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Staff Profile

Dr Anna Murgatroyd

Lecturer in Hydrology

Background

Introduction

Anna holds a bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of Oxford. She completed her DPhil at the same university, titled 'Adaptive water resources planning to manage London's water supply'. Using water system modelling software, emissions driven river flow sequences, and water demand forecasts, Anna examined the vulnerability of the existing London water supply system to different sources of uncertainty, and evaluated the success of new supply infrastructure, demand management schemes, operating policies and regulatory rules under future scenarios of change. The three methodological planning frameworks developed as part of her doctoral research are designed to build water supply resilience to uncertain future conditions.

Anna previously held the position of the Oxford Water Network Coordinator and was responsible for organising seminars and networking events, building relationships with external partners, and engaging with early career researchers.

Supervision (PhD)

Current PhD opportunities

Exploring the role of UK drainage catchments in managing water levels

Award summary: 100% fees covered, and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £20,780 (2025/26 UKRI rate). Additional project costs will also be provided.

Overview: Low-lying areas across England depend on complex networks of drains, rivers, and pumps to manage water levels. Without this system, flooding would surge, harming wetlands, wildlife, and valuable farmland. These drainage catchments perform vital roles: protecting homes, sustaining ecosystems, and enabling farming. Managing this water is difficult because our understanding of how water moves through these areas is incomplete. We lack clarity on their sensitivity to extreme weather or how water users impact each other. This uncertainty makes planning challenging, especially as climate change brings more severe floods and droughts. Robust evidence of how these systems function and how they'll change is crucial for preparing for climate impacts and ensuring flood defences remain effective. This PhD project will advance our understanding by focusing on complex drainage areas like the Fens and Romney Marshes. It will conduct a novel, system-wide assessment of existing data and literature to identify critical knowledge gaps. A conceptual ‘systems-of-systems’ framework will be developed using data, stakeholder interviews, and computational modelling. This work will produce the evidence necessary for better management and adaptation, helping to plan for flood and drought events to minimise crop losses, damage, and biodiversity reductions.

About the project: This project uses an interdisciplinary methodology, integrating social and physical sciences to comprehensively understand England's low-lying drainage catchments. The research focuses on four key activities:

  1. Evidence Gathering: This stage collects qualitative and quantitative data. We will review grey literature (e.g., IDB and government reports) and conduct semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including IDBs, the Environment Agency, water companies, and local communities, to understand operational practices and governance. Quantitative data will be sourced from national monitoring networks (gauges, rainfall) and local operational data (pumping stations).
  2. Systems Dynamics Mapping and Modelling: The evidence will inform a conceptual ‘systems-of-systems’ model. An iterative modelling process will explore vulnerabilities and feedback between hydrological processes, infrastructure, and social actors. Stakeholder input will ensure the model's practical relevance under future climate scenarios.
  3. Embedded Learning: The student will undertake placements with the Environment Agency and the British Geological Survey (BGS). This ensures the research is grounded in operational realities and provides hands-on experience in catchment management and advanced hydrological modelling.
  4. Adaptive Planning: Insights from modelling will be translated into practical adaptation strategies. Scenario-based planning will test flood and drought interventions, creating a toolkit to support evidence-based decision-making for future climate uncertainty.

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Integrated Food and Water Planning for the Blue Nile Basin

Award summary: This project is unfunded. Self funded students only.

Overview: Providing food security is one of this century’s most important challenges and can be affected by a range of factors, including global crises such as pandemics, or conflict, and disruptions to prices. Analysis of current and future impacts from climate variability and extreme weather events on crop production has been at the forefront of planning resilient and sustainable food systems. In increasingly climate and water stressed regions, a reliable supply of good quality water to agricultural areas is recognised as a key requirement for secure food systems. However, these interactions are not captured in current models. Crop models can estimate rainfed and irrigated crop yields, but they do not account for fluctuations in water availability from water supply systems. Similarly, water systems modelling often neglects important temporal dynamics of agricultural systems, often simplifying crop water requirements, efficiencies of irrigated systems and return flows to the hydrological network. Significant knowledge gaps remain on how climate and hydrological scenarios may affect agricultural productivity and water supply for both domestic and non-public use, which is likely to stall adaptation in climate-vulnerable countries.

About the project: This project will develop a novel framework for integrated water and food system planning, with a focus on the transboundary dynamics of food and water security. Critically, it will:

  1. Establish a new integrated modelling framework for integrated water and food system planning.
  2. Quantify how climate and hydrological scenarios impact agricultural productivity in transboundary river basin systems.
  3. Identify, model and evaluate agricultural and water system development policies, with a focus on sustainability, resilience to climate change and impact on downstream riparians.

The model and techniques developed in the project will be applied to the Blue Nile Basin, with the aim of understanding the interplay between water and food security in the key riparian nations along the Blue Nile to guide resilient and cooperative water, food, and trade policy in a changing climate. Because climate change may result in significant changes in flows in the Blue Nile and its tributaries, cooperative adaptive management of Blue Nile infrastructure and agricultural development is especially important to ensure a fair distribution of benefits between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. In the face of both climate and environmental change, policymakers in each country must consider the implications of any future water infrastructure and agricultural developments, as well as on the objectives of all three riparian countries.

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Research

Areas of expertise

Anna's main research interests include water resources planning and management, climate impacts analysis, global food systems resilience, and applications of Decision making under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU) methods. 

  • Water resources planning and management
  • Climate change impact analysis
  • Global food systems
  • Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU)

Links

Recent and ongoing projects

Teaching

Modules

  • ENG1008 - Programming in Python
  • CEG3503 - Hydrosystems Engineering
  • CEG8526 - Hydrosystems Modelling and Management

Dissertation supervision

I enjoy supervising students who want to research changes in hydrology, water security and reslience to extreme weather events. I have a range of dissertation project-ideas co-created with colleagues working in the Water Group. Reach out if you want to find out more! A selection of past dissertations I have supervised:

MEng and BEng:

  • Impact of climate change on Las Vegas’ water supply
  • The impact of climate change on water reservoirs in California: Assessing future water security and management strategies
  • Optimising reservoir operations to create drought resilience in the Northeast of England
  • A machine learning approach to enable early drought warning in water supply systems
  • Impact of land use change on water resources in North East England
  • Quantification of future coincident and consecutive drought risk in the UK
  • Exploring stress times of compound stress for the water and energy sectors

MSc:

  • Assessing school exposure to flood hazards under current and future climate scenarios in Semarang, Indonesia
Publications