Professor David Collins

Professor of Physical Geography, Associate Head International

• Peel Building Room 314
• T: +44 (0)161 295 4519
• E: d.n.collins@salford.ac.uk
• Twitter: @davidncollinsuk
• SEEK: Research profile

I graduated in geography from the University of Cambridge, and studied for my PhD at the University of Nottingham.  I then lectured at Liverpool, Manchester (as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Physical Geography) and Oxford Universities before being appointed to the Chair of Physical Geography at Salford.  Whilst at Oxford I was Fellow, Tutor and Dean of Keble College.  I was a visiting professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1988/89.   I have undertaken glacier research on three continents for long periods, at Gornergletscher and Findelengletscher, Switzerland, at Peyto Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, and at Bature Glacier in the Karakoram in Pakistan.  I was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Manchester in 1997, and in 1998, received the Busk Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for “his outstanding contribution to the study of field processes in mountain environments in a long and productive research career based around sustained field measurements … his enthusiasm for empirically-based field research has inspired generations of students in field science”.

I have a major commitment to undergraduate teaching in Geography at Salford leading modules in all three years, lecturing in water resources, high mountain environments and glaciology.  I introduced a strong fieldwork element to geography as programme leader, currently leading residential field courses in karst water chemistry at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Alpine environments in summer at Zermatt, Switzerland, former ice-dammed lakes in the North York Moors based in Scarborough, and in winter discharge from Alpine glaciers at Chamonix in the French Alps.  I supervise undergraduate dissertations in alpine glaciology and hydrology.  I introduced the innovative BSc Aquatic Sciences degree programme.  At Manchester I devised, launched, led and taught the pioneering MSc in Environmental Modelling & Monitoring.

Research interests include (a) climatic warming and meltwater discharge from mountain glaciers, (b) quality of meltwater draining from glaciers, and (c) hydrology and year-to-year variability of river flow from basins of varying percentage glacierisation. 

Together with my students, I have maintained the longest most detailed record (with hourly resolution) of Alpine meltwater quality in existence, at Gornergletscher between June and September each year for almost 40 years.  Interest has developed from suspended sediment transport, through electrical conductivity of meltwater to meltwater temperature.  Two catchments in the Swiss Alps are instrumented in collaboration with the hydropower utilities Hydoexploitation and Grande Dixence S. A.  Modelling meltwater temperature variations in with warming climate is of particular interest as increasing flow tends to offset enhanced energy availability. The deglaciation discharge dividend is of central importance as increasing melt from higher temperatures is offset by decreasing ice area substrate for melting.

In the 2000s, attention has turned to climate and water resources in Himalayan headwaters of the Indus and through the EU High Noon project the Ganges (http://www.eu-highnoon.org/news-and-events/10794637/HighNoon-Science-and-Policy-Brief-Adaptation-to-Climate-Change-in-the-Ganges-Basin-Northern-India).   An enviable database of precipitation, 2m air temperature, and river flow records from 1900 to the present has been assembled.  This database is being used to to answer questions concerning the influence of changing climate on river flow and water resources along the Himalayan arc from winter to summer monsoon precipitation dominated areas.

BA, MA University of Cambridge 1970, 1974

PhD  University of Nottingham 1979

MA University of Oxford 1996

DSc University of Manchester 1997

CGeog

Fellow of Royal Geographical Society

American Geophysical Union

International Glaciological Society

British Hydrological Society

International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics, including IACS and IAHS.  Member of Council of IUGG, and Chair of Union Finance Committee

Collins, D.N.  2007 Changes in quantity and variability of runoff from Alpine basins with climatic fluctuation and glacier decline. International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication, 318, 75-86.

Collins, D.N.  2007 Climatic variation, glacier recession and runoff from Alpine basins.  In: Heinonen, M.  Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Climate and Water. Helsinki, Finnish Environment Institute, 103-108.

Collins, D.N. 2008  Climatic warming, glacier recession and runoff from Alpine basins after the Little Ice Age maximum.  Annals of Glaciology, 48, 119-124.

Collins, D.N.  2009  Seasonal variations of water temperature and discharge in rivers draining ice-free and partially-glacierized Alpine basins.  17^th International Northern Research Basins Symposium, 67-74.

Moors, E.J., Groot, A., Biemans, H.,  Terwisscha van Scheltinga, C., Siderius, C., Stoffel, M., Huggel, Ch., Wiltshire, A., Mathison, C., Ridley, J.,  Jacob, D., Kumar, P., Bhadwal, S., Gosain, A. & Collins, D. N. 2011  Adaptation to changing water resources in the Ganges basin, northern India.  Environmental Science & Policy, 14, 758-769.  dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2011.03.005.

Miller, J., Rees, H.G., Young, G.J., Collins, D.N., & Warnaars, T.  2011 What is the evidence about glacier melt across the Himalayas?  Systematic Review  CEE10-008.  Collaboration for Environmental Evidence.