Adjunct Professor

Since 2018, Professor Roy Sidle has been the Director of the Mountain Societies Research Institute and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, at the University of Central Asia, Khorog, Tajikistan. Prior to commencing in this position, Roy spent four years as Professor of Geography and Director of the Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Roy’s extensive academic experience has included work in five continents and leadership roles with US EPA’s Ecosystems Research Division, Appalachian State University, Kyoto University (Japan), IGBP-LOICZ (Holland), National University of Singapore, USDA Forest Service Research, and University of British Columbia.

Qualifications

PhD, The Pennsylvania State University; M.Sc. (Soil Science/Water Quality), University of Arizona; B.Sc. (Hydrology), University of Arizona.

Teaching areas

• Dynamic mountain environments
• Forest hydrology
• Natural hazards
• Catchment Processes and management
• Introduction to earth and environmental sciences
• Physical hydrology
• Sustainable development and environmental evaluation

Research areas

• Earth Surface Processes
• Natural hazards
• Catchment hydrology
• Environmental science
• Sustainable land use and development
• Landslides
• Hydrological modelling

Memberships

• American Geophysical Union (elected fellow)
• European Geosciences Union
• International Association of Hydrological Sciences
• International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO)
• Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)
• Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering (SABO Gakkai)

Awards

• Grant from European Union on addressing climate change in Afghanistan through sustainable energy and ecosystem management (2018-2022)
• Two related grants from World Bank on “Catchment characterization in the Vakhsh basin upstream of Nurek Reservoir, Tajikistan” (2019-2021) with Hydroc (Germany) and Griffith University
• Foreign partner on European Commission grant OPERANDUM, Open-air laboratories for nature-based solutions to manage environmental risk (2018-2021)
• Awarded Distinguished Professor position, Tokyo Univ. of Agric. & Tech., of Global Innovation Research, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan (2017-continuing)
• Several grants from CSIRO to support research on erosion and gully modelling in the Burdekin and Bowen catchments (2015-2018)
• Grant from SEQ Water, “Seqwater Erosion and Sediment Control Investigations” (2017-2018)
• Grant from National University of Colombia – Medellin to offer landslide and mountain hydrology short courses in two locations and conduct collaborative research (2017)
• Hydrological Sciences Distinguished Lecture, “Hydrogeomorphic Processes – the Challenge of Scaling’, Asian Oceania Geosciences Soc., Singapore (2017)
• International Collaborative Research Grant from Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, to investigate if earthquake fissures affect landslides and sediment movement (2017-2019)
• Grant from the Sunshine Coast Council to support a Ph.D. student’s research on natural hazards and adaptation to climate change in coastal areas of Queensland (2016-2018)
• Australia Research Council Linkage Grant, “Innovative global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) – Enabled technology for monitoring regular and flooded flows in Australian waters” (co-Chief Investigator. 2015-2019)
• Recipient of the 2014 Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources (JSHWR) International Award for “significant contributions to progress in the field of hydrology and water resources and valuable devotion to collaboration with Japanese and Asian researchers”, Miyazaki, Japan.

Key Research Publications

Sidle, RC & Ochiai, H 2006, ‘Landslides: Processes, Prediction, and Land Use’, Geophysical Union, Water Resources Monograph, no. 18, Washington, D.C.

Sidle, RC 1992, ‘A theoretical model of the effects of timber harvesting on slope stability’, Water Resources Research, vol. 28; 1897-1910.

Gomi, T Sidle, RC & Richardson, JS 2002, ‘Understanding processes and downstream linkages of headwater systems’, BioScience, vol. 52: 905-916.

Sidle, RC, Ziegler, AD, Negishi, JN, Abdul Rahim, N, Siew, R & Turkelboom, F 2006, ‘Erosion processes in steep terrain – Truths, myths, and uncertainties related to forest management in Southeast Asia’, Forest Ecology and Management, vol. 224: 199-225.

Sidle, RC & Ziegler, AD 2012, ‘The dilemma of mountain roads’. Nature Geoscience, vol. 5: 437-438.

Sidle, RC, Benson, WH, Carriger, JF & Kamai, T 2013, ‘A broader perspective on ecosystem sustainability: consequences for decision-making’, PNAS, vol. 110: 9201-9208.

Sidle, RC & Bogaard, TA 2016, ‘Dynamic earth system and ecological controls on rainfall-initiated landslides’, Earth-Science Reviews, vol. 159: 275-291.

Sidle. RC, Gomi, T, Loaiza Usuga, JC & Jarihani, B 2017, ‘Hydrogeomorphic processes and scaling issues in the continuum from soil pedons to catchments’, Earth-Science Reviews, 175:75-96.

Koci, J, Sidle, RC, Jarihani, B & Cashman, MJ 2020, ‘Linking hydrological connectivity to gully erosion in savanna rangelands tributary to the Great Barrier Reef using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry’, Land Degradation & Development, 31: 20-36.

Sidle, RC 2020, ‘Dark clouds over the Silk Road: Challenges facing mountain environments in Central Asia’, Sustainability, 12, 9467.

Sidle, RC 2021, ‘Strategies for smarter hydrological models: incorporating scaling and better process representation’, Geoscience Letters, 8: 24

Contact Professor Roy Sidle via email roy.sidle@ucentralasia.org.