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Professor Vladimir Nikora

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Professor Vladimir Nikora
Professor Vladimir Nikora
Professor Vladimir Nikora

FREng FRSE

Sixth Century Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics

About
Email Address
v.nikora@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 273830
School/Department
School of Engineering

Biography

2006 - Present

Professor, Sixth Century Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Leader of the Fluid Mechanics Research Group (2006-2024), School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen

1995 - 2006

Principal Scientist and Manager of the Hydrodynamics Group (2001-2006), Senior Scientist (1995-2001), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Christchurch, New Zealand

1985 - 1995

Deputy Director (Research, 1988-1995), Head of the Department of Channel Processes (1987-1995), Senior Scientist (1985-1987), Institute of Geophysics and Geology, Academy of Sciences, Republic of Moldova

1980 - 1985

Senior Scientist (1984-1985), Scientist (1983-1984), Research Assistant (1980-1983), Odessa Hydrometeorological Institute, Ukraine

  

Recent Awards and Distinctions 

2025  24th Harold Jan Schoemaker Award of IAHR

2025  Fellow of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) 

2021  EWRI/ASCE Best Technical Note Award

2019  Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

2019  7th M. Selim Yalin Lifetime Achievement Award of IAHR

2017  Hans Albert Einstein Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

2011  Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland

2010  Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

2010  EWRI/ASCE Best Technical Note Award

Qualifications

  • PhD in Engineering Hydraulics and Hydrology 
    1984 - State Hydrological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia 
  • MEng (Hons) in Engineering Hydrology 
    1978 - Odessa Hydrometeorological Institute, Ukraine 

External Memberships

  • Member of the Council of the International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and  Research (IAHR), 2017-2023
  • Secretary/Chair/Past-Chair/Member of the IAHR Committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation, 2001-2015.
  • Vice-Chair (2017-2021), Chair (2021-23), and Past Chair (since 2023) of the IAHR Committee on Fluid Mechanics.
  • Editor, IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research, 2011-2016.
  • Advisory Editor, IAHR Journal of Ecohydraulics, since 2016.
  • Associate Editor, IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research, since 2017.
  • Associate Editor, Water Resources Research (AGU), 2006-2011.
  • Associate Editor, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE), 2007-2011.
  • Member of Editorial Board, Acta Geophysica (Springer), since 2009.
  • Guest Editor, Acta Geophysica (Springer), 2006-2008.
  • Member of EPSRC Peer Review College.
  • PhD and Habilitation Committees: UWA/Perth (Australia); Paris-Saclay, INRAE-Lyon (France), Karlsruhe/KIT, Dresden/TUD (Germany); IIT-Kharagpur (India); Torino, Trento (Italy);  TU/Delft, Twente (the Netherlands); Auckland, Canterbury (New Zealand), NTNU/Trondheim (Norway); ETH/Zurich (Switzerland);  Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Herriot-Watt, Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick (UK).
  • Member of International and Organising Committees for a number of International Conferences and Workshops in water engineering, hydraulics, and fluid mechanics.
  • Reviewer for:

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Leverhulme Trust, and the Royal Society London, UK; NSF, USA; Marie Curie programmes; DFG, Germany; NSERC and Canada Research Chairs Programme, Canada; National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Organisations, Italy; Israel Science Foundation; National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research, Chile; Hong Kong Research Grants Council; and for over 20 major international journals in Hydraulics, Fluid Mechanics, Hydrology, Physics, Earth Sciences, and Ecology.
Research

Research Overview

My recent and current research interests comprise various topics of Environmental Fluid Mechanics with particular focus on:

  • Turbulence in open-channels, rivers, estuaries, and coastal areas
  • Benthic boundary layers, water-sediment interfaces, and sediment transport (cohesive/non-cohesive), including sand wave dynamics, turbulence-sediment interactions, erosion, re-suspension, flocculation, and bed particle dispersion
  • Flow-biota interactions and transport processes (periphyton, moss, mussels, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish)
  • Hydraulic resistance and channel stability in gravel-bed and sand-bed rivers
  • Overland flow hydrodynamics and soil erosion
  • Hydraulic instrumentation and measurement techniques
  • Channel networks, meandering and braided channels, granular surfaces, and Mars topography

Collaborations

Current

  • INRAE (Lyon, France):  hydrodynamics of shallow flows
  • Leibnitz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology (Germany): open-channel turbulence and flow-biota interactions
  • University College London (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
  • University of Southampton (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
  • University of Glasgow (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
  • National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA, New Zealand):  flow-biota interactions, sediment transport, turbulence
  • Tsinghua University (China): open-channel flow, turbulence, flow-biota interactions
  • Hohai University (China): open-channel flow turbulence, river confluences 
  • Wuhan University (China): sediment transport, channel dynamics
  • Sichuan University (China): braided rivers, channel dynamics
  • Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, Poland):  sediment transport, river turbulence, and dispersion
  • Polytechnic University of Turin (Torino, Italy): open-channel turbulence

Past

  • CNRS and University Claude Bernard (Lyon, France):  flow-biota interactions
  • Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany):  rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, turbulence, and sediment transport
  • University of Braunschweig (Germany):  rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics,  and sediment transport
  • University of Dresden (Germany): rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, turbulence, and sediment transport
  • Technical University of Milano (Italy):  sediment transport and turbulence
  • University of Padova (Italy): sediment transport and turbulence

Funding and Grants

2021-2025: "Secondary currents in turbulent flows over rough walls”, EPSRC, UK (V. Nikora, S. Cameron,  £735K), a part of a collaborative research program with the University of Southampton, University College London, and University of Glasgow.

2020-2023: “RIver flow regulation, fish BEhaviour and Status” (RIBES), EC, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 (V. Nikora, S. Cameron, B. Scott, S. Martin, €305K), a part of a collaborative international research program led by the Politecnico Di Torino.

2019-2020: “Field stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (FSPIV) system for high-resolution in-situ studies of freshwater and marine ecosystems”, NERC, UK (S. Cameron, V. Nikora, B. Scott, C. Soulsby, £289K).

2014-2018: "Bed friction in rough-bed free-surface flows: a theoretical framework, roughness regimes, and quantification", EPSRC, UK (V. Nikora, S. Cameron, £526.5K), a part of a collaborative research project with the Cardiff University.

2013-2016: "Hydrodynamic transport in ecologically critical heterogeneous interfaces" (HYTECH), EC, Marie Curie Initial Training Networks FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN (V. Nikora, S. Cameron, C. Gibbins, €597K), a part of a collaborative international research program led by the University of Padova.

2010-2014: "High-resolution numerical and experimental studies of turbulence-induced sediment erosion and near-bed transport", EPSRC, UK (V. Nikora, S. Cameron, £438.5K) and DFG, Germany  (G. Jirka, M. Uhlmann, J. Fröhlich, W. Rodi).

2008-2011: "Biophysics of flow-plants interactions in aquatic systems", The Leverhulme Trust, UK (V. Nikora, M. O'Hare, S. Cameron, £216.4K).

2002-2006: "Waves in Submerged Particulate Beds", Marsden Research Grant (New Zealand), S. Coleman, V. Nikora, B. Melville, D. Goring, NZ$560K.

2002-2006: "Stochastic Mechanics of Soil Erosion", Marsden Research Grant (New Zealand), A. Sidorchuk, V. Nikora, NZ$585K.

2000-2004: "Granular surfaces: structure, organization, memory", Marsden Research Grant (New Zealand), V. Nikora, D. Goring, NZ$405K.

1997-2001: "Eddy cascade, burst phenomena, and intermittency in fully developed turbulent flows with irregular rough beds", Marsden Research Grant (New Zealand), V. Nikora, D. Goring, NZ$435K.

1983-Present: Leader of more than thirty long-term research and consultancy projects in river hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics, sediment transport, fluvial geomorphology, and hydrology. 

Publications

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  • Linking scales of flow variability to lotic ecosystem structure and function.

    Biggs, B. J. F., Nikora, V. I., Snelder, T.
    River Research and Applications, vol. 21, pp. 283-298
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Mercury in lakes and lake fishes on a conservation-industry gradient in Brazil.

    Mirlean, N., Larned, S., Nikora, V. I., Tavares Kütter, V.
    Chemosphere, vol. 60, pp. 226-236
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Three-Dimensional measurement of laboratory submerged bed forms using moving probes.

    Friedrich, H., Melville, B. W., Coleman, S. E., Nikora, V. I., Clunie, T. M.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Effects of physical factors on cohesive sediment erosion.

    Aberle, J., Nikora, V. I., Walters, R.
    Marine Geology, vol. 207, no. 1-4, pp. 83-93
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Hydrodynamic effects in aquatic ecosystems.

    Nikora, V. I.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Mars topography: bulk statistics and spectral scaling.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D.
    Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 427-439
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Mass-transfer-controlled nitrogen and phosphorus uptake by stream periphyton: a conceptual model and experimental evidence.

    Larned, S., Nikora, V. I., Biggs, B. J. F.
    Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 1992-2000
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Periphyton-flow interactions and mass-transfer-uptake processes.

    Nikora, V. I., Larned, S., Biggs, B. J. F.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Probability distribution function approach in stochastic modelling of soil erosion.

    Sidorchuk, A., Smith, A., Nikora, V. I.
    Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System: Proceedings of a symposium held in Moscow, August 2004. Golosov, V., Belyaev, V., Walling, D. E. (eds.), pp. 345-353, 8 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • Sediment flocs: settling velocity, flocculation factor, and optical backscatter

    Nikora, V., Aberle, J., Green, M.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 130, no. 10, pp. 1043-1047
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Spatial averaging concept for rough-bed open-channel and overland flows.

    Nikora, V. I.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Velocity distribution in the roughness layer of rough-bed flows

    Nikora, V., Koll, K., McEwan, I. K., Mclean, S. R., Ditrich, A.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 130, no. 10, pp. 1036-1042
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Water-worked gravel surfaces: high-order structure functions at the particle scale.

    Nikora, V. I., Walsh, J.
    Water Resources Research, vol. 40, no. W12601
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • A straight benthic flow-through flume for in situ measurement of cohesive sediment dynamics

    Aberle, J., Nikora, V. I., Mclean, S. R., Doscher, C., McEwan, I. K., Green, M., Goring, D., Walsh, J.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 129, no. 1, pp. 63-67
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Closure to 'Despiking ADV Data'.

    Goring, D., Nikora, V. I.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 129, no. 6, pp. 487-488
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Cohesive sediment transport: model development and testing.

    Walters, R., Nikora, V. I., Aberle, J.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Effects of bed material composition on cohesive sediment erosion.

    Aberle, J., Nikora, V. I., Walters, R.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Effects of fish size, time-to-fatigue, and turbulence on swimming performance: a case study of Galaxias maculatus (inanga).

    Nikora, V. I., Aberle, J., Biggs, B. J. F., Jowett, I., Sykes, J.
    Journal of Fish Biology, vol. 63, pp. 1365-1382
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Hydrodynamic effects in aquatic ecosystems with a focus on periphyton.

    Nikora, V. I., Larned, S., Biggs, B. J. F.
    Recent Research Developments in Fluid Dynamics, Volume 4 (2003), pp. 41-70, 29 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • On turbulence effects on fish swimming performance: a case study of the New Zealand native fish Galaxias Maculatus (inanga).

    Nikora, V. I., Aberle, J., Jowett, I., Biggs, B. J. F., Sykes, J.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Spatially-averaged flow over ribbed roughness: a new application of quadrant analysis.

    Pokrajac, D., Campbell, L. J., Manes, C., Nikora, V. I., McEwan, I. K.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • On bed particle diffusion in gravel bed flows under weak bed load transport

    Nikora, V., Habersack, H., Huber, T., McEwan, I. K.
    Water Resources Research, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 1081
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • De-spiking Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter data.

    Goring, D., Nikora, V. I.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 117-126
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Some observations of the effects of micro-organisms growing on the bed of an open channel on the turbulence properties.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D., Biggs, B. J. F.
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 450, pp. 317-341
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Structure of the internal boundary layer over a patch of pinnid bivalves (Atrina zelandica) in an estuary.

    Nikora, V. I., Green, M., Thrush, S., Hume, T., Goring, D.
    Journal of Marine Research, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 121-150
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Closure on “Flow turbulence over fixed and weakly mobile gravel beds.”

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 128, no. 3, pp. 359-361
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Fluctuations of suspended sediment concentration and turbulent sediment fluxes in an open-channel flow.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 128, no. 2, pp. 214-224
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Heterogeneity in catchment properties: a case study of Grey and Buller catchments, New Zealand

    Shankar, U., Pearson, C. P., Nikora, V., Ibbitt, R.
    Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 167-183
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • In situ measurement of cohesive sediment dynamics with a straight benthic flume.

    Aberle, J., Nikora, V. I., Walters, R.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Sand waves in alluvial channels – random field approach.

    Nikora, V. I., Rowinski, P.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • The structure and dynamics of the thin near-bed layer in a complex marine environment: a case study in Beatrix Bay, New Zealand.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D., Ross, A.
    Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 915-926
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Zero-plane displacement for rough-bed open-channel flows.

    Nikora, V. I., Koll, K., Mclean, S. R., Ditrich, A., Aberle, J.
    Fluvial Hydraulics River Flow 2002, pp. 83-92, 9 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • Diffusion of saltating particles in unidirectional water flow over a rough granular bed

    Nikora, V., Heald, J., Goring, D., McEwan, I.
    Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, vol. 34, no. 50, pp. L743-L749
    Contributions to Journals: Letters

  • Spatially-averaged open-channel flow over a rough bed.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D., McEwan, I. K., Griffiths, G.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 123-133
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Environmental flows over rough beds: a spatial averaging approach.

    Nikora, V. I., Mclean, S. R.
    Contributions to Conferences: Other Contributions

  • Extended self-similarity (ESS) in geological and geophysical applications.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D.
    Mathematical Geology, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 251-271
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Intermittency and interrelationships between turbulence scaling exponents: phase-randomisation tests.

    Nikora, V. I., Goring, D., Camussi, R.
    Physics of Fluids, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1404-1414
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Review of “Simulation and Identification of Organised Structures in Flows.”

    Nikora, V. I.
    Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 171-172
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Модели речных систем

    Nikora, N., Gopchenko, E., Nikora, V.
    VNIIGMI-MTsD, Obninsk, vol. Professional Paper No 944-GM-89
    Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles

  • Эволюция русла и гидравлический режим малых рек в Молдове

    Nikora, V., Arnaut, N., Nikora, N.
    В эрозионных и русловых процессах в различных климатических условиях. Московский университет, Москва, Россия, pp. 275-276
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • Турбулентные свойства рек с песчаными волнами

    Nikora, V., Nikora, N.
    Problems of Land Hydrology, pp. 167-172
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
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