Dr Stephanie Bond

Impact Translation Fellow

Researcher Dr Stephanie Bond is supporting iCASP with her GIS and hydrological modelling skills. Her research centres on catchment hydrology, focusing on optimising land management for improved flood and drought resilience, carbon sequestration, water quality, and biodiversity, alongside farming and leisure activities. Steph is a Board member of the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme which seeks to address climate and flood-related challenges using a catchment-based approach.

She is particularly interested in:

  • The use of hillslope-based forms of Natural Flood Management, especially land cover as a form of surface roughness for ‘slowing the flow’
  • The influence of land cover on soil properties and their hydrological function
  • Use of GIS and hydrological modelling to quantify potential influence of land cover change on downstream flood risk
  • Working with land managers, policy makers, flood-affected communities and partner organisations to practically improve catchment resilience through informed decision making

Steph has a PhD from the University of Leeds which looked at how season and management influence how water drains away in upland organo-mineral (OM) soil grasslands.

Key findings of Stephanie’s PhD research are:-

  • Overland flow is common in the upland OM soil grasslands she studied (occurring up to 60% of the time)
  • Grassland vegetation can significantly ‘slow the flow’, altering flood peaks by between -5.5% to +2.2% as the result of seasonal change. It can also reduce flood peaks by up to 42% using ‘conservation management’ compared with ‘high-intensity’ management.