Frances E. Dunn

Frances E. Dunn
  • PhD
  • Professor (Assistant) at Utrecht University

About

21
Publications
8,026
Reads
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669
Citations
Introduction
Working with computer models PCR-GLOBWB, investigating surface water, groundwater and salinity to contribute to assessing global groundwater stocks. Previously part of the Water, Climate & Future Deltas Hub at Utrecht University, investigating hydrological modelling of river fluxes to deltas, and the DECCMA (DEltas, vulnerability, and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation) project at the University of Southampton, where I also completed my PhD on global fluvial sediment modelling.
Current institution
Utrecht University
Current position
  • Professor (Assistant)
Additional affiliations
January 2017 - November 2018
University of Southampton
Position
  • Research Associate

Publications

Publications (21)
Article
Full-text available
While adapting to future sea-level rise (SLR) and its hazards and impacts is a multidisciplinary challenge, the interaction of scientists across different research fields, and with practitioners, is limited. To stimulate collaboration and develop a common research agenda, a workshop held in June 2024 gathered 22 scientists and policymakers working...
Article
Full-text available
Adaptive pathways planning supports adaptation under deep uncertainty. The approach has been broadly applied, resulting in the development of multiple methods and tools. As a result, practitioners are not only challenged with the urgent and complex task of adaptation planning but may also have difficulties in selecting adequate methods. With this r...
Article
Full-text available
Deltas play a critical role in the ambition to achieve global sustainable development given their relatively large shares in population and productive croplands, as well as their precarious low-lying position between upstream river basin development and rising seas. The large pressures on these systems risk undermining the persistence of delta soci...
Article
Global satellite data quantify changes in sediment flux in 414 rivers
Article
Full-text available
Deltas worldwide are at risk of elevation loss and drowning due to relative sea-level rise. Management strategies to restore or enhance sedimentation on delta plains, Sedimentation-Enhancing Strategies (hereafter SES) are now being pursued in many deltas but there has been limited cross-disciplinary and cross-delta review. Here we compare 21 existi...
Article
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta is one of the world's largest deltas. It is currently experiencing high rates of relative sea-level rise of about 5 mm/year, reflecting anthropogenic climate change and land subsidence. This is expected to accelerate further through the 21st Century, so there are concerns that the GBM delta will be progress...
Article
Full-text available
The Mekong delta is experiencing rapid environmental change due to anthropogenic activities causing accelerated subsidence, sea-level rise and sediment starvation. Consequentially, the delta is rapidly losing elevation relative to sea level. Designating specific areas for sedimentation is a suggested strategy to encourage elevation-building with na...
Article
Coastal communities are prone to crises. Repeated exposure to crises constrains the ability of residents to access basic needs such as health, water and food, and may increase their vulnerability levels. In response, communities develop coping strategies such as depoldering (temporary breaching of embankments for TRM: tidal rivers management) and a...
Article
Full-text available
Deltas require sufficient sediment to maintain their land area and elevation in the face of relative sea-level rise. Understanding sediment budgets can help in managing and assessing delta resilience under future conditions. Here, we make a sediment budget for the distributary channel network of the Rhine–Meuse delta (RMD), the Netherlands, home to...
Article
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta is one of the world's largest deltas. It is currently experiencing high rates of relative sea-level rise of about 5 mm/year, reflecting anthropogenic climate change and land subsidence. This is expected to accelerate further through the 21st Century, so there are concerns that the GBM delta will be progress...
Chapter
Full-text available
Through the Anthropocene, growing populations and economic assets have intensified risk. Within deltas, the concurrence of high human populations and economic assets with climatic events, physical and biophysical processes, and natural hazards generate ‘hotspots’ of societal risk. Identification of these hotspots requires combining hazards, exposur...
Article
Full-text available
Deltas are resource rich, low-lying areas where vulnerability to flooding is exacerbated by natural and anthropogenically induced subsidence and geocentric sea-level rise, threatening the large populations often found in these settings. Delta 'drowning' is potentially offset by deposition of sediment on the delta surface, making the delivery of flu...
Article
The physical sustainability of deltaic environments is very much dependent on the volume of water and sediment coming from upstream and the way these fluxes recirculate within the delta system. Based on several past studies, the combined mean annual sediment load of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) systems has previously been estimated to vary f...
Article
Regular sediment inputs are required for deltas to maintain their surface elevation relative to sea level, which is important for avoiding salinization, erosion, and flooding. However, fluvial sediment inputs to deltas are being threatened by changes in upstream catchments due to climate and land use change and, particularly, reservoir construction...
Conference Paper
We study changes in global riverine water discharge and sediment flux over a 50-year period, 1960–2010, using the WBMsed v.2.0 global hydrological water balance model. Normalized departure from an annual mean is used to quantify spatial and temporal dynamics at continental scale. Coefficient of variance analysis is used to quantify temporal variabi...
Article
Full-text available
We employ a climate-driven hydrological water balance and sediment transport model (HydroTrend) to simulate future climate-driven sediment loads flowing into the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) mega-delta. The model was parameterised using high-quality topographic data and forced with daily temperature and precipitation data obtained from downscale...

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