Profile

John Boardman is a geomorphologist educated at the Universities of Keele (BA and DSc) and London (BSc and PhD). John retired from ECI in September 2008 and from his postitions as Deputy Director of the ECI, Director of the MSc in Environmental Change and Management. He is now an Emeritus Fellow at the ECI and continues working on land degradation issues, particularly in the Karoo, South Africa.

He has published over 130 papers mainly on land degradation and has edited several books: Soils and Quaternary Landscape Evolution (Wiley 1985), Periglacial Processes and Landforms in Britain and Ireland (CUP 1987), Soil Erosion on Agricultural Land (Wiley 1990), Modelling Soil Erosion by Water (Springer 1998) and Soil Erosion in Europe (Wiley 2006).

John was Chairman of the EU-funded COST Action 623 'Soil Erosion and Global Change' (1998-2003) with 21 participating countries and Chaired a Working Group in COST 634 'On and Off-Site Impacts of Runoff and Erosion'. He is UK representative on the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Transdisciplinary Proposal Standing Assessment Board.

Research Interests

John continues to work on soil erosion in southern England and also on land degradation in South Africa. Read about John's work on land degradation in the Karoo.

Teaching

As former Director of the MSc in Environmental Change and Management, John continues to teach on the course and to lead field trips. He has recently acted as External Examiner on MSc degrees at the Universities of Exeter and Edinburgh.

Recent Publications

• Foster, I.D.L., Rowntree, K., Boardman, J. and Mighall, T. Changing sediment yield and sediment dynamics in the Karoo uplands, South Africa: post –European impacts. Land Degradation and Development in press
• Mighall, T., Foster, I.D.L., Rowntree, K. and Boardman, J.. Reconstructing recent land degradation in the semi-arid Karoo of South Africa: a palaeoecological study at Compassberg, Eastern Cape. Land Degradation and Development in press
• Boardman, J., Hoffman, T., Holmes, P., and Wiggs, G.. Soil erosion in southern Africa. In, Holmes, P. and Meadows, M. (eds.) The Geomorphology of Southern Africa, Sunmedia, in press
• Boardman, J. Soil erosion. In, Parker, A.G. (ed.) The Physical Geography of the British Isles, Oxford University Press, in press
• Boardman, J. and Foster, I.D.L. (2011) The potential significance of the breaching of small farm dams in the Sneeuberg, South Africa. Journal of Soils and Sediments DOI: 10.1007/s11368-011-0425-5
• Boardman, J. and Vandaele, K. (2010) Soil erosion, muddy floods and the need for institutional memory. Area.
• Boardman, J. (2010) A short history of muddy floods. Land Degradation and Development, 21(4): 303-309.
• Faulkner, H., Boardman, J. and Ruiz, J-L. (2010) A simple validated GIS expert system to map relative soil vulnerability and patterns of erosion during the muddy floods of 2000-2001 on the South Downs, Sussex, UK. Land Degradation and Development, 21(4): 310-321.
• Evrard, O., Heitz, C., Liegeois, M., Boardman, J., Vandaele, K., Auzet, A-V. and van Wesemael, B. (2010) A comparison of management approaches to mitigate muddy floods in central Belgium, northern France and southern England. Land Degradation and Development, 21(4): 322-335.
• Boardman, J., Foster, I., Rowntree, K., Mighall, T. and Gates, J. (2010) Environmental stress and landscape recovery in a semi-arid area, the Karoo, South Africa. Scottish Geographical Journal, 126(2): 64-75.
• Goudie, A. and Boardman, J. (2010) Soil erosion. Chapter 14 in, Alcántara-Ayala, I. and Goudie, A.S. (ed.) Geomorphological Hazards and Disaster Prevention, Cambridge University Press, pp. 177-188.
• Cerdà, A., Flanagan, D., Le Bissonnais, Y. and Boardman, J. (2009) Preface: soil erosion and agriculture. Soil and Tillage Research, 106(1): 107-108.
• Boardman, J., Foster, I.D.L., Rowntree, K., Mighall, T. and Parsons, A.J. (2009) Small farm dams: a ticking time bomb? Water Wheel, Jul/Aug 2009: 30-35.
• Boardman, J., Shepheard, M., Walker, E. and Foster I.D.L (2009) Soil erosion and risk-assessment for on- and off-farm impacts: A test case using the Midhurst area, West Sussex, UK. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(8): 2578-2588.
• Keay-Bright, J. and Boardman, J. (2009) Evidence from field based studies of rates of erosion on degraded land in the central Karoo, South Africa. Geomorphology, 103: 455-465.
• Boardman, J. (2008) Soils and sustainability: the future of the South Downs. In, Fish, R., Seymour, S., Watkins, C. and Steven, M. (eds.) Sustainable Farmland Management: Transdisciplinary Approaches. CABI, Wallingford, pp. 49-57.
• Rowntree, K.M., Foster, I.D.L., Mighall, T.M., DuPreez, L. and Boardman, J. (2008) Post-European settlement impacts on erosion and land degradation; a case study using farm reservoir sedimentation in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. International Symposium on 'Sediment dynamics in changing environments' 1-5 December 2008: Christchurch, New Zealand, IAHS Publ. 325, 139-142.
• Foster, I.D.L., Boardman, J. and Gates, J. (2008) Reconstructing historical sediment yields from the infilling of farm reservoirs, Eastern Cape, South Africa. International Symposium on 'Sediment dynamics in changing environments' 1-5 December 2008: Christchurch, New Zealand, IAHS Publ. 325, 440-447.
• Boardman, J. and Foster, I.D.L. (2008) Badland and gully erosion in the Karoo, South Africa. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 63(4): 121-125.