Overview
Hello! I’m Chris and I research how sediments (like sand) moves around and changes the shape of the Earth’s surface. To do this I’ve used the full spectrum of techniques; lab, field and numerical modelling, to investigate the fascinating interplay between flows - sediment movement and bedforms.
Currently I’m working on the SEACAMS-2 project with Martin Austin and Katrien Van Landeghem, we are focused on leveraging Â鶹Íø’s unique expertise in measuring and understanding turbulence and sediment transport for the renewable energy sector.
Recently I have been working on intertidal sediment transport in Morecambe bay, one of the few hyper-tidal sand flats in the world, and we have managed to get one of the first complete datasets measuring both bedform transport, suspended sediment transport, along with the hydrodynamics driving this sediment motion – this has created new knowledge of how sediment gets transported in this environment.
I have experience of using a variety of flow and sediment transport measurement equipment, including a wide range of acoustic instrumentation (SBES, ADCP, ADV, ADVP, Multi-Frequency Acoustic backscatter probes and Depth Sounders), light-based based instrumentation (PIV, LISST, IR cameras), and geo-location with dGPS systems. I have a wide range of experience in post processing the above instrumentation, as well as multibeam echosounder (MBES) data, commonly using high level codes such as MATLAB and python, with ArcGIS and Global-Mapper to process geo-spatial and image data and plot for presentations and publications. I use a mix of Adobe Illustrator and InkScape to produce professional-standard figures suitable for publications and presentations.
I undertook 4 field seasons as the lead field PDRA on the South Saskatchewan River in Canada, which has given me practical working experience in designing, planning and implementing field campaigns, often unsupervised > 10 hours. This fieldwork included measuring the flow structure and suspended sediment dynamics using a small launch with an aDcp, ABS and a LISST to quantify the flow-morphology-sediment transport interactions. This field dataset has been used to set the boundary conditions and validate my own and my collaborators modelling on the project.
My PhD thesis involved work the NERC project; http://www.bedform.co.uk/ and more recently as PDRA on http://www.sandyriverdynamics.co.uk/ and the BlueCOAST project ().
Additional Contact Information
christopher.unsworth@bangor.ac.uk
https://twitter.com/UnsteadyRiver
Qualifications
- PhD: River Dunes in Unsteady Conditions
University of Hull, 2011–2015 - MSc: MRes in Catchment Dynamics and Management
University of Leeds, 2010–2011 - BSc: JH Geology and Geography
University of Birmingham, 2007–2010
Publications
2025
- Published
Austin, M., Unsworth, C., Van Landeghem, K. & Lincoln, B., 16 Jan 2025, In: Ocean Science. 21, 1, p. 81-91 egusphere-2024-2056.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2024
- Published
Unsworth, C., McCarron, C., Van Landeghem, K., Whitehouse, R., Benson, T. & Barranco, I., 8 Oct 2024, p. 1-7. 7 p.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
2023
- Published
Solan, M., Spencer, T., Paterson, D. M., Unsworth, C., Christie, E., Blight, A., Brown, J., Brooks, H., Lichtman, I., Wei, X., Li, X., Thorne, P. D., Leyland, J., Godbold, J., Thompson, C., Williams, M., Plater, A., Moller, I. & Amoudry, L., 12 Jul 2023, In: Royal Society Open Science. 10, 7, 6 p., 230155.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - Published
Neill, S., Fairley, I., Rowlands, S., Young, S., Hill, T., Unsworth, C., King, N., Roberts, M., Austin, M., Hughes, P., Masters, I., Owen, A., Powell, B., Reeve, D. E. & Lewis, M., 1 Mar 2023, In: Renewable Energy. 205, p. 447-460
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - Published
Unsworth, C., Austin, M., Van Landeghem, K., Couldrey, A., Whitehouse, R., Lincoln, B., Doole, S. & Worrall, P., Sept 2023, In: Coastal Engineering. 184, 22 p., 104309.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - Published
Unsworth, C., Austin, M., Van Landeghem, K., Couldrey, A. & Whitehouse, R., 1 Jan 2023, p. 299-306. 7 p.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
2022
- Published
Van Landeghem, K., Unsworth, C., Austin, M. & Waggitt, J., 23 May 2022.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Abstract - Published
Unsworth, C., Austin, M. & Van Landeghem, K., 23 May 2022.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Abstract
Activities
2025
Online meeting with Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), which was requested after i gave a VEPOESSSS seminar in February 2025.
We presented the ECOwind project, and specific parts of WP1 to three people:
Danielle Gerritsma
Peter P.K.F. Lambooij
Lillian van den Esker
who were very interested in our work, particularly linking the effects of offshore windfarm infrastructure on the seabed and marine life.
future meetings and potential corporations are hoped for …
this group has influence on the regulatory environment in the Netherlands
17 Mar 2025
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)Meeting to discuss recent applications of Nortek instruments within SOS, what Nortek have on the horizon and how we can continue to work together moving forwards.
7 Mar 2025
Activity: Types of Business and Community - Hosting of external, non-academic visitor (Contributor)Presentation at the bi-weekly VEPOESSSS online seminar, 35 people attended online
19 Feb 2025
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2024
paper review
Aug 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review (Peer reviewer)Meeting with CEFAS RE: their FLOWERS project about scour around floating offshore wind farm infrastrucutre
23 Jul 2024
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)Meeting with CEFAS RE: their FLOWERS project about scour around floating offshore wind farm infrastrucutre
11 Jun 2024
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)paper review
Mar 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review (Peer reviewer)22 Feb 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)The Irish Sea is characterised by a heterogenous seabed, where different sediment types vary over short spaces in adjacent regions. This means it is also characterised by various environments that are home to different fauna and flora, which can easily be affected by changes to the seabed composition. Ocean currents and waves both induce stress over the seabed in shelf and shallow water regions. There are complex feedback interactions between these two components, which are expected to be affected by future climate change and sea level rise (SLR). Future changes to ocean, waves and their interaction may therefor affect the bed-stress, changing the present seabed structure and related environments. Recent coupled model developments now allow us to better reproduce these interactions though numerical simulation; In this work, we implement a NEMO-WW3 coupled model at 1.5km resolution over the whole northwestern European shelf. For the first time, we can demonstrate the impact of SLR over the bed stress, considering only barotropic factors. Here we show the latest model results and discuss implications for seabed habitats.
18 Feb 2024 – 24 Feb 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are a key component of our journey to Net Zero; however, this must be done in a sustainable manner, so understanding their impacts on the marine environment is important. Where tidal flows interact with OWF their flow field can become dramatically modified. Satellite data has shown disturbances such as kilometre-scale wake effects on the sea surface. Yet little attention has been paid to far field effects on the seabed. The ECOWind-ACCELERATE project focusses on how OWFs can modify seabed processes, and consequently, the habitats and the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we integrate large-scale physical laboratory and 3D numerical modelling to better understand these impacts. A 3 m wide, 35 m long flume was used to monitor flow, turbulence, and bed changes, assessing the influence of different monopile diameters representative of present-day and future OWFs. Experimental runs were varied to represent differing levels of bed mobility.
Under mean flow conditions that would otherwise fall below the threshold of motion, new bedform fields were generated from the turbulence produced in the wake of the monopile. These bedform fields extended up to 17x downstream and 7x as wide as the monopile diameter; and longer experimental runs would likely have likely extended them further. Under mobile bed conditions the effect was less than expected. Changes to the bed extended to 14x the monopile diameter downstream, suggesting widespread existence of bedforms can reduce the effect of the monopiles turbulent wakes on near bed dynamics. A suite of velocimeter data from the flume laboratory tests were used as the basis for a 3D Telemac model of the flume laboratory environment. We then assessed how much of this induced sediment mobility is due to the turbulent wake from the monopile and rock armour, compared to that generated by the bedforms themselves.
Our work indicates that installing offshore wind farms on seabeds that would otherwise be immobile can create newly active and dynamic seabeds with bedforms extending far beyond the monopile. This can modify existing habitats and potentially create new ones. Our findings provide a new evidence-base concerning the modification and recovery of the seabed around offshore wind farms, with implications for benthic biodiversity and opportunities for marine net gain.
18 Feb 2024 – 24 Feb 2024
Links:
7 Feb 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)17 Jan 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2023
12 Sep 2023
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)In the process of consenting for new wind farms, regulators will set the terms for what evidence industry needs to deliver. This includes information on sand bank and sand wave mobility, as well as their recovery post construction. However the current level of understanding of these processes at regulator level is insufficient, and the proposed reduction in consenting timescales add pressure onto regulators to be fast, accurate and consistent in delivering advice. This proposal focusses on how we can help regulators to better inform industry of what evidence to present for the consenting process to be successful, appropriate, and robust.
Funding awarded through the Â鶹Íø Innovation and Impact Award (Research Wales Innovation Funding). Value = £29,613
1 Aug 2023 – 31 Jul 2024
Activity: Other (Contributor)Presentation of a Conferance paper (8 pages)
3 Apr 2023
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)2023
Activity: Publication peer-review (Editorial board member)
2020
Presentation and participation at the ECOWIND AIM meeting, southmapton
30 Nov 2020
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)