Dr David Kennedy

Senior Lecturer

• Office: CO 418
• Phone: (04) 463-6159
  (international: +64-4-463-6159)
• Email: David.Kennedy@vuw.ac.nz

Research Interests

Coastal Geomorphology / Marine Sedimentology

Research Projects

My research is focussed around landscape change in coastal systems and assessing their response to environmental and climatic and environmental change. Currently this research is focussed on two main themes: (1) coral reefs and (2) Rocky Coasts and Estuaries, although I am also interested in coastal plains, beaches and other coastal landforms.

Select current projects

Coral Reef Evolution and Sensitivity to Change

Coral reefs are some of the most fragile landforms in the world. They exist close to the sea surface and have been shown to be extremely susceptible to climate change. My current projects have focussed on how these systems have evolved and what their sensitivity to change is. Work in underway looking at the impacts of hurricanes in the Yucatan, reef-island stability in Fiji, and the character and dynamics of reef growth at its environmental limits in the Tasman Sea. Field mapping, coring, sedimentology and radiocarbon methodologies have formed the core of this research with work now being undertaken using various stable isotopes to extract climatic records from these unique and fragile landforms.

Rocky Coasts and Estuaries

The location of New Zealand on top of the boundary between the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates as well as its position in the roaring-40's has meant the coastal landscape is extremely dynamic. Rates of change are in many cases orders of magnitude higher than recorded elsewhere on the globe. Currently I am investigating the response of NZ coast to these various drivers (i.e. sea level, sediment supply, geology and climate) with field areas throughout the country. Recent projects include:

• Shore platform development in estuaries and tectonically-uplifting areas (Otago, Nelson, Wellington)
• Holocene estuarine change along the west coast of both the North and South Islands
• Impacts of large infrequent events such as tsunami. This includes the description of the oldest tsunami deposit yet described in NZ, located in Otago.

Other Research Interests

I also have research interests in beaches and coastal plains with a number of projects looking at estuarine beach evolution for both natural and artificial beaches as well as the response of coastal plains to multiple sea level cycles. Study sites include Oriental Bay in Wellington Harbour, and the Kapiti Coast (an hour's drive north of Wellington).

Results from the above research have been published in the journals, Geomorphology, Marine Geology, Coral Reefs, Journal of Coastal Research. The Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, Earth Science Reviews, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Carbonates and Evaporites and Global and Planetary Change.

Teaching

My teaching activities for 2007 include

• Phyg 401: Geomorphology and its applications
• PHYG 412: Natural Hazards
• GRAMMS: Graduate Research Methods Course
• Geog 319: Coastal Systems (Coordinator)
• Geog 323: Advanced Physical Environmental Processes
• Geog 218: Landform development and coastal processes
• Geog 223: Physical Environmental Processes: Field Methods

I have/do also contribute to:

• Geog/Envi 214: NZ Environment and Resources
• Geol 342: Sedimentary Field Geology
• Geol 365: Quaternary Geology
• Envi 114: Environment and Resource Foundations.
• Esci 112: Fundamentals of Geology

Hawkes Bay, site for the 3rd year (Geog323) field trip

Surveying the site