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Staff Profile

Dr Seb Pitman

Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography

Background

Summary

I am a coastal geomorphologist who focuses on evolution, processes, and hazards at the coast. I am particularly interested in how the coast responds to short, sharp events such as earthquakes or storms.

Background

  • Lecturer (2021-2024) / Senior Lecturer (2024 - ) in Physical Geography
  • Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2018 - 2021)
  • Coastal Risk Analyst, Royal National Lifeboat Institution (2017)

Education

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching, University of Canterbury (2021)
  • PhD, Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Southampton (2017)
  • MRes, Applied Marine Science, Plymouth University (2013)
  • BSc Geography with Ocean Science, Plymouth University (2012)
Research

Current Projects:


Stronger Shores: Modelling wave attenuation by ecosystems [2025 - 2026, £226,000]


This research grant focuses on using numerical modeling to estimate the wave attenuation provided by different marine ecosystem types, such as kelp, seagrass, and native oysters, to help prevent coastal erosion and reduce flood risks. The project will develop spatial models to predict how these ecosystems distribute and function under future climate conditions. By integrating wave energy data with empirical estimates of wave attenuation, the research will determine the optimal placement and design of nature-based solutions for coastal protection, helping to guide effective management strategies and restoration efforts.


StormFlux: Effect of storm Babet on pollution fluxes from remobilised mine wastes
NERC Urgency Grant NE/Y006518/1 [2024 - 2025, £77,500]


Historical wastes disposed in coastal zones are increasingly vulnerable to remobilisation via erosion and seawater inundation including ~2000 Ha of unprotected mining wastes dumped along the Northumbrian River Basin District Coast. Storm Babet, 18-21 Oct 2023, was highly unusual in that prolonged easterly winds caused extraordinarily high waves averaging >4m for six consecutive high tides. This led to mine wastes on the NE coastline being affected by extensive seawater flooding and erosion. This project aims to use Seaham Beach, a coastal waste site on the Co. Durham coast, as a case study location to explore the impact of damaging storms on coastal waste sites in terms of geomorphological behaviour, and potential pollution fluxes into adjacent ecosystems from the remobilised material. There is now an urgent need to sample and analyse this freshly exposed waste, alongside further measurements of geomorphic change, to determine (1) the pollution potential and geochemistry of the newly exposed waste, (2) the absolute flux of contaminant metals to the North Sea that occurred during Storm Babet, and (3) the short- to medium- term impacts of the storm event on adjacent beach environments. Given the rapidly changing geomorphic and geochemical nature of these beach-deposited wastes (e.g. as newly exposed wastes oxidise), there is a pressing need to undertake this research now, while the most significant changes to the waste, and impacts from its mobilisation, are most evident. This information will help inform local and national stakeholders on the potential behaviour of similar unprotected coastal wastes and their possible impacts on nearshore marine communities. More generally the data will assess how sediment erosion, in response to more intense storm events due to climate change, may lead to increasing waste mobilisation; this information is vital for re-evaluation of shoreline management plans, including consideration of improved sea defences.


Immediate jökulhlaup (glacier outburst flood) impacts in a recently decoupled proglacial meltwater system, Skeiðarárjökull, SE Iceland.
NERC Urgency Grant NE/X002020/1 [2022 - 2023, £52,353]


This project seeks to understand the impact of jökulhlaups (glacial lake outburst floods) on landform and sedimentary assemblages within proglacial lakes and assess the impact of these lakes on downstream proglacial fluvial system response of Skeiðarársandur. The project team consists of researchers from Newcastle University and project partner from the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO).


Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching:


GEO1023: Environment and Society

GEO2137:Key Methods for Physical Geographers

GEO2233: Humans vs Nature: Netherlands Overseas Field Course

GEO3165: Coastal Environments

GEO3099: Dissertation


Postgraduate Teaching:


GEO8020: Research Dissertation in Environmental Geoscience

GEO8026: Data Analysis for Geoscience


Publications