Dr Keith Weatherhead
Reader in Climate Change Adaptation
Location: Building 52, Cranfield campus
E: k.weatherhead@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1234 758368
Environmental Science and Technology
Current activities
Dr Keith Weatherhead undertakes research on climate change adaption, the impacts of socio-economic and climate change on future water demand and resource availability, and water resources for irrigation.
He has contributed to methodologies for predicting future water demand and for assessing water needs for abstraction license allocation, and to the improvement of abstraction licensing policy and legislation in England. He has led teams modelling climate change impacts in England, Sri Lanka and Spain, and assessing the potential adaptations in the irrigated agriculture and irrigated sports turf sectors.
His current research includes assessing current and future water needs for agriculture; the potential for water trading, on-farm reservoirs and collaborative water management; and the impacts of uncertainty on adaptation.
He is a chartered civil engineer and chartered environmental engineer. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, and the Higher Education Academy.
Clients
- EPSRC and BBSRC
- The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
- The Department for International Development
- The Environment Agency
- The European Commission
- Commercial businesses in the UK and internationally.
Background
From a farming background, Dr Keith Weatherhead graduated in Engineering Science and Economics from Oxford University, before undertaking VSO in Ghana. He worked for international consultants in water resources and irrigation development, particularly in Indonesia, qualifying as a chartered civil engineer. He joined Cranfield University in 1981, on the Silsoe and then Cranfield campuses, gaining his PhD on water resource management as a staff member in 2001.
Keith continued to develop his interests in agriculture and water, working in irrigation and water resources internationally as well as in the UK. He has worked in Africa and Asia, and on crops including rice, tea, sugar, bananas, potatoes and vegetables, as well as sports turf. He has been chair of the UK Irrigation Association, and an adviser to UK government departments and the Environment Agency as well as commercial clients.
He is now working on climate change impacts and adaptation and water resources in the water supply and food production sectors, in the UK and internationally.
