Career

Head of Department of Geography, Swansea University (2005- )

Personal Chair (2000-); Reader (1997-2000); Senior Lecturer, Swansea University (1992-97); Lecturer in Geography, Swansea University (1976-92)

Temporary Lecturer in Geography, Durham University (1975-76)

MA and PhD at St John’s College, Cambridge (1969-75)

Conferred the Back Award by the Royal Geographical Society for contributions to tropical hydrology and geomorphology (1996)

 

Current research projects

 

(1) Research Co-ordinator since 2000 of the long-term multidisciplinary Royal Society and Petra Foundation SE Asia Rainforest Research Programme (http://www.searrp.org) based at Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo (£326k Royal Society 2005-09; £1.27m Petra Foundation 2008-14; £60k from HSBC Malaysia; £50k Shell Malaysia).  Current personal research on the Programme includes projects on “the long-term response of rain-forest hydrogeomorphological systems to logging using monitoring and sediment fingerprinting approaches” (with Dr Will Blake (Plymouth) and Dr Kawi Bidin (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) and “historical/recent climatic change in Sabah and its ecological consequences, using instrumental,documentary and dendroclimatological sources” (funded by the Royal Geographical Society and Earthwatch).

 

(2) Research on soil moisture dynamics in hydrophobic soils  in the EU-funded “WATER REUSE” project on the INCO RUSSIA + NIS-1 Programme (£107,500 2005-09)

 

(3) Research on methods of mitigating erosional and hydrological consequences of forest fire and soil hydrophobicity in Portugal within the EU-finded DESIRE Project: a global research initiative to mitigate desertification and remediate degraded land (225,000 Euros 2007-12)

 

(4) Applied research notably on remediation of heavy metal contaminated land and watercourses within the £2m WISE (Welsh Institute for Sustainable Environments) Project.

 

Other roles/responsibilities

Research Co-ordinator of the Royal Society SE Asia Rain Forest Research Programme (2000 to date); Member of the IAG Working Group on Geomorphic Impacts of Global Environmental Change (2006 to date).

 

Selected publications

 

Blake W.H., Walsh R.P.D., Reed J.M., Barnsley M.J. and Smith J.  (2007)   Impacts of landscape remediation on the heavy metal pollution dynamics of a lake surrounded by non-ferrous smelter waste.  Environmental Pollution 148, 268-280.

Sayer A.M., Walsh R.P.D. and Bidin K. (2006) Pipeflow suspended sediment dynamics and their contribution to stream sediment budgets in small rainforest catchments, Sabah, Malaysia.  Forest Ecology and Management 224, 119-130.

Walsh R. P. D., Clarke M. A., Bidin K., Blake W. H., Chappell N. A., Douglas I., Ramli N., Sayer A.M., Sinun W., Larenus J. & Hanapi J. (2006)  Changes in the spatial distribution of erosion within a selectively logged rainforest catchment in Borneo 1988-2003.   In: P. N. Owens and A. J. Collins (eds)  Soil Erosion and Sediment Redistribution in River Catchments: measurement, modelling and management, CAB International,  pp. 239-253.

Clarke M.A. & Walsh R.P.D. (2006)  Long-term erosion and surface roughness change of rain-forest terrain following selective logging, Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia.  Catena 68, 109-123.

Doerr S. H., Shakesby R. A. & Walsh R. P. D. (2000)  Soil hydrophobicity: its causes, characteristics and hydro-geomorphological significance. Earth-Science Reviews 51, 33-65.

Walsh R.P.D. and Newbery D. M. (1999)  The ecoclimatology of Danum, Sabah, within the context of the world’s rain-forest regions, with particular reference to dry periods and their impact.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 354, 1869-1883.

Richards P.W., with Walsh R.P.D. & Baillie I. (1996) The Tropical Rain Forest, Second edition, Cambridge University Press.

Walsh R.P.D. (1996) Drought frequency changes in Sabah and adjacent parts of northern Borneo since the late nineteenth century and possible implications for tropical rain forest dynamics. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12, 385-407