Go to

• Academic Staff
• Staff
• Home

Professor Heather Viles

• Academic Profile
• Current Research
• Current Teaching
• Publications

Academic Profile

Heather Viles has an undergraduate degree in geography from the University of Cambridge and a D.Phil. on biological weathering of limestone from the University of Oxford. Having carried out postdoctoral research on the impacts of acid rain on the deterioration of building stone at University College London. she held a number of teaching positions within Oxford. Since 1996 she has been a University Lecturer and Fellow of Worcester College, becoming Reader in Geomorphology in 2000. Within the School she runs the Rock Breakdown Laboratory.

Prof. Viles was the joint winner of 2004 Peter Fleming Award from the Royal Geographical Society. She was co-editor of Area (2000-2005), is joint editor in chief of Catena (2005- to date) and is on the editorial boards of Landslides and Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie. She was chair of the University of Oxford's Environment Panel from 2003 to 2006.

Prof. Viles is the co-leader of IGCP 513: Global study of karst aquifers and water resources (2005-2008) and was the national correspondent for the IGCP 448: Karst correlation project (2000-2004). She has delivered invited talks at numerous events including: GSA Regional meeting (2002); 'SaltExpert' workshop, Prague (2002); Natural Stone and Building Conservation Conference, London (sponsored by Getty Conservation Institute and ARCCHIP) (2004); BGRG Earth Systems Science conference (2006); NCE conference 'Achieving regeneration excellence' (2007); 6th International Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2007); and the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee enquiry into 'Science and Heritage' opening seminar (2006).

She also organised the SWAPNET 2001 meeting in Oxford, and the BGRG 2004 annual conference in Oxford, and was the convenor of sessions at Institute of British Geographers conference in Plymouth (2001), European Geophysical Union conference in Nice (2003). She was on the international organizing committee and invited to talk at International Rock Biology Conference, St Petersburg (2002) and the Heritage Weathering Conference, Madrid (2006).

She is the external examiner for Environmental and Geographical Sciences degree courses, Bournemouth University (2007-10) and was the external examiner for the MSc in Environmental Science, Birkbeck College, London (2000-2004). She has undertaken numerous PhD external examinations in departments of archaeology, biology, materials science and geography.

Current Research

Prof. Viles' research is highly interdisciplinary and involves studies at the interface of geomorphology with ecology, engineering geology, environmental chemistry and materials conservation. In recent years she has focussed on three specific themes in my research, namely:

• Biological contributions to geomorphology;
• Weathering, geomorphology and landscape evolution in extreme environments (hyper-arid, coastal, cold, and Mars); and
• Building stone decay and conservation.

She maintains a strong interest in developing and applying novel techniques and ideas to the study of these themes.

Selected Research Projects (since 2001)

• Climate change, moisture regimes and deterioration of stone monoliths
  In collaboration with Professor Chris Hall, Materials Science, University of Edinburgh; Financial support from The Leverhulme Trust; (2007-2010)
• Ivy on Walls Phase II
  In collaboration with Alan Cathersides (English Heritage); Financial support from English Heritage; (2006-2009)
• 2D resistivity techniques for monitoring moisture in historic stonework
  In collaboration with Lisa Mol, Dr Oliver Sass, University of Augsburg; Financial support from Fell Fund, University of Oxford; (2007-2008)
• Damp Towers: understanding moisture penetration and damp problems in deteriorating walls
  In collaboration with Dr Liz Laycock (Sheffield Hallam University), Chris Wood (English Heritage); Financial support from English Heritage; (2004-2008)
• Consensus or collision?: Integrating methods for the study of the historic environment (research cluster)
  In collaboration with Dr Dan Hicks (University of Bristol), Dr David Harvey (University of Exeter); Financial support from EPSRC; (2006-2007)
• Soft wall capping as a conservation method for ruined monuments
  In collaboration with Chris Wood (English Heritage), Alan Cathersides (English Heritage), Colin Burns (Consultant); Financial support from English Heritage; D.Phil. Students: Thomas Stevens; (2004-2007)
• Rock Breakdown on Earth and Mars
  In collaboration with Dr Mary C. Bourke; B. Ehlmann; Financial support from NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program; D.Phil. Students: Bethany Ehlmann; (2004-2007)
• Ivy on Walls Pilot Project
  In collaboration with Alan Cathersides (English Heritage) and Dr N. Carter; Financial support from English Heritage; D.Phil. Students: Nicholas Carter; (2005-2006)

Teaching

Prof. Viles is the course convenor for the Geomorphology lecture course of the Earth System Processes core course of the Preliminary Examination. She is also course convenor for the The Geographical Environment: Physical and lectures on the Philosophy, Nature and Practice of Geography core courses for the Final Honour School.

Current graduate students include:

• Lisa Mol
  Using ERT to investigate the influence of internal moisture on the deterioration of sandstone in the Golden Gate Reserve, South Africa, and its influence on San Rock Art conservation

• Satish Pandey (RLAHA)

D.Phil. students successfully completing since 2001:

• Abigail Stone (2009)
  Multi-proxy reconstruction of late Quaternary climate dynamics in western Southern Africa.
• Bethany Ehlmann (2007)
  Developing Quantitative Techniques for evaluating rock breakdown morphology: A case study of Basalt Boulders in the channelled scablands, Washington, USA.
• Mary Thornbush (2005)
  Traffic pollution and urban limestone weathering: Central Oxford, England.
• Nicholas Carter (2002)
  Bioprotection, species richness and landscape aesthetics: On the contribution of lichens to architectural heritage conservation.
• Larissa Naylor (2001)
  Biogeomorphological responses of rocky coasts in South Wales, UK and Western Crete, Greece.

Selected Publications

Books

• Rogers, A. and Viles, H.A. (eds.) (2003) The student's companion to geography. 2nd edition. Oxford; Blackwell.
• Prikryl, R. and Viles, H.A. (eds.) (2002) Understanding and managing stone decay. The Karolinum Press; Prague.
• Goudie, A.S. and Viles, H.A. (1997) Salt Weathering Hazards. Wiley. pp. 256.
• H.A. Viles and T. Spencer (1995) Coastal Problems: Geomorphology, Ecology and Society at the Coast. Hodder Arnold. pp. 360.

Edited Volumes

• Siegesmund, S., Viles, H.A. and Weiss, T. (2004) Stone decay hazards. Environmental Geology Special Issue, 46(3-4): 303-526.
• Viles, H.A. and Wild, L.S. (guest editors) (2003) Building Stone Decay: Observations, Experiments and Modeling. Building and Environment, 38(9-10): 1089-1260.
• Viles, H.A. and Naylor, L.A. (guest editors) (2002) Biogeomorphology special issue. Geomorphology, 47(1): 1-94.

Papers and Articles

• Bourke, M., Viles, H., Nicoli, J., Lyew-Ayee, P., Ghent, R., and Holmlund, J. (2008) Innovative applications of laser scanning and rapid prototype printing to rock breakdown experiments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33(10): 1614-1621.
• Ehlmann, B.L., Viles, H.A. and Bourke, M.C. (2008) Quantitative morphologic analysis of boulder shape and surface texture to infer environmental history: A case study of rock breakdown at the Ephrata Fan, Channeled Scabland, Washington. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113: FO2012.
• Viles, H. (2008) Understanding dryland landscape dynamics: Do biological crusts hold the key? Geography Compass, 2.
• Viles, H.A., Naylor, L.A., Carter, N.E. and Chaput, D. (2008) Biogeomorphological disturbance regimes: progress in linking ecological and geomorphological systems. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33(9): 1419-1435.
• Viles, H. and Pentecost, A. (2007) Tufa and travertine. Chapter 6 in, Nash, D.J. and McLaren, S.J. (eds.) Geochemical Sediments and Landscapes. Blackwell Publishing.
• Viles, H.A. and Goudie, A.S. (2007) Rapid salt weathering in the coastal Namib Desert: Implications for landscape development. Geomorphology, 85: 49-62.
• Viles, H.A., Taylor, M.P., Nicoll, K.N. and Neumann, S. (2007) Facies evidence of hydroclimatic regime shifts in tufa depositional sequences from the arid Naukluft Mountains, Namibia. Sedimentary Geology, 195: 39-53.
• Thornbush, M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2007) Simulation of the dissolution of weathered and unweathered limestone in carbonic acid solutions of varying strength. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 32: 841-852.
• Viles, H.A. and Wood, C. (2007) Green walls? Integrated laboratory and field testing fo the effectiveness of soft wall capping in conserving ruins. In, Prikryl, R. and Smith, B.J. (eds.) Building stone decay: from diagnosis to conservation. Geological Society Special Publication, 271: 309-322.
• Thornbush. M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2007) Photo-based decay mapping of replaced stone blocks on the boundary wall of Worcester College, Oxford. In, Prikryl, R. and Smith, B.J. (eds.) Building stone decay: from diagnosis to conservation. Geological Society Special Publication, 271: 69-75.
• Thornbush, M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2006) Changing patterns of soiling and microbial growth on building stone in Oxford, England after implementation of a major traffic scheme. Science of the Total Environment, 367: 203-211.
• Lalley, J.S. and Viles, H.A. (2006) Do vehicle track disturbances affect the productivity of soil-growing lichens in a fog desert? Functional Ecology, 20: 548-556.
• Lalley, J.S., Viles, H.A., Henschel, J.R. and Lalley, V. (2006) Lichen-dominated soil crusts as arthropod habitat in warm deserts. Journal of Arid Environments, 67: 579-593.
• Smith, B.J. and Viles, H.A. (2006) Rapid, catastrophic decay of building limestones: Thoughts on causes, effects and consequences. In, Fort, R. et al (eds.) Heritage, weathering and conservation. Taylor and Francis, London. pp. 191-198.
• Thornbush, M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2006) Use of portable X-ray fluorescence for monitoring elemental concentrations in surface units on roadside stone at Worcester College, Oxford. In, Fort, R. et al (eds.) Heritage, weathering and conservation. Taylor and Francis, London. pp. 613-620.
• Sass, O. and Viles, H.A. (2006) How wet are these walls? Testing a novel technique for measuring moisture in ruined walls. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 7: 257-263.
• Thornbush, M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2005) The changing façade of Magdalen College, Oxford: Reconstructing long-term soiling patterns from archival records and traffic records. Journal of Architectural Conservation, 11.
• Viles, H.A. (2005) Self-organized or disorganized? Towards a general explanation of cavernous weathering. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 30: 1471-1473.
• Viles, H.A. (2005) A divided discipline? In, Castree, N. Rogers, A. and Sherman, D. (eds.) Questioning Geography. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Viles, H.A. (2005) Can stone decay be chaotic? In, Turkington, A.V. (ed.) GSA Special Publication, Stone Decay in the Architectural Environment. pp. 11-16.
• Viles, H.A. (2005) Microclimate and weathering in the central Namib Desert. Geomorphology, 67: 189-209.
• Carter, N.E.A. and Viles, H.A. (2005) Bioprotection explored: the story of a little known earth surface process. Geomorphology, 67: 273-281.
• Viles, H.A., Brearley, A.J., Bourke, M. and Holmlund, J. (2005) What processes have shaped basalt boulders on Earth and Mars? Studies of feature persistence using facet mapping and fractal analysis. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXXVI, Abstract No. 2237.pdf
• Lalley, J.S. and Viles, H.A. (2005) Terricolous lichens in the Northern Namib desert of Namibia: distribution and community composition. The Lichenologist, 37: 77-91.
• Carter, N.E.A. and Viles, H.A. (2004) Lichen hotspots: raised rock temperatures beneath Verrucaria nigrescens on limestone. Geomorphology, 62: 1-16.
• Viles, H.A. and Goudie, A.S. (2004) Biofilms and case hardening on sandstones from Al-Quwayra, Jordan. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 29: 1473-1485.
• Heslop, E.E.M., Viles, H.A. and Bourke, M.C. (2004) Understanding rock breakdown on Earth and Mars: Geomorphological concepts and facet mapping methods. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXXV, Abstract No. 1445.pdf
• Mottershead, D.N. and Viles, H.A. (2004) Experimental studies of rock weathering by plant roots: Updating the work of Julius Sachs (1832-1897). In, Mitchell, D.J. and Searle, D.E. (eds.) Stone deterioration in polluted urban environments. Science Publishers Inc; Plymouth, UK.
• Mulla, E. and Viles, H.A. (2004) A review of the impact of NO₂ on stone decay and the relationship found between NO₂ concentration and stone soiling rate in a case study in Oxford. The Albanian Journal of Natural and Technical Sciences, 16: 71-80.
• Thornbush, M. and Viles, H.A. (2004) Integrated digital photography and image processing for the quantification of colouration on soiled limestone surfaces in Oxford, England. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 5: 285-290.
• Thornbush, M.J. and Viles, H.A. (2004) Surface soiling patterns detected by integrated digital photography and image processing on exposed limestone in Oxford, England. In, Saiz-Jimenez, C. (ed.) Air pollution and cultural heritage. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 221-224.
• Viles, H.A. and Goudie, A.S. (2003) Interannual, decadal and multidecadal scale climatic variability and geomorphology. Earth Science Reviews, 61: 105-131.
• Viles, H.A. (2003) Conceptual modelling of the impacts of climate change on karst geomorphology in the UK and Ireland. Journal for Nature Conservation, 11: 59-66.
• Viles, H.A. (2003) 'The writing's on the walls': On style, substance and selling physical geography. In, Trudgill, S.T. and Roy, A. (eds.) Contemporary meanings in physical geography. London: Edward Arnold.
• Viles, H.A. and Gorbushina, A.A. (2003) Soiling and microbial colonization on urban roadside limestone: A three year study in Oxford, England. Building and Environment, 38: 1217-1224.
• Turkington, A.V., Martin, E., Viles, H.A. and Smith, B.J. (2003) Surface change and decay of sandstone samples exposed to a polluted urban atmosphere over a six-year period: Belfast, Northern Ireland. Building and Environment, 38: 1205-1216.
• Carter, N.E.A. and Viles, H.A. (2003) Experimental investigations into the interactions between moisture, rock surface temperatures and an epilithic lichen cover in the bioprotection of limestone. Building and Environment, 38: 1225-1234.
• Antill, S.J. and Viles, H.A. (2003) Examples of the use of computer simulation as a tool for stone weathering research. Building and Environment, 38: 1243-1250.
• Thompson, M., Wilkins, S.J., Compton, R.G. and Viles, H.A. (2003) Channel flow cell studies on the evaluation of surface pretreatments using phosphoric acid or polymaleic acid for calcite stone protection. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 259: 338-345.
• Thompson, M., Wilkins, S.J., Compton, R.G. and Viles, H.A. (2003) Polymer coatings to passivate calcite from acid attack: polyacrylic acid and polyacrylonitrile. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 260: 204-210.
• Viles, H.A. (2002) Implications of future climate change for stone deterioration. In, Siegesmund, S., Vollbrecht, S.A. and Weiss, T. (eds.) Natural stone, weathering phenomena, conservation strategies and case studies. Special Publication 205, Geological Society of London. pp. 407-418.
• Naylor, L.A., Viles, H.A., and Carter, N.E.A. (2002) Biogeomorphology revisited: Looking towards the future. Geomorphology, 47: 3-14.
• Naylor, L.A. and Viles, H.A. (2002) A new technique for evaluating short-term rates of coastal bioerosion and bioprotection. Geomorphology, 47: 31-44.
• Viles, H.A., Taylor, M.P., Yates, T.J.S. and Massey, S.W. (2002) Soiling and decay of NMEP limestone tablets. Science of the Total Environment, 292: 215-229.
• Viles, H.A., Groves, C. and Wood, C. (2002) Soft wall capping experiments. In, John Fidler (ed.) English Heritage Research Transactions, Stone, 2: 59-73.
• Wilkins, S.J., Compton, R.G., Viles, H.A. and Taylor, M.P. (2002) A new technique to evaluate and quantify modified solution kinetics of calcareous materials after sulfuric acid pre-treatment and urban exposure. Studies in Conservation, 47: 88-94.
• Stretch, R. and Viles, H.A. (2002) Lichen weathering on Lanzarote lava flows. Geomorphology, 47: 87-94.
• Goudie, A.S., Wright, E. and Viles, H.A. (2002) An experimental investigation of the roles of salt (sodium nitrate) and fog in weathering: the northern Atacama Desert, Chile. Catena, 48: 255-266.
• Spencer, T. and Viles, H.A. (2002) Bioconstruction, bioerosion and disturbance on coral reefs and rocky carbonate coasts. Geomorphology, 48: 23-50.
• Wilkins, S.J., Compton, R.G., Taylor, M.A. and Viles, H.A. (2001) Channel flow cell studies of the inhibiting action of gypsum on the dissolution kinetics of calcite: A laboratory approach with implications for field monitoring. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 236: 354-361.
• Wilkins, S.J., Compton, R.G. and Viles, H.A. (2001) The effect of surface pre-treatment with polymaleic acid, phosphoric acid or oxalic acid on the dissolution kinetics of calcium carbonate in aqueous acid. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 242: 378-385.
• Trudgill, S.T., Viles, H.A., Inkpen, R.J., Moses, C.A., Gosling, W., Yates, T., Collier, P., Smith, D.I. and Cooke, R.Y. (2001) Twenty year remeasurements at St Paul's Cathedral, London. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 26: 1129-1142.
• Viles, H.A. (2001) Scale issues in weathering studies. Geomorphology, 41: 63-72.