Laurence Hawker

Laurence Hawker is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. His work focuses on developing flood models, supporting disaster response and developing elevation and population datasets.

Currently, I work on a number of projects developing and improving hydrodynamic models in data-sparse regions, namely in Africa (with a focus on Congo Basin and Mozambique) and Vietnam. Recently, along with several co-authors, I have published a 30m resolution global map of elevation with forests and buildings removed called FABDEM. In my research I use remote sensing, hydrodynamic models and work closely in an interdisciplinary team to develop a household survey. In my PhD I worked on an intermediate scale flood model of the Mekong Delta, quantifying river-floodplain connectivity and the simulation of plausible versions of global digital elevation models (DEM) in floodplains.