Christophe is currently working on developing new methodologies in flood loss assessment: on health loss asssesmenbt for the Environment Agency and on interpolation method for national plubial flood risk assessment for SEPA, in flood risk reduction strategies (FLORIS project). Christophe is also continuously working on improving the assessment of flood losses for the Multi-Coloured Manual (MCM). Recently he was involved in two EU projects: Risc-kit and WeSenseIt. In the WeSenseIt project, Christophe was looking at the potential changes in stakeholders' behaviour in the context of water resources management through the enhancement of knowledge as a result of advanced technologies (physical and social sensors). In Risc-Kit Christophe was leading a Work Package aiming at developing a coastal risk assessment framework.
Christophe worked closely with the Urban Pollution Research Centre in two European projects (SWITCH and SCOREPP). Christophe's role in the SWITCH project was to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) based on GIS interfaces (SUDSLOC) and to couple it with a storm water model and a 2 dimensional flood model. The DSS aimed to demonstrate best management practices in storm water management. In SCOREPP he was in charge of the development of a database to support the visualisation of Priority Pollutant treatment options and he led the economic analysis of the options. He is also now involved in the PROPER project.
As the lead researcher for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at FHRC, Christophe was involved in undertaking the mapping component of the EU RiskMap project and in the mapping of risk to life for the European FLOODsite project. He is also teaching GIS research method to MU students.
Christophe is member of the MU Sustainable Development Research Cluster.
Christophe joined the centre in 2007 following an 8-month post-doc at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees and the completion of a PhD thesis at the Ecole Nationale Des Mines de Paris, focusing on the cost-benefit analysis of the impact of future nitrogen diffused pollution scenarios on the groundwater resources of the Seine River Basin involving groundwater modelling, GIS techniques and Agent based modelling approaches.
Qualifications
BSc, MSc, PhD, FHEA
Postgraduate Supervision
2012 – 2015: Ali Alahmari 'Therole of knowledge and institutional challenges to the adoption of sustainable urban drainage in Saudi Arabia: Implications for sustainable environment development'
Completed 2013: Meghan Alexander 'Social Vulnerability, Flooding and Risk Communication: Developing tailored GIS-based decision support systems and emergency flood incident management'.
Tools currently developed/under development:
· INDRA: INtegrated DisRuption Assessment model (RISC-KIT)
. SUDSLOC: a GIS based DSS for the identification of appropriate BMPs (SWITCH)
· A RiskToLife Model for GIS application (FLOODsite)
· WLCC_UI tool and a GIS based add-on tool for emergency services (FRMRC2)
English, French
Christophe is teaching Global Sustainability Issues using problem-based learning techniques at Master Level (MSc SEM and BECA) and he is supervising undergraduate and postgraduate research project in sustainability studies. He is also teaching Geographic Information System research method. His research in flood risk management also contributes into teaching (MSc SEM Flood risk managment module).
With skills covering a wide range of fields (Ecology, Geography, Modelling, Environmental Economics), Christophe's research is mainly focused on understanding how society can better manage the environment through the lens of the water resources and their associated risks (e.g. flood, drought, pollution). To answer these questions he is looking at how stakeholders may change their behaviour and adopt more sustainable approaches, but also at measuring the effectiveness of theses changes in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts. To better promote the research outputs, Christophe is interested in the development of innovative decision support tools for stakeholder needs. Christophe is also exploring the potential use of Agent Based Modelling approaches to better reflect the complexity of human decision and the impacts on the society (on water trading between Spanish Irrigation communities (EPI-water), on citizen engagement (WeSenseIt).
Christophe is member of the MU Sustainable Development Research Cluster.
Current Research:
PROPER Road runoff pollution management and mitigation of environmental risks
FLORIS Innovative tools for improving FLood risk reductiOn stRategIeS
Pluvial flooding: interim approach to accounting for FEH13 rainfall in the second Flood Risk Management cycle (SEPA)
Previous Research:
ConHaz: Costs of Natural Hazards
SWITCH - Managing water for the city of the future
Source Control Options for Reducing Emissions of Priority Pollutants (ScorePP)
Flood Risk Management Research Consortium Phase 2 (FRMRC2)
Summer Floods
Lower Thames - Phase 4
FLOODsite
BritishAcademy: Bargaining with Farmers
Thaler, Thomas and Hudson, Paul and Viavattene, Christophe and Green, Colin (2023) Natural flood management: Opportunities to implement nature‐based solutions on privately owned land. WIREs Water , 10 (3). ISSN 2049-1948
Viavattene, Christophe and Fadipe, David and Old, Jodi and Thompson, Vikki and Thorburn, Kirsten (2022) Estimation of Scottish pluvial flooding Expected Annual Damages using interpolation techniques. Water , 14 (3). pp. 1-17. ISSN 2073-4441
Sairam, Nivedita and Schröter, Kai and Carisi, Francesca and Wagenaar, Dennis and Domeneghetti, Alessio and Molinari, Daniela and Brill, Fabio and Priest, Sally J. and Viavattene, Christophe and Merz, Bruno and Kreibich, Heidi (2020) Bayesian Data-Driven approach enhances synthetic flood loss models. Environmental Modelling and Software , 132 . ISSN 1364-8152
Viavattene, Christophe and Priest, Sally J. (2020) A method for monetising the mental health costs of flooding. Project Report. Environment Agency, Bristol, UK.
Armaroli, Clara and Jackson, Derek W. T. and Reed, Denise J. and Viavattene, Christophe (2019) Editorial: Coastal risk: shores and deltas in peril. Frontiers in Earth Science , 7 . pp. 1-2. ISSN 2296-6463
