Mr. Jamie Hannaford

I lead the Hydrological Status and Reporting Group at UKCEH, which comprises scientists working on hydrological data management, hydrological monitoring and seasonal forecasting, analysis of past hydrological change and appraisal of future climate change impacts. 

I am also a visiting Associate Professor at the Irish Climate And Research Units (ICARUS) at Maynooth University in Ireland. 

Much of my work surrounds the analysis and exploitation of datasets on the UK National River Flow Archive (NRFA), the UK’s principal archive of hydrometric data.  I lead the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme, which appraises current hydrological conditions in the UK through monthly Hydrological Summaries and also reports on major hydrological events (e.g. the 2018 drought and the 2020 floods). I contribute to the Hydrological Outlook for the UK, in partnership with other UKCEH scientists and a host of external organisations.

One of my main research interests is the investigatation of hydrological trends, to assess the evidence for climate change and other impacts on river flows in the UK and Europe. I have published extensively in this field and authored a recent synthesis of the evidence for climate-driven river flow trends in the UK.

A major theme in my work is investigating hydrological extremes (floods and droughts). I am PI on a Belmont Forum project “DrIVER” (Drought Impacts and Vulnerability Thresholds in Monitoring and Early Warning Research), working with partners in Europe, the US and Australia to provide a scientific underpinning for future improvements in drought monitoring and early warning. I am Lead PI on a £1.5m NERC-funded project “Historic Droughts”, running from 2014 – 2018, which aims to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of the drivers and impacts of past droughts in the UK. Previous projects on extremes include the EU FP-6 Project “WATCH”, Water and Global Change, which delivered European-scale analyses of historic and future drought and flooding using observations and global hydrological models. 

Summary of main research themes:

• Analysis and interpretation of hydrological trends and variability
• Hydrological status monitoring and forecasting
• Assessment of extreme events (e.g. Summer Floods 2007; Cumbria floods November 2009; drought and flooding in 2010 – 2012; winter floods 2013/14)
• Drought characterisation and analysis of historical droughts in the UK and Europe
• Hydro-climatology: influence of large-scale circulation on hydrological systems
• Hydrometry and hydrometric networks
• Data management, including the development of methodologies for improving quality and completeness of hydrological datasets

• 2013 onwards: Group Leader, Hydrological Status and Reporting Group, UKCEH

• 2009 - 2014: Head, National River Flow Archive (NRFA), CEH.

• 2007 - 2009: Leader, NRFA Data Analysis and Exploitation function, CEH 

• 2001 - 2007: Hydrological Analyst in the National River Flow Archive (NRFA) at CEH, developing methods for data acquisition and quality control, and working on trend detection

• 2000 - 2001: Soil Scientist, Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI), Bingley, W. Yorks

• 1998 - 2000: Postgraduate research, University of Leeds (researching runoff generation in semi-arid catchments in southeast Spain)