Prof Tony Jones

BA, AKC (King’s College London), MSc (McGill), PhD, ScD (Cambridge)

Lunchtime on the banks of Burbage Brook, Derbyshire, early February 1968. Eating my sandwiches, I notice ‘animal’ holes in the middle of the opposite bank that show signs of erosion from water occasionally flowing out. So began a focus of research that was to last for more than five decades. Could these ‘pipes’ be a significant source of storm runoff and erosion, perhaps even of channel extension?  My paper in AGU’s Water Resources Research in 1971 caught the mood of the day, which was beginning to question the established view that surface runoff alone is the source of stormflow in streams. Research at Maesnant, Pumlumon,  has shown the complexity of interchange between surface and subsurface flows, the role of piping in driving the acidity of streamflow, and in the development of soil profiles, micro-topography, vegetation patterns and biodiversity, and streamhead architecture. 

            From the early 1990s, research turned towards the impact of climate change working with the IGU Working Group on Regional Hydrological Response and subsequently establishing an IGU Group specifically on the effects on Extreme Hydrological Events. This has included predicting the impacts on Welsh rivers and reservoirs, and running our model in hindcasting mode for the IICS multi-agency project Past Hydrological Events related to understanding Global Change.

            In 2002, the IGU established the current Commission for Water Sustainability, which I chaired till 2012 (https://igu-water.org ). I chaired the groundwater committee for the UN International Year of Planet Earth, and also chaired a conference for NATO to assess emerging threats to global water security. Meanwhile, we undertook a long-term project to map the dynamics of global water resources and assess potential solutions to problems (see Water Sustainability: a global perspective). In 2014, UNESCO appointed me as external assessor to review Phase VII of the International Hydrological Programme and to identify emerging issues for IHP attention in the next Phase, up to 2022. Current members of the UK IHP Committee inform me that our review has led to a number of organisational improvements in the programme.

Sometime Chair of Board for Environmental Science, Faculty of Science Representative on Senate and member of University Court

National

Committee Member: Institution of Civil Engineers, Welsh Hydrology (1988-92); Welsh Acid Waters Programme, Catchment Characteristics (1986-90); Wildlife Trust West Wales, Teifi Marshes and Woodlands Conservation, Advisory (1999-2002)

International 

Chair: IGU Commission for Water Sustainability and continuing  ex officio Steering Committee member; UN International Year of Planet Earth Groundwater Committee and the International Council for Science IYPE Science Implementation Team, Groundwater (2007-11); NATO-country Chair, NATO Science for Peace and Security conference (2007); multiple conference organising for IGU and BHS/IAHS-sponsored Inter-Celtic Hydrology, including Aberystwyth (1999 and 2000). 

Member: WMO Commission for Hydrology (2000-04); American Society of Civil Engineers, Task Committee on Riverbank Erosion (1989-91); Scientific Committees, including IAHS, WCRP/IHDP/IGBP-BAHC and IGU; Session convener many including World Water Council 3^rd World Water Forum and European Geosciences Union.