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 6, 1017-1030.

Heathwaite, A.L., Fraser, A.I., Johnes, P.J., Hutchins, M.G., Lord, E.I. and Butterfield, D., (2003). The phosphorus indicators tool: a simple model of diffuse P loss from agricultural land to water. Soil Use and Management, 19, 1-11.

Davison, P., Hutchins, M.G., Lord, E.I., Anthony, S.G., Betson, M. and Johnson , C., (2005). The relationship between potentially erosive storm energy and daily rainfall total. Science of the Total Environment, 344, 15-25.

Huthchins, M.G., Deflandre, A. and Boorman, D.B., (2006). Performance benchmarking linked diffuse and in-stream water quality models. Archiv fur Hydrobiologie Supplement, 161 (Large Rivers 17, 133-154).

Hutchins, M.G., Urama, K., Penning, E., Icke, J., Dilks, C., Bakken, T., Perrin, C., Saloranta, T., Candela, L.. and Kamari, J., (2006). The model evaluation tool: guidance for applying benchmark criteria for models to be used in river basin management. Archiv fur Hydrobiologie Supplement, 161 (Large Rivers 17, 23-48)

Bateman , I. J., Brower, R., Davies, H., Day, B., Deflandre, A., Di Falco, S., Georgiou, S., Hadley, D., Hutchins, M., Jones, A., Kay, D., Leeks, G., Lewis, M., Lovett, A., Neal, C., Posen, P., Rigby, D. and Turner, K., (2006). Analysing the agricultural costs and non-market benefits of implementing the Water Framework Directive. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 57, 221-237.

Boorman , D.B., Williams, R., Hutchins, M., Penning, W. E., Groot, S. and Icke, J., (2007). A model selection protocol to support the use of models for water management. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 11, 634-646

Hutchins, M.G., Dilks, C., Davies, H.N. and Deflandre, A., (2007). Issues of diffuse pollution model complexity arising from performance benchmarking. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 11, 647-662

Bonjean , M.C, Hutchins, M.G. and Neal, C., (2007). Acid episodes in the Allt a’Mharcaidh, Scotland: an investigation based on sub-hourly monitoring data and climatic patterns. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 11, 340-355

Futter, M.N., Helliwell, R.C., Hutchins, M.G. and Aherne, J., (2008). Modelling the effects of changing climate and nitrogen deposition on nitrate dynamics in a Scottish mountain catchment. Hydrology Research 140, 153-166.

Hutchins, M.G., Fezzi, C., Bateman, I.J., Posen, P.E., Deflandre-Vlandas, A., (2009). Cost-effective mitigation of diffuse pollution: setting criteria for river basin management at multiple locations. Environmental Management, 44, 256-267.

Hutchins, M.G., Deflandre-Vlandas, A., Posen, P.E., Davies, H.N. and Neal, C., (2010). How do river nitrate concentrations respond to changes in land-use? A modelling case-study of headwaters in the River Derwent catchment, North Yorkshire, UK. Environmental Modelling and Assessment 15, 93-109. DOI: 10.1007/s10666-009-9218-2.

Fezzi, C., Hutchins, M.G., Rigby, D., Bateman, I.J., Posen, P.E., Hadley, D., (2010). Integrated assessment of Water Framework Directive nitrate reduction impacts. Agricultural Economics 41, 123-134.

Hutchins, M.G., Johnson, A.C., Deflandre-Vlandas, A., Comber, S., Posen, P. and Boorman, D.B., (2010). Which offers more scope to suppress river phytoplankton blooms: reducing nutrient pollution or riparian shading? The Science of the Total Environment, 408, 5065-5077.

Ani, E.C, Hutchins, M.G., Kraslawski, A., Agachi, P.S., (2010). Mathematical model to identify nitrogen variability in large rivers. River Research and Applications, DOI: 10.1002/rra.1418

Posen, P.E., Hutchins, M.G., Lovett, A.A., Davies, H.N. (2011). Identifying the catchment size at which robust estimates of agricultural land use can be made, and implications for diffuse pollution modeling. Applied Geography, 31, 919-929.