Matthew Pitt

Background

Before Cranfield Matthew gained his BSc and MSc at University of Birmingham in Geology and Hydrogeology respectively. After that he spent a year out of the industry, and then moved to the Environment Agency.

Matthew spent 4 years in the East Midlands region as a hydrologist working on river and reservoir resource protection and environmental permit management. Whilst working as a hydrologist, he also worked with the flood forecasting data team internal to the Environment Agency for flood barrier deployment on the Severn.

Current activities

Matthew is undertaking his PhD in the Cranfield Water Science Institute, focusing on soil infiltration. The focus of the PhD is to understand how different soil management schemes such as cover cropping can alter infiltration rates on soils in the Hertfordshire county that overlay the Upper Chalk aquifer. The key focus is whether there is a noticeable improvement from selected schemes compared to traditional methods, and whether a longer timescale of deployment aids water movement through the soil.