Close Menu

Dr. Matthew Wilson

B.Sc., Ph.D. (Southampton)

Senior Lecturer - Geographic Information Science.

E-mail: matthew.wilson@sta.uwi.edu
Telephone: +1-868-662-2002, ext. 83612
Personal homepage: http://mattwilson.eu

Teaching

Qualifications

B.Sc. (Environmental Sciences), Centre for Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton, 1998

Ph.D. (Data and data uncertainty in predictions of flood inundation), School of Geography, University of Southampton, 2004

External positions

Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Canada, 2012-2015.

Associate, Climate Change Risk Management, 2005-present.

Visiting Researcher, Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, U.K., 2010-2012.

University Fellow, Department of Geography, University of Exeter, U.K., 2007-2010.

Research

My main research interests are in climate-driven natural hazards, particularly flood inundation, and the impacts of climate change. I am particularly interested in the use of computational modelling and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to assess flood risk, the use of remote sensing data to drive and validate computational models, and the assessment of the effect of uncertainty on model predictions.

My research extends to the analysis of surface water and wetland dynamics using remote sensing, field measurements and hydraulic modelling, particularly at large spatial scales (such as the Amazon wetlands).

I have a multidisciplinary research background, incorporating remote sensing, spatially-distributed dynamic modelling, uncertainty analysis and GIS. I also have interests generally in the use of open-source tools in GIS, remote sensing and web mapping.

Publications

PDF offprints can be downloaded from the Mendeley website.

Google Scholar citations: http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=x3yki_AAAAAJ

Journal articles

  • Darsan, J., Jehu, A., Asmath, H., Singh, A., Wilson, M.D., in review. The influence of fluvial dynamics and North Atlantic swells on the beach habitat of leatherback turtles at Grande Riviere Trinidad. Journal of Environmental Management.
  • Nandi, A., Mandal, A., Wilson, M.D. and Smith, D., in press. Integrated Flood Hazard mapping using Principal Component Analysis and Logistic Regression: a case study for Jamaica – a Small Island Developing State of the Caribbean. Environmental Earth Sciences.
  • Seenath, A., Wilson, M.D., Miller, K., 2016. Hydrodynamic versus GIS Modelling for Coastal Flood Vulnerability Assessment: Which is better for Guiding Coastal Management? Ocean & Coastal Management. 120: 99-109, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.11.019
  • Wilson, M.D., Durand, M., Jung, H.C. and Alsdorf, D.A., 2015. Swath altimetry measurements of the mainstem Amazon River: measurement errors and hydraulic implications, Hydrology and Earth Systems Science 19: 1943-1959, doi:10.5194/hess-19-1943-2015
  • Anderson, H., Shaw, P. & Wilson, M.D., 2013. An analysis of the Petite Careme (short dry spell) in Trinidad, Caribbean Geography 17: 58-73.
  • Joseph, A.K., Shaw, P., Wilson, M.D., 2013. Seasonal beach changes and their impact on the nesting of the Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): a case study from Grande Rivière, Trinidad, Caribbean Geography 17: 110-125.
  • Tambie, J., Wilson, M.D., Shaw, P.A., 2013. An assessment of rain gauge and satellite-derived rainfall measurements in north-western Trinidad, Caribbean Geography 17: 43-57.
  • Trigg M.A., Bates P.D., Wilson M.D., Schumann G. and Baugh C., 2012. Floodplain channel morphology and networks of the middle Amazon River, Water Resources Research, 48, W10504, doi:10.1029/2012WR011888
  • Horritt, M.S., Bates, P.D., Fewtrell, T., Mason, D. and Wilson, M.D., 2010. Modelling the Hydraulics of the Carlisle 2005 flood event, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 163, 6, 273-281, doi:10.1680/wama.2010.163.6.273
  • Trigg, M.A., Wilson, M.D., Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S., Alsdorf, D.E., Forsberg, B.R. and Vega Corredor, M.C., 2009. Amazon flood wave hydraulics, Journal of Hydrology, 373, 92-105, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.06.004.
  • Neal, J., Bates, P.D., Fewtrell, T., Hunter, N., Wilson, M.D. and Horritt, M.S., 2009. Distributed whole city water level measurements from the Carlisle 2005 urban flood event and comparison with hydraulic model simulations, Journal of Hydrology, 368, 42-55, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.01.026.
  • He, Y., Wetterhall, F., Cloke, H.L., Pappenberger, F., Wilson, M.D., Freer, J. and McGregor, G., 2009. Tracking the uncertainty in flood alerts driven by grand ensemble weather predictions. Meteorological Applications, 16, 91–10, doi:10.1002/met.132.
  • Durand, M., Andreadis, K.M., Alsdorf, D.E., Lettenmaier, D.P., Moller, D. and Wilson, M.D., 2008. Estimation of bathymetric depth and slope from data assimilation of swath altimetry into a hydrodynamic model, Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L20401, doi:10.1029/2008GL034150.
  • Wright, N.G., Villanueva, I., Bates, P.D., Mason, D.C., Wilson, M.D., Pender, G. and Neelz, S., 2008. Case study of the use of remotely sensed data for modeling flood inundation on the River Severn, U.K., ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 134, 5, 533-540, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9429(2008)134:5(533).
  • Wilson, M.D. and Atkinson, P.M., 2007. The use of remotely sensed land cover to derive floodplain friction coefficients for flood inundation modelling, Hydrological Processes, 21 (26) 3576-3596. doi:10.1002/hyp.6584
  • Wilson, M.D., Bates, P.D., Alsdorf, D., Forsberg, B., Horritt, M.S., Melack, J., Frappart, F. and Famglietti, J., 2007. Modeling large-scale inundation of Amazonian seasonally flooded wetlands, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L15404, doi:10.1029/2007GL030156
  • Alsdorf, D., Bates, P., Melack, J., Wilson, M.D. and Dunne, T., 2007. Spatial and temporal complexity of the Amazon flood measured from space, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L08402, doi:10.1029/2007GL029447
  • Michaelides, K. and Wilson, M.D., 2007. Uncertainty in predicted runoff due to patterns of spatially variable infiltration, Water Resources Research, 43, W02415, doi:10.1029/2006WR005039
  • Hunter, N.M., Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S. & Wilson, M.D., 2007. Simple spatially-distributed models for predicting flood inundation: A review, Geomorphology, 90, 3-4, 208-225. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.10.021
  • Bates, P.D., Wilson, M.D., Horritt, M.S., Mason, D., Holden, N. and Currie, C., 2006. Reach scale floodplain inundation dynamics observed using airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery: data analysis and modelling, Journal of Hydrology, 328, 306– 318. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.12.028
  • Hunter, N.M., Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S., Wilson, M.D., 2006. Improved simulation of flood flows using storage cell models, Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 159, WMI, 9-18. doi:10.1680/wama.2006.159.1.9
  • Néelz, S., Pender, G., Villanueva, I., Wilson, M.D., Wright, N.G., Bates, P.D., Mason, D. and Whitlow, C., 2006. Using remotely sensed data to support flood modelling, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 159, WM1, 35–43. doi:10.1680/wama.2006.159.1.35
  • Wilson, M.D. and Atkinson, P.M., 2005. The use of elevation data in flood inundation models: a comparison of ERS InSAR and combined contour and Differential GPS, International Journal of River Basin Management, 3 (1), 3-20. doi:10.1080/15715124.2005.9635241
  • Hunter, N.M., Horritt, M.S., Bates, P.D., Wilson, M.D. and Werner, M.G.F., 2005. An adaptive time step solution for raster-based storage cell modelling of floodplain inundation, Advances in Water Resources, 28, 975–991. doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2005.03.007

Book chapters

  • Wilson, M.D., in press. Geography, Society and Development in a Changing Climate, in Geography for the Curious: Why Study Geography?, Vaidya, K. (ed) The Curious Academic Publishing, Canberra, Australia [ISBN 978-1-925128-36-9].
  • Wilson, M.D., 2007. Increased frequency and intensity of floods, in Rapid Climate Change, Lloyds of London (invited).
  • Wilson, M.D. and Atkinson, P.M., 2005. Prediction uncertainty in elevation and its effect on flood inundation modelling, in GeoDynamics, Atkinson, P.M., Foody, G.M., Darby, S., Wu, F. (eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton [ISBN 0849328373] doi:10.1201/9781420038101.ch14.
  • Hunter, N.M., Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S. and Wilson, M.D., 2005. Comparison of classical and adaptive time-step storage cell codes for flood inundation modelling. In vos Alphen, J., van Beek, E. and Taal, M. (eds), Floods: from defence to management. Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Flood Defence, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 25-27 May, 2005, Balkema, The Netherlands, 231-240. [ISBN 0415380502].
  • Bates, P.D., Mason, D.C., Neelz, S., Pender, G., Villaneuva, I., Wilson, M.D. and Wright, N.G., 2004. A framework for flood inundation modelling, In Reeve, D., (ed), Flood risk assessment, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Southend-on-Sea, UK, 169-178, [ISBN 0905091175].
  • Wilson, M.D., 2003. Global data networks in the environmental and life sciences, in UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, EOLSS Publishers Company, Paris, 6.64.4.2 (invited). http://www.eolss.net/

Full conference papers

  • Bates P.D., Wilson M.D., Neelz S., Pender G., Villaneuva I., Wright N.G. and Mason D., 2004. A Framework for Modelling Flood Inundation, Proceedings of the first Institute of Mathematics and Applications conference on Flood Risk Assessment, 7-8 September 2004, University of Bath, UK.
  • Mason, D. C., Cobby, D.C., Wang, H.-J., Scott, T.R., Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S. and Wilson, M.D., 2004. Uses of airborne scanning laser altimetry for river flood modelling and coastal geomorphology. In: RSPSoc Workshop on Laser Scanning of the Environment, 11-12 November 2004, British Geological Survey, Nottingham.
  • Wilson M.D. and Atkinson P.M., 2003. Sensitivity analysis of a flood inundation model to spatially distributed friction coefficients obtained using land cover classification of Landsat TM imagery, Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 21-25 July, 2003 (Vol. 3), 1579 – 1581. IEEE International. doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2003.1294181
  • Wilson M.D. and Atkinson P.M., 2003. Prediction uncertainty in elevation and its effect on flood inundation modelling, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on GeoComputation, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, 8 – 10 September, 2003. http://www.geocomputation.org/2003/Papers/Wilson_1_Paper.pdf

Technical reports

  • Wilson, M.D. and Mandal, A., 2015. Hydrological characterisation of Carriacou Island, Grenada. CERMES, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.
  • Wilson, M.D., 2015. TAG 013 Appendix: River Flooding and Modelling, Office of Nuclear Regulation, Bootle, United Kingdom.
  • Wilson, M.D., 2015. TAG 013 Appendix: Extreme Rain and Snow, Office of Nuclear Regulation, Bootle, United Kingdom.
  • Simpson, M. C., Clarke, J. F., Scott, D. J., New, M., Karmalkar, A., Day, O. J., Taylor, M., Gossling, S., Wilson, M.D., Chadee, D., Stager, H., Waithe, R., Stewart, A., Georges, J., Hutchinson, N., Fields, N., Sim, R., Rutty, M., Matthews, L. and Charles, S., 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Anguilla. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Antigua and Barbuda. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – The Bahamas. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Barbados. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Belize. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Dominica. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – The Dominican Republic. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Grenada. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Jamaica. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Nevis. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – St. Kitts. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – St. Lucia. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – St. Vincent and the Grenadines. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Suriname. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • _____, 2012. Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) – Turks and Caicos Islands. DFID, AusAID and The Caribsave Partnership, Barbados, West Indies.
  • Simpson, M.C., Scott, D., Harrison, M., Silver, N., O’Keeffe, E., Harrison, S., Taylor, M., Sim, R., Lizcano, G., Wilson, M.D., Rutty, M., Stager, H., Oldham, J., New, M., Clarke, J., Day, O.J., Fields, N., Georges, J., Waithe, R., McSharry, P., 2010. Quantification and Magnitude of Losses and Damages Resulting from the Impacts of Climate Change: Modelling the Transformational Impacts and Costs of Sea Level Rise in the Caribbean, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Barbados, West Indies.
  • Simpson, M.C., Scott, D., New, M., Sim, R., Smith, D., Harrison, M., Eakin, C.M., Warrick, R., Strong, A.E., Kouwenhoven, P., Harrison, S., Wilson, M.D., Nelson, G.C., Donner, S., Kay, R., Geldhill, D.K., Liu, G., Morgan, J.A., Kleypas, J.A., Mumby, P.J., Palazzo, A., Christensen, T.R.L., Baskett, M.L., Skirving, W.J., Elrick, C., Taylor, M., Magalhaes, M., Bell, J., Burnett, J.B., Rutty, M.K., and Overmas, M., Robertson, R., 2009. An Overview of Modelling Climate Change Impacts in the Caribbean Region with contribution from the Pacific Islands, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Barbados, West Indies.
  • Harrison, S., Foster, I., Smith, D., Stainforth, D., Washington, R. and Wilson, M.D., 2008. Climate Change: The Russian Perspective, technical report, Climate Change Risk Management.
  • Harrison, S., Foster, I. and Wilson, M.D., 2007. The impact of future climate change in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, technical report, Climate Change Risk Management.
  • Harrison, S. and Wilson, M.D., 2007. The impact of climate change on water resources in the Andes Mountains, South America, technical report, Climate Change Risk Management.

Other publications

Magazine/ newspaper articles
  • Mandal, M., Wilson, M.D., Taylor, M. and Smith, D., in press. Climate Change and Inland Flooding in Jamaica: Case studies from Yallahs and South Orange Negril watershed. CDKN Inside Stories on Climate Development. Climate & Development Knowledge Network, London.
  • Darsan, J., Wilson, M.D., Asmath, H., 2014. Nature’s balancing act – Manzanilla’s delicate ecosystem, Trinidad Express Newspaper, Sunday 23 November 2014.http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Natures-balancing-act-283610171.html
Book reviews
  • Wilson, M.D., 2005. Book review: “Environmental hydraulics of open channel flows” by Hubert Chanson, Elsevier Butterworth – Heinemann, Oxford, 488pp, ISBN: 0750661658,International Journal of River Basin Management, 3 (4), 295-297, doi:10.1080/15715124.2005.9635269
Theses and dissertations
  • Wilson, M.D., 2004. Evaluating the effect of data and data uncertainty on predictions of flood inundation, PhD-thesis, University of Southampton, U.K., 276 pp. [see here for details]
  • Wilson, M.D., 1998. Using TOPMODEL to predict discharge in the Highland Water catchment, New Forest, BSc-dissertation, University of Southampton, U.K., 56 pp.
Software manuals
  • Bates, P.D., Horritt, M.S., Wilson, M.D., Hunter, N., 2005. LISFLOOD-FP User manual and technical note (code release 2.6.2), School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, 22 June 2005.
Top of Page