Dr Louise Slater is Associate Professor in Physical Geography and Tutorial Fellow of Hertford College. She is a Future Leaders Fellow of UK Research and Innovation (2021-2026). Louise was previously Chair of the Oxford Water Network (2019-2021). She is currently Editor for the EGU journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) and Associate Editor for the AGU journal Earth's Future.
Louise's leads the Hydro-Climate Extremes research group, which develops computational approaches to detect, attribute, and predict how changes in climate and land cover may affect water-related extremes and society. They publish in the fields of hydrology, geomorphology, and climate, in scientific journals such as Nature Communications, Geophysical Research Letters, Environmental Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Climate Dynamics, Geology, Water Resources Research, Science, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Journal of Hydrology, and International Journal of Climatology.
Before joining the University of Oxford, Louise held Lectureships in Physical Geography at Loughborough University and Queen Mary University of London, and was a Research Scholar at IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, USA. She is an alumna of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Lyon and of the Classes Préparatoires at the Lycée Henri IV, France. She holds her PhD from the University of St Andrews.
Louise acts as a reviewer for international journals in the fields of flooding, river science and hydroclimatology, and reviews grants for various UK and international bodies. She is a member of several learned societies including the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the European Geosciences Union (EGU), the British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), and the British Hydrological Society (BHS). Louise is also a Visiting Fellow in River Science at Loughborough University.
- 2023: Gordon Warwick Award for excellence in geomorphological research (mid-career award), British Society for Geomorphology (BSG)
- 2023: Outstanding Editor Award, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS)
- 2022: Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award, American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- 2021: Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award, European Geosciences Union (EGU)
- 2021: Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Early Career Research in Physical Geography, Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG)
Selected Research Projects
- 2021-2028: PI UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF), The Dynamic Drivers of Flood Risk (DRIFT).
- 2021-2026: Co-I NERC Large Grant, The Evolution of Global Flood Hazard and Risk (EvoFlood).
- 2019-2022: PI John Fell Fund, Understanding river behaviour to better predict future flooding.
- 2018-2019: Co-I NERC/ESRC Innovation grant, Financial planning for flood risk.
Postdoctoral Researchers
- Dr Yinxue Liu (2022-2024)
- Dr Simon Moulds (2021-2023)
- Dr Michel Wortmann (2021-2023)
- Dr Shasha Han (2020-2021)
- Dr Laurent Courty (2018-2019)
Visiting Researchers
- Dr Xihui Gu (2021-2023)
- Dr Jiabo Yin (2022-2024)
- Dr Fatih Tosunoglu (2022-2023)
- Ms Xueying Li (2022-2023)
- Mr Keke Fan (2020-2021)
- Mr Wei Sha (2020-2021)
Current Graduate Research Students
| Bailey Anderson | The effects of land cover changes on streamflow in the United States; a large sample statistical attribution approach. |
| Marcus Buechel | Comprehending changing climate and landscape influence on hydrological systems |
| Katie Kowal | Leveraging Drought Prediction for Enhanced Preparedness in the Central American Dry Corridor |
| Emma Ford | Atmospheric Patterns Triggering Extreme Flood Events Across the UK (Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics ) |
Former Graduate Research Students
Jiajun Li
Completed DPhil in 2022 | Exploring uncertainty in stage-discharge rating curves. |
Timo Kelder
Completed DPhil in 2022 | Using large climate model ensembles to quantify and explain climate extremes. |
Undergraduate
Louise contributed to three courses for the Preliminary Examination: Geographical Controversies, Geographical Techniques, and Earth Systems Processes. She also co-developed the Option on Geographic Data Science. At Hertford College, Louise and her colleagues are responsible for teaching students across the entire breadth of geographical topics for the Preliminary Examination and Final Honour School of Geography.
Postgraduate
Louise previously convened the Climate and Catchment Processes module on the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management (WSPM). Louise welcomes enquiries from individuals wishing to undertake doctoral or post-doctoral research in the following, or related, areas: flood science, streamflow forecasting and prediction, fluvial geomorphology, and computational data science approaches in hydro-climatology.
Please see ORCiD for a comprehensive up-to-date list. Please contact Louise if you have trouble accessing any of these publications.
- Berghuijs, W. and Slater, L. (2023) Groundwater shapes North American river floods. Environmental Research Letters.
- Kowal, K., Slater, L., López, A.G. and Van Loon, A.F. (2023) A comparison of seasonal rainfall forecasts over Central America using dynamic and hybrid approaches from C3S and NMME. International Journal of Climatology.
- Moulds, S., Slater, L., Dunstone, N. and Smith, D. (2023) Skillful decadal flood prediction. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(3). e2022GL100650.
- Wang, L., Gu, X., Slater, L., Li, J., Kong, D., Zhang, X. and Liu, J. (2023) Phase Shifts of the PDO and AMO Alter the Translation Distance of Global Tropical Cyclones. Earth's Future, 11(3). e2022EF003079.
- Yin, J. and Slater, L. (2023) Increase in drought-heatwave events worsens socioeconomic productivity and carbon uptake. Nature Sustainability. Research Briefing.
- Yin, J., Gentine, P., Slater, L., Gu, L., Pokhrel, Y., Hanasaki, N., Guo, S., Xiong, L. and Schlenker, W. (2023) Future socio-ecosystem productivity threatened by compound drought-heatwave events. Nature Sustainability.
- Anderson, B., Slater, L., Dadson, S., Blum, A., Prosdocimi, I. (2022) Statistical attribution of the influence of urban and tree cover change on streamflow: a comparison of large sample statistical approaches. Water Resources Research.
- Brunner, M.I. and Slater, L.J. (2022) Extreme floods in Europe: going beyond observations using reforecast ensemble pooling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
- Buechel, M., Slater, L.J., Dadson, S. (2022) Hydrological impact of widespread afforestation in Great Britain using a large ensemble of modelled scenarios. Communications Earth and Environment.
- Chai, Y., Yue, Y., Slater, L.J., Yin, J., Borthwick, A., Chen, T., Wang, G. (2022) Constrained CMIP6 projections indicate less warming and a slower increase in water availability across Asia. Nature Communications.
- Fan, K., Slater, L.J., Zhang, Q., Sheffield, J., Gentine, P., Sun, S. and Wu, W. (2022) Climate warming accelerates surface soil moisture drying in the Yellow River Basin. Journal of Hydrology, 615(A). 128735.
- Feng, S., Gu, X., Luo, S., Liu, R., Gulakhmadov, A., Slater, L.J., Li, J., Zhang, X., Kong, D. (2022) Greenhouse gas emissions drive global dryland expansion but not spatial patterns of change in aridification. Journal of Climate.
- Gu, L., Chen, J., Yin, J., Slater, L., Wang, H-M., Guo, Q., Feng, M., Qin, H., Zhao, T. (2022) Global Increases in Compound Flood-Hot Extreme Hazards Under Climate Warming. Geophysical Research Letters.
- Gu, L., Yin, J., Slater, L., Chen, J., Do, H., Wang, H-M., Chen, L., Jiang, Z. and Zhao, T. (2022) Intensification of global hydrological droughts under anthropogenic climate warming. Water Resources Research, 59(1). e2022WR032997.
- Guan, Y., Gu, X., Slater, L.J., Li, L., Kong, D., Liu, J., Zhang, X., Yan, X. (2022) Tracing anomalies in moisture recycling and transport to two record-breaking droughts over the Mid-to-Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River. Journal of Hydrology.
- Han, S., Slater, L.J., Wilby, R.L. and Faulkner, D. (2022) Contribution of urbanisation to non-stationary river flow in the UK. Journal of Hydrology, 613(A). 128417.
- Kelder, T., Marjoribanks, T., Slater, L., Prudhomme, C., Wilby, R., Wagemann, J., Dunstone, N. (2022) An open workflow to gain insights about low-likelihood high impact weather events from initialised predictions. Meteorological Applications.
- Kelder, T., Wanders, N., van der Wiel, K., Marjoribanks, T., Slater, L., Wilby, R.L., Prudhomme, C. (2022) Interpreting extreme climate impacts from large ensemble simulations - are they unseen or unrealistic?.
- Khouakhi, A., Driouech, F., Slater, L., Waine, T., Chafki, O., Chehbouni, A., Raji, O. (2022) Atmospheric rivers and associated extreme rainfall over Morocco. International Journal of Climatology.
- Kowal, K., Slater, L.J., Van Loon, A.F., Birkel, C. (2022) SEAS5 Skilfully Predicts Late Wet-Season Precipitation in Central American Dry Corridor Excelling in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. International Journal of Climatology.
- Lees, T., Reece, S., Kratzert, F., Gauch, M., Klotz, D., De Bruijn, J., Kumar Sahu, R., Greve, P., Slater, L.J., Dadson, S. (2022) Hydrological Concept Formation inside Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
- Li, C., Gu, X., Slater, L.J., Liu, J., Li, J., Zhang, X., Kong, D. (2022) Urbanization-induced increases in heavy precipitation are magnified by moist heatwaves in an urban agglomeration of East China. Journal of Climate, 36(2): 693-709.
- Li, C., Min, R., Gu, X., Gulakhmadov, A., Luo, S., Liu, R., Slater, L.J., Xie, F., Kong, D., Liu, J., Li, Y. (2022) Substantial increase in heavy precipitation events preceded by moist heatwaves over China during 1961-2019. Frontiers in Environmental Science.
- Liu, J., Feng, X., Gu, X., Zhang, J., Slater, L.J., Kong, D. (2022) Detection and attribution of human influence on the global diurnal temperature range decline..
- Phillips, C.B., Masteller, C., Slater, L., Dunne, K., Francalanci, S., Lanzoni, S., Merritts, D., Lajeunesse, E., Jerolmack., D.J. (2022) Threshold constraints on the size, shape and stability of alluvial rivers. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.
- Slater, L.J., Huntingford, C., Pywell, R.F., Redhead, J.W. and Kendon, E.J., (2022) Resilience of UK crop yields to compound climate change,. Earth System Dynamics, 13(3): 1377-1396.
- Tosunoglu, F., Slater, L.J. (2022) Decreasing flood hazard evaluated in Turkey using non-stationary models. River Research and Applications.
- Wang, L., Gu, X., Gulakhmadov, A., Li, J., Slater, L., Zhang, Q., Luo, M., Ren, G., Kong, D., Lai, Y., and Liu, J. (2022) An analysis of translation distance of tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific. Journal of Climate.
- Wang, L., Nie, R., Slater, L.J., Xu, Z., Guan, D. and Yang, Y. (2022) Education can improve response to flash floods. Science, 377(6613): 1391-1392.
- Yin, J., Slater, L., Gu, L., Liao, Z., Guo, S. and Gentine, P. (2022) Global Increases in Lethal Compound Heat Stress: Hydrological Drought Hazards under Climate Change. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(18). e2022GL100880.
- Yu, X., Gu, X., Kong, D., Zhang, Q., Cao, Q., Slater, L., Ren, G., Luo, M., Li, J., Liu, J., Cheng, J., Li, Y. (2022) Asymmetrical shift toward less light and more heavy precipitation in an urban agglomeration of East China: Intensification by urbanization. Geophysical Research Letters.
- Brunner, M., Slater, L.J., Tallaksen, L., Clark, M. (2021) Challenges in modeling and predicting floods and droughts: A review. WIREs Water.
- Dwyer, G.K., Cummings, C.R., Rice, S.P., Lancaster, J., Downes, B., Slater, L., Lester, R.E. (2021) Using fractals to describe ecologically relevant patterns in distributions of large rocks in streams. Water Resources Research, 57(7 e2021WR029796).
- Green, D., O'Donnell, E., Johnson, M., Slater, L.J., Thorne, C., Zheng, S., Ka Shun Chan, F. (2021) Green infrastructure: the future of urban flood risk management? WIREs Water.
- Lancaster, J., Rice, S., Slater, L.J., Lester, R.E., Downes, B.J. (2021) Hydrological controls on oviposition habitat are associated with egg-laying phenology of some caddisflies. Freshwater Biology.
- Lees, T., Buechel, M., Anderson, B., Slater, L., Reece, S., Coxon, G., and Dadson, S. (2021) Benchmarking Data-Driven Rainfall-Runoff Models in Great Britain: A comparison of LSTM-based models with four lumped conceptual models. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
- Li, C., Gu, X., Bai, W., Slater, L.J., Li, J., Kong, D., Liu, J., Li, Y. (2021) Asymmetric response of short- and long-duration dry spells to warming during the warm-rain season over Eastern Monsoon China. Journal of Hydrology.
- Slater, L.J., Anderson, B., Buechel, M., Dadson, S., Han, S., Harrigan, S., Kelder, T., Kowal, K., Lees, T., Matthews, T., Murphy, C. and Wilby, R.L. (2021) Nonstationary weather and water extremes: a review of methods for their detection, attribution, and management. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25(7): 3897-3935.
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G., Archfield, S., Faulkner, D., Lamb, R., Khouakhi, A., Yin, J. (2021) Global changes in 20-year, 50-year and 100-year river floods. Geophysical Research Letters.
- Xiong, J., Yin, J., Guo, S., Slater, L. (2021) Continuity of terrestrial water storage variability and trends across mainland China monitored by the GRACE and GRACE-Follow on satellites. Journal of Hydrology.
- Kelder, T., Müller, M., Slater, L.J., Marjoribanks, T., Wilby, R., Prudhomme, C., Bohlinger, P., Ferranti, L. and Nipen, T. (2020) Using UNSEEN trends to detect decadal changes in 100-year precipitation extremes. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
- Piégay, H., Arnaud, F., Belletti, B., Bertrand, M., Bizzi, S., Carbonneau, P., Dufour, S., Liebault, F., Ruiz-Villanueva, V. and Slater, L.J. (2020) Remotely Sensed Rivers in the Anthropocene: State of the Art and Prospects. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45(1): 157-188.
- Berghuijs, W.R., Harrigan, S., Molnar, P., Slater. L.J. and Kirchner, J.W. (2019) The relative importance of different flood‐generating mechanisms across Europe. Water Resources Research.
- Courty, L., Wilby, R., Hillier, J. and Slater, L.J. (2019) Intensity-Duration-Frequency curves at the global scale. Environmental Research Letters, 14(8). 084045.
- Khouakhi, A., Villarini, G., Zhang, W. and Slater, L.J. (2019) Seasonal predictability of high sea level frequency using ENSO patterns along the U.S. West Coast. Advances in Water Resources, 131.
- Neri, A., Villarini, G., Slater, L.J. and Napolitano, F. (2019) On the statistical attribution of the frequency of flood events across the U.S. Midwest. Advances in Water Resources, 127: 225-236.
- Slater, L.J., Khouakhi, A. and Wilby, R., (2019) River channel conveyance capacity adjusts to modes of climate variability. Nature Scientific Reports, 9. 12619.
- Slater, L.J., Thirel, G., Harrigan, S., Delaigue, O., Hurley, A., Khouakhi, A., Prodoscimi, I., Vitolo, C. and Smith, K. (2019) Using R in hydrology: a review of recent developments and future directions. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 23: 2939-2963.
- Lutz, S., Popp, A., van Emmerik, T., Gleeson, T., Kalaugher, L., Möbius, K., Mudde, T., Walton, B., Hut, R., Savenije, H., Slater, L.J., Solcerova, A., Stoof, C. and Zink, M. (2018) HESS Opinions: Science in today's media landscape – challenges and lessons from hydrologists and journalists. Hydrology and Earth System Science, 22(7).
- Neri, A., Villarini, G., Salvi, K.A., Slater, L. and Napolitano, F. (2018) On the decadal predictability of the frequency of flood events across the U.S. Midwest. International Journal of Climatology.
- Slater, L. and Villarini, G. (2018) Enhancing the Predictability of Seasonal Streamflow With a Statistical‐Dynamical Approach. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(13).
- Slater, L., Villarini, G. and Bradley, A. (2018) Evaluation of the skill of North-American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) Global Climate Models in predicting average and extreme precipitation and temperature over the continental USA. Climate Dynamics.
- Villarini, G. and Slater, L. (2018) Examination of Changes in Annual Maximum Gauge Height in the Continental United States Using Quantile Regression. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 23(3).
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G. (2017) Evaluating the drivers of seasonal streamflow rates in the U.S. Midwest, Water (MDPI). 9, 695.
- Slater, L.J., Wilby, R.L. (2017) Measuring the changing pulse of rivers (Perspective article), Science, 357(6351), pp. 552.
- Zhang, W., Villarini, G., Slater, L.J., Vecchi, G., Bradley, A.A. (2017) Improved ENSO Forecasting using Bayesian Updating and the North American Multi Model Ensemble (NMME), Journal of Climate.
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G., Bradley, A.A. (2017) Weighting of NMME temperature and precipitation forecasts across Europe, Journal of Hydrology.
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G., Bradley, A., Vecchi G. (2017) A dynamical statistical framework for seasonal streamflow forecasting in an agricultural watershed, Climate Dynamics.
- Clubb, F.J., Mudd, S.M., Milodowski, D.T, Valters, D.A, Slater, L.J., Hurst, M.D., and Limaye, A.B.S. (2017) Geomorphic delineation of floodplains and terraces from slope and channel relief thresholds, Earth Surface Dynamics, 5(3), pp.369-385.
- Wilby, R.L., Clifford, N.J., De Luca, P., Harrigan, S., Hillier, J.K., Hodgkins, R., Johnson, M.F., Matthews, T.K.R., Murphy, C., Noone, S.J., Parry, S., Prudhomme, C., Rice, S.P., Slater, L.J., Smith, K.A., Wood, P.J. (2017) The "dirty dozen" of freshwater science: Detecting then reconciling hydrological data biases and errors, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Water.
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G. (2016) On the impact of gaps on trend detection in extreme streamflow time series, International Journal of Climatology.
- Slater, L.J., Villarini, G. (2016) Recent trends in U.S. flood risk, Geophysical Research Letters, 2016. 43(12), pp.428-436.
- Slater L.J. (2016) To what extent have changes in channel capacity contributed to flood hazard trends in England and Wales? Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 41(8), pp.1115-1128.
- Slater, L.J., Singer, M.B., Kirchner J.W. (2015) Hydrologic versus geomorphic drivers of trends in flood hazard, Geophysical Research Letters, 42(2), pp.370-376.
- Clubb, F.J., Mudd S.M., Milodowski D.T., Hurst M.D., Slater L.J. (2014) Objective extraction of channel heads from high resolution topographic data, Water Resources Research. 50(5), pp.4283-4304.
- Slater, L. J. and Singer, M.B. (2013) Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011, Geology, 41(5), pp.595-598.
