Chris Hackney
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drchrishackney.bsky.social
Chris Hackney
@drchrishackney.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.7K following 70 posts
Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at Newcastle University. Vice chair of the British Society for Geomorphology. Researching sand mining, river morophodynamics, microplastics and deltas ⛏️🏞️
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Chris Hackney
springer.springernature.com
This study from 'Biological Invasions' shows invasive non-native plants indirectly destabilise riverbanks by suppressing native vegetation, increasing bare ground, and reducing winter shear strength by around 30%. bit.ly/4qJilB3 @zarahpattison.bsky.social @drchrishackney.bsky.social #bioinvasions
Biological Invasions
January 16, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
bsg-geomorph.bsky.social
🚨 4 days left to enter 🚨 submit your photos and drawings of geomorphological features by midnight on Friday tagging us and the tag #BSGAC25 to win up to £100 🥇 last years winners and runners up for inspiration ⬇️
January 6, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
jahardwick.bsky.social
My third PhD chapter has just been published, we assessed the impact of Himalayan balsam invasion on riverbank stability. A massive thanks to @zarahpattison.bsky.social @drchrishackney.bsky.social @dralanlaw.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Invasive non-native plants indirectly destabilise riverbanks - Biological Invasions
Invasive Non-Native Plant species (INNPs) establishment along rivers continues to accelerate globally, with potential consequences for riverbank stability, ecosystem functions and services. Riverbank ...
link.springer.com
January 7, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
newcastleuni.bsky.social
A study co-led by our experts highlights how sand mining is endangering the normal functioning of the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, potentially affecting 23 million people.

Read more here. ⬇

https://bit.ly/47V2Eza

#WeAreNCL
View of the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia with several boats, including a floating restaurant, amidst a calm water setting.
November 16, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
ncl-geography.bsky.social
Important work here from @drchrishackney.bsky.social and colleagues -
newcastleuni.bsky.social Newcastle University @newcastleuni.bsky.social · Nov 16
A study co-led by our experts highlights how sand mining is endangering the normal functioning of the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, potentially affecting 23 million people.

Read more here. ⬇

https://bit.ly/47V2Eza

#WeAreNCL
View of the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia with several boats, including a floating restaurant, amidst a calm water setting.
November 17, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
bsg-geomorph.bsky.social
The Junior Deputy Chair (JDC) assists the Chair and Senior Deputy Chair with the day to day running of the society. The JDC is an elected one-year role, with the incumbent assuming the role of Senior Deputy Chair in the subsequent year, and then the role of Chair in the year after.
July 29, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
bsg-geomorph.bsky.social
Outreach Vice Chair is responsible for coordinating the Outreach Committee’s activities, including promoting geomorphology to the public and encouraging the teaching of geomorphology at schools, colleges, universities, and to the wider public. The position is held for a three-year term.
July 29, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
bsg-geomorph.bsky.social
⏰ We are still looking to fill the positions of Junior Deputy Chair and Outreach Vice Chair on our Executive Committee starting in September. Please get in touch if you are interested in applying! Brief descriptions for the roles can be found below ⬇️
July 29, 2025 at 2:46 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
China rare earths: The BBC visits the world's mining capital for the metals - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
China rare earths: The BBC visits the world's mining capital for the metals - BBC News
The price of the rare earth metals the world buys from China
www.bbc.co.uk
July 8, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
areajournal.bsky.social
📢June Issue of Area📢

This latest issue pulls together the fully #OpenAccess 'Rivers as Borders' Special Section alongside papers on topics including de-development, AI, and diary methods.

Read all the papers here: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14754762... #geosky
A graphic showing the title page of Area on a black background with a large 'A' on the right hand page. On the left hand page are seven tiles with the names of papers in a Special Section titled 'Rivers as Borders'. The papers are: 1) Rivers as borders? Navigating in-between the tensions of water-state-society geographies Rebekka Kanesu, Vanessa Lamb, Eva McGrath 2) Median line: A century of border violence and the alluvial geopolitics of the Evros/Meriç/Maritsa River border Ifor Duncan, Stefanos Levidis 3) Slow violence on the Yarmouk River: Encounters from the river-border environments Muna Dajani 4) Migrating sands: Refocusing transboundary flows from water to sediment C. R. Hackney 5) Crossing riverborderscapes and a view from in-between: Passenger ferries in South West England Eva McGrath, Richard Yarwood, Nichola Harmer 6) Liquid lines: Exploring the Moselle River between France, Luxembourg and Germany Rebekka Kanesu 7) Caring for the river-border: Struggles and opportunities along the Salween River-border Vanessa Lamb A graphic showing the title page of Area on a black background with a large 'A' on the right hand page. On the left hand page are eight tiles with the names of papers in the issue. The papers are: 1) On undevelopment and de-development: A geographical critique on perpetual growth and resource-based accumulation Gertjan Wijburg 2) Place, institutional spatiality, and the localisation of financial calculative practices Leqian Yu 3) Claim-making in hydrosocial spaces: The temporality of displacement around Kenya's Masinga Dam reservoir Arne Rieber, Benson Nyaga 4) Deliberative approaches to the climate crisis: Adapting Climathons for rural communities Philippa Simmonds, Damian Maye, Julie Ingram, Abigail Gardner, Sofia Raseta 5) Ethnographic fingerprints: Examining co-participation, positionality, and interpersonal relationships in diary method Julius Baker 6) A whole island approach to scoping renewable energy sites and yields Ben Watt, Robert L. Wilby 7) Past, present, future: The RGS-IBG political geography research group within British political geography Daniel Hammett 8) Visualising an undergraduate geography field class using generative AI: Intent, expectations and surprises about the racial depiction of students Terence Day, James Esson
June 30, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
bsg-geomorph.bsky.social
We also announce this year's photo competition winners: congratulations @thapasara.bsky.social, Stephen Tooth. @drchrishackney.bsky.social 🥇🥈🥉
June 20, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
flohalstead.bsky.social
Based on work in Vietnam, we explore how place-based, intergenerational storytelling can drive real momentum and sustain engagement.

@parsnipsparsons.bsky.social @bedforms.bsky.social @drchrishackney.bsky.social @lisa-jones7.bsky.social, Thu Vo, Hue Le, Anh Nguyen, Alison Lloyd Williams
June 23, 2025 at 8:22 AM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
This means they provide more friction and resistance to the flows of water in the river, and change the dynamics of suspended sediment flowing over them.
June 3, 2025 at 3:33 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
In this new work we quantify the geometry of a range of natural dunes and bedforms impacted by sediment extraction along the Mekong River in Cambodia. Anthropogenic bedforms are larger and steeper than natural sand dunes.
June 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
🚨New paper alert 🚨 Ever wondered how sand extraction may be altering the bed of sandy rivers? How these changes influence flow and sediment transport? Well wonder no more!

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
June 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
Test match special back on whilst marking - must be summer!
a man in a white shirt and tie is standing on a cricket field with his arms in the air .
ALT: a man in a white shirt and tie is standing on a cricket field with his arms in the air .
media.tenor.com
May 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
areajournal.bsky.social
New Special Section in Area!

'Rivers as Borders', edited by Rebekka Kanesu, @drvanessalamb.bsky.social & Eva McGrath, features 6 #OpenAccess papers on river-borders from the Yarmouk and Salween to the Moselle and Torridge.

Read all papers here ⬇️
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1... #geo
Black tile with a quotation taken from the introduction to this Special Section on 'Rivers as Borders' by Kanesu, Lamb & McGrath (2025): "As dynamic, multidimensional moving environments, rivers are not suitable for rigidly defining and delimiting geographical space" Seven tiles on a black background listing the papers in this Special Section: 1) Rivers as borders? Navigating in-between the tensions of water-state-society geographies Rebekka Kanesu, Vanessa Lamb & Eva McGrath 2) Median line: A century of border violence and the alluvial geopolitics of the Evros/Meric/Maritsa River border Ifor Duncan & Stefanos Levidis 3) Slow violence on the Yarmouk River: Encounters form the river-border environments Muna Dajani 4) Migrating sands: Refocusing transboundary flows from water to sediment C.R. Hackney 5) Crossing riverborderscapes and a view from in-between: Passenger ferries in South West England Eva McGrath, Richard Yarwood & Nichola Harmer 6) Liquid lines: Exploring the Moselle River between France, Luxembourg and Germany Rebekka Kanesu 7) Caring for the river-border: Struggles and opportunities along the Salween River-border Vanessa Lamb
May 2, 2025 at 9:52 AM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a crowd .
ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a crowd .
media.tenor.com
April 29, 2025 at 3:41 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
Good good. Got to protect junior colleagues IP 😉
April 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
Shame you didn't see the no photos sign on the poster @geomorphicjosh.bsky.social
April 29, 2025 at 1:52 PM
drchrishackney.bsky.social
Booming factory growth in Vietnam is requiring more sand to be imported from its neighbours www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
Vietnam Is Running Out of Sand to Fuel an Economic Boom
A new crop of factories requires roads, and that means sand. To keep up, the country is importing from Cambodia on a massive scale
www.bloomberg.com
April 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
watershed-i.bsky.social
As the world constructs ever more buildings, we're destabilising rivers, lakes, deltas & loughs to gather the sand we need for all that concrete. What harm are we causing? How can we reduce that harm? Can we use alternative materials in concrete or reduce the amount of concrete we use?
Men mining sand by hand. This back breaking work, often undertaken by the world's poorest people, supplies the right consistency of sand needed to make concrete. Desert sand, for instance, is too smooth to be useful for building. Sand can be pounded into the right shape but that's an expensive process. So, instead, river beds, sea beds, estuaries, lake beds, are being dug for sand - harming wildlife, creating deeper water bodies more susceptible to algal blooms, & causing the erosion of banks, with the loss of people's homes & some of the world's finest farmland. This erosion encourages salt water ingress - making well water undrinkable.
April 17, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
watershed-i.bsky.social
'She mines sand at the Mwamphanzi River, even though she knows this makes the flooding worse.

"We don't have any other choice. Like today, I left early in the morning leaving children without even porridge"'.

The women mining sand to make our concrete:

www.context.news/socioeconomi...
Malawi's women sand miners trapped in climate change dilemma | Context by TRF
More women in Malawi turn to sand mining after drought, floods hit incomes but the practice makes land less resilient to disaster
www.context.news
April 17, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
coastalscoop.bsky.social
A beautiful morning setting up for today’s Young Coastal Scientists’ & Engineers’ Conference here at @newcastleuni.bsky.social Dove Marine Lab! We’re delighted to welcome 30 early career researchers and practitioners to our little corner of paradise!! @hassfacultyncl.bsky.social @sagencl.bsky.social
April 3, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Chris Hackney
joshwolstenholme.bsky.social
Interested in the role of sediment transport processes on increasing #flooding?

Our new preprint that systematically explores the role of #rainfall on amplifying flood hazard is out!

doi.org/10.21203/rs....

@floodskinner.games @drchrishackney.bsky.social Matt Perks & @bedforms.bsky.social
Flood hazard amplification by intra-event sediment transport
Rivers are dynamic, with channel size and shape adapting to fluctuations in water and sediment supplied from their upstream catchments. These changes directly affect flood conveyance capacity, yet sed...
doi.org
March 19, 2025 at 8:50 AM