![Dr Jean-Christophe Comte Dr Jean-Christophe Comte](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/s09jc4/DSC07930_reduced3.jpg)
Dr Jean-Christophe Comte
Hydrogeology, Groundwater modelling, Hydrogeophysics
Reader
- About
-
- Email Address
- jc.comte@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272914
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Geosciences
Biography
- 2023-present: Reader in Hydrogeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen
- 2019-2023: Senior Lecturer in Hydrogeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen
- 2014-2019: Lecturer in Hydrogeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen
- 2014-2016: Visiting researcher, Queen's University Belfast
- 2009-2014: Postdoctoral research fellow in Hydrogeology/Hydrogeophysics, School of Planning Architecture and Civil Engineering, Queen's University Belfast
- 2008: PhD in Hydrogeology, Department of Geology, University of Avignon 'Contribution of electrical resistivity tomography to variable-density groundwater flow modelling in coastal aquifers - Application to three contrasted climate settings (Canada, New Caledonia, Senegal)'
- 2003-2009: Hydrogeologist consultant, HYDRIAD, Nimes
- 2002-2003: DESS (MSc2) Hydrogeology, University of Avignon
- 1998-2002: DEUG-Licence-Maitrise IUP (BSc, MSc1) Geological and Environmental Engineering, University Paul Sabatier Toulouse
External Memberships
- Editor, Hydrogeology Journal - Official Journal of the International Association of Hydrogeologists
- Panel member, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) cross-council Interdisciplinary Assessment College
- Research
-
Research Overview
- Quantitative hydrogeology
- Hydrogeophysical methods for aquifer parameter estimation and calibration of groundwater models
- Groundwater resources in complex hydrogeological environments, including coastal, islands, fractured rocks and volcanic aquifers
- Saltwater intrusion and sustainability of fresh groundwater resources in coastal aquifer systems
- Groundwater and resilience to global changes, incl. urban hydrogeology, floods & droughts, interactions with surface water, managed aquifer recharge
- Hydrogeological properties and processes underpinning sustainable geothermal development
Research Team
Current PhD students (lead supervisor)
- Brady Johnson - Groundwater resilience to drought in Scotland
- Alfred Awuah - Coupled hydrogeophysical modelling of groundwater flow in fractured rocks
- Oluwaseun Olabode - The potential of managed aquifer recharge in Sub-saharan Africa
- Hamish Johnson - Groundwater and nutrient dynamics in heterogeneous agricultural catchments
- Yogendra Kumar - Quantifying fracture flow with the self-potential method
Recently completed PhD students (lead supervisor)
- Joel Blackburn - Understanding stream-aquifer interactions and their influence on flow regimes and fluvial processes in a newly restored ephemeral stream
- Jesus Mezquita - Hydrogeophysical approaches for characterising flow and storage in weathered/fractured aquifers
- Samson Oiro - Impact of climate change and human activities on groundwater resources in the Nairobi and Tiwi aquifers: two strategic Kenyan aquifers under high pressure
Funding and Grants
Ongoing:
- International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) for Official Development Assistance (ODA) Project Grant - A hidden water crisis in the fast-growing coastal megacity of Lagos: is unregulated groundwater abstraction causing aquifer depletion and saltwater intrusion? (2023). PI.
- Centre of Expertise for Waters CREW - Future predictions of water scarcity in Scotland: impacts to distilleries and agricultural abstractors (2023-2024). Co-I.
- Scottish Funding Council Hydronation programme - The role of groundwater in adapting to climate change and increasing resilience to drought in Eastern Scotland (2023-2027). PI.
- Royal Society International Exchange with Jilin University, China on managed aquifer recharge (2023-2025). PI.
- Centre of Expertise for Waters CREW - Understanding the relationship between water scarcity and land use in private water supply catchments (2023-2024). Co-I.
- NERC Exploring the Frontiers research grant [NE/X011593/1] - Hydro-g: Monitoring groundwater resources using low-cost microgravity sensors (2023-2024). Co-I, led by the University of Glasgow.
Completed:
- Department for the Economy/Geological Survey of Northern Ireland - Near-surface geophysical characterisation at the Stormont Estate, Belfast to support its geothermal development (2022). Co-PI, with Queen's University Belfast.
- GCRF/Academy of Medical Sciences/Geological Survey of Ireland - Groundwater-g: Supporting groundwater resources management using low-cost microgravity technology (2020-2022). Co-I, led by Queen's University Belfast.
- GCRF/Scottish Funding Council Covid-19 Response Research Grant - COVID-19 and water security in the world's largest refugee camp: can groundwater development safely meet the increased water demand to fight COVID-19 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh? (2020-2021). PI.
- World Bank/AURECON applied research grant - Groundwater numerical modelling in support of strengthening of water resources planning, monitoring and management in Kenya (2018-2020). PI.
- AHRC/GCRF/University of Nottingham Research Grant - Kisima project: Historical and future groundwater well management on Kilwa Kisiwani island, Tanzania (2019-2020). Co-I, led by the University of Dar Es Salaam.
- Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (Dr Andres Gonzalez Quiros) - Monitoring and coupled hydrogeophysical modelling of saltwater intrusion in heterogeneous coastal aquifers (2019-2021).
- NERC/DFID Research Grant [NE/S005943/1] - SHEAR Programme: Connect4 water resilience: connecting water resources, communities, drought and flood hazards, and governance across 4 countries in the Limpopo basin (2018-2020). PI.
- NERC Urgency Grant [NE/R002568/1] - Extreme rainfall and floods in arid regions (Botswana): replenishment or contamination of water resources? (2017-2018). PI.
- United Utilities Water/Environmental Agency applied research grant - Understanding stream-aquifer interactions and their influence on flow regimes and fluvial processes in a newly restored ephemeral stream (2017-2022). PI.
- Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Environment and Sustainability Research Grant [ESRG3/16] - East African groundwater resources under climatic and human pressure (2016-2017). PI.
- Geological Survey of Ireland Research Grant [2015-SC-003] - Determining fractured bedrock aquifer parameters using Magnetic Resonance Sounding to better constrain numerical groundwater models in support of catchment scale water resource management (2016). Co-I, led by Queen's University Belfast.
- Elphinstone Fund/Water Resources Management Authority of Kenya PhD Scholarship (Mr S. Oiro) - Comparative hydrogeology of the Nairobi volcanic suite aquifer and the Tiwi coastal aquifer (2015-2018).
- NERC/DFID/ESRC Research Grant [NE/L001888/1] - UPGro Programme: Towards Groundwater security in coastal East Africa (2013-2014). PI.
- EuropeAid/African Union Research Grant [EuropeAid/130-741/D/ACT/ACP] - Groundwater resource in basement rocks of Africa (2012-2015). Co-I, led by the Research Institute for Development IRD.
- Department of Employment and Learning Northern Ireland PhD Scholarship (Mr N. Dickson) - Incorporation of multi-scale hydrogeophysical datasets into numerical groundwater models (2012-2015).
- Teaching
-
Teaching Responsibilities
- MSc Geophysics Programme Director (2021-2024)
- GL5059 Near surface and Environmental Geophysics (MSc Geophysics) - course coordinator
- GL5573 Field geophysical data acquisition and subsurface digital mapping (MSc Geophysics) - course coordinator
- GL4535 Geoscience and the UN Sustainable Development Goals | Groundwater resources (BSc year 4)
- GG4071 Environmental Hydrology | Groundwater hydrology (BSc year 4)
- GG2510 Mapping and Monitoring the Environment | Environmental geophysics (BSc year 2)
- GG2013 Physical Environments | Groundwater: An introduction (BSc year 2)
- Publications
-
Page 5 of 7 Results 41 to 50 of 61
Joint use of singular value decomposition and Monte-Carlo simulation for estimating uncertainty in surface NMR inversion
Journal of Applied Geophysics, vol. 144, pp. 28-36Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEffect of volcanic dykes on coastal groundwater flow and saltwater intrusion: a field-scale multiphysics approach and parameter evaluation
Water Resources Research, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 2171-2198Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMapping a waste disposal site using Tellus airborne geophysical data
Unearthed: impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland. Young, M. (ed.). Royal Irish Academy: Science Series, pp. 374-389, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/978-1-908996-88-6.ch27
The use of aero-magnetics to enhance a numerical groundwater model of the Lagan Valley aquifer, Northern Ireland
Unearthed: impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland. Young, M. (ed.). Royal Irish Academy: Science Series, pp. 361-371, 11 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/978-1-908996-88-6.ch28
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/9217/1/chapter_28_0.pdf
Challenges in groundwater resource management in coastal aquifers of East Africa: Investigations and lessons learnt in the Comoros Islands, Kenya and Tanzania
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, vol. 5, pp. 179-199Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGroundwater Resources on Active Basaltic Volcanoes: Conceptual Models from La RĂ©union Island and Grande Comore
Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean: Piton de la Fournaise and Karthala. Bachelery, P., Lenat, J., Di Muro, A., Michon, L. (eds.). Springer, pp. 61-70, 10 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31395-0_5
Groundwater prospection in Grande Comore Island - Joint contribution of geophysical methods, hydrogeological time-series analysis and groundwater modelling
Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean: Piton de la Fournaise and Karthala. Bachelery, P., Lenat, J., Di Muro, A., Michon, L. (eds.). Springer Verlag, pp. 385-401, 17 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31395-0_24
Integrating aerial geophysical data in multiple-point statistics simulations to assist groundwater flow models
Hydrogeology Journal, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 883-900Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-015-1258-x
Integrating petrography, mineralogy and hydrochemistry to constrain the influence and distribution of groundwater contributions to baseflow in poorly productive aquifers: Insights from Gortinlieve catchment, Co. Donegal, NW Ireland
Science of the Total Environment, vol. 500-501, pp. 224-234Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.08.105
Modelling the response of fresh groundwater to climate and vegetation changes in coral islands
Hydrogeology Journal, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 1905-1920Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-014-1160-y