Associate Professor in Catchment Science

The use of catchment resources is in ever-increasing demand from a range of stakeholders, often with competing or conflicting agendas. Effective management of pressures on land and water environments around the world is therefore critical to safeguard environmental quality and public health while also delivering opportunities for recreation, food production, energy generation and other key ecosystem services that catchments provide. My research integrates environmental risks and socio-ecological processes across catchment systems from source to sea.

I work with both social and natural scientists and end-user & policy communities using interdisciplinary research approaches that span a wide range of fields. My research portfolio covers environmental sustainability and human health issues in the UK, Europe, USA, NZ, China and sub-Saharan Africa. My primary research interests can be broadly classified as:

– Fate and transfer dynamics of diffuse pollutants (e.g. nutrients, faecal indicators, pathogens, emerging contaminants) across multiple scales;

– Managing competing demands on soil and water resources in catchments to benefit public health;

– Evidence-based policy for safer, healthier and more resilient bathing water environments;

– Health and wellbeing benefits of green and blue space, in particular the blue-health benefits of freshwater environments;

– Public perception of environmental risks to human health;

– Co-design of models and decision support systems with end-users to visualise risks to water quality at farm-to-landscape scales

Contact

Tel: 01786 467846

e: david.oliver@stir.ac.uk

https://dmoliver1.wordpress.com/

Twitter @david_m_oliver