Staff Profile: Jason Dortch

I have a broad interest in surficial processes, their rates and magnitude, how they affect topographic change, and feedback into the magnitudes and frequency of hazards.  While landscape evolution is inherently interesting to me, hazards represent a connection between surficial processes to the human and built environments.  Changes to topography such as increased channel and slope steepness (erosional) and accumulation of sediments (depositional) have significant impacts on mass wasting events (frequency, size, runout) and the severity of flooding (flood height, infiltration capacity, sediment evacuation).  To quantitively describe (geomorphometry) and numerically model these processes I rely on GIS, MATLAB, TUFLOW, and have plans to learn D-CLAW.  Moreover, I utilize Luminescence and Cosmogenic dating to obtain past rates of processes while simultaneously leveraging remotely sensed imagery (LiDAR point clouds) and monitoring data (seismic impact plates) to quantify modern baselines of sediment transport and storm response.  This is reflected in the Landscape Evolution and Mapping Team and Surface Processes and Modelling Laboratory objectives where our team pursues a broad understanding of how surface processes constructively or destructively interfere in response to sever storm events.