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The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science
Phone:
001539624462
Email:
P.A.Carling@soton.ac.uk

Professor Paul A Carling BSc (Hons) Leicester; PhD University of Wales (Swansea)

Emeritus Professor of Geomorphology at University of Southampton, Visiting Professor at Lancaster University, Visiting Professor at Chengdu University of Technology

Professor Paul A Carling's photo
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ResearchGate
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Paul Carling is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Southampton, a Visiting Professor at Lancaster, UK, and a Visiting Professor at Chengdu University of Technology, China.

There are no limits, only distant horizons.

Paul's interests are diverse. He is currently interested in the dynamics of anastomosed rivers, palaeofloods - especially Quaternary megafloods, a Quaternary meteorite impact in SE Asia and desert river dynamics. Current projects include: 1) Application of graph theory to pattern analysis of anastomosed river networks; 2) Palaeofloods in China, including recent developments along the Tsangpo and Parlung Rivers in Tibet. 3) Lake drainage history recorded in the palaeoshorelines of ice-dammed lakes, Altai, Siberia; 4) Glacier surging in the Karakorum and the prediction of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs); 5) Stratigraphic signature of the 800ka Quaternary meteorite impact in Indochina; 6) Erosion history of mountains in Eastern Egyptian Desert, flooding history in wadis and alluvial fans as indicators of past climate change in Egypt, Israel and Jordan; 7) Gravel bedforms and ventifacts in Iceland.

Paul Carling began his research career in 1977 with the NERC Institute of Freshwater Ecology (formerly the FBA, now the CEH) becoming a Principle Scientific Officer from 1987. In 1994 he moved to Lancaster University as Professor of Physical Geography and then to University of Southampton in 2000 where he was also Director of Environmental Sciences (2000-2004). He was a committee member and treasurer of the British Society of Geomorphology between 1984 and 1990, and a Member of British Standards Institute Sedimentation Committee.  Between 2003-2011 he was a Bureau and Council member of the International Association of Sedimentologists, serving as Editor for the journal ‘Sedimentology’ and he continues as an associate editor for ‘The Depositional Record’. Paul has provided consultancy to the Mekong River Commission and energy and civil engineering companies, including BP and Cairn. He served on the Cumbria Floods Forum in 2017 after Storm Desmond. He retired from UK University service in 2014 to take up research full-time as an Emeritus Professor at Southampton, holding other positions including: Visiting Fellow at Durham University; President’s Visiting Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; Visiting Professor at the University of Keifeng; Royal Geographical Thesiger-Oman Fellowship; and current Visiting Professorships at Lancaster University and the Chengdu University of Technology. Paul has published around 250 peer-reviewed articles, many of which are archived in Southampton University’s PURE database and which also can be accessed through ResearchGate.

Research interests

Paul's interests are diverse. He is currently interested in the dynamics of anastomosed rivers, palaeofloods - especially Quaternary megafloods, a Quaternary meteorite impact in SE Asia and desert river dynamics. Current projects include: 1) Application of graph theory to pattern analysis of anastomosed river networks; 2) Palaeofloods in China, including recent developments along the Tsangpo and Parlung Rivers in Tibet. 3) Lake drainage history recorded in the palaeoshorelines of ice-dammed lakes, Altai, Siberia; 4) Glacier surging in the Karakorum and the prediction of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs); 5) Stratigraphic signature of the 800ka Quaternary meteorite impact in Indochina; 6) Erosion history of mountains in Eastern Egyptian Desert, flooding history in wadis and alluvial fans as indicators of past climate change in Egypt, Israel and Jordan; 7) Gravel bedforms and ventifacts in Iceland.

Research Projects

Active project PI: 1) Application of graph theory to pattern analysis of anastomosed river networks; 2) Palaeofloods in China, including recent developments along the Tsangpo and Parlung Rivers in Tibet. 3) Lake drainage history recorded in the palaeoshorelines of ice-dammed lakes, Altai, Siberia; 4) Stratigraphic signature of the 800ka Quaternary meteorite impact in Indochina; 5) Erosion history of mountains in Eastern Egyptian Desert, flooding history in wadis and alluvial fans as indicators of past climate change in Egypt, Israel and Jordan.

Co-investigator: 1) Glacier surging in the Karakorum and the prediction of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs); Collaborator on UKSA Aurora project “Martian aeolian processes and landforms at the ExoMars Rover site: from orbit to surface” - Matthew Balme (PI).

Research group

Landscape Dynamics and Ecology (LDE)

Research project(s)

Re-constructing Past Environmental Conditions Using Landscape Evolution Models

Associate Editor for the IAS journal The Depositional Record

Professor Paul A Carling
University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ

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