Our team brings together expertise in geomorphology, geochemistry, remote sensing, numerical modelling, and Earth surface processes to understand how landscapes evolve across spatial and temporal scales.

Principal Investigator and Group Leader

Dr. Sumit Das

Dr. Sumit Das is the founder and group leader of the Coupled Earth Surface Research Group at the Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics, Charles University in Prague.

Sumit is a geomorphologist whose work explores the processes and drivers of landscape evolution, with a focus on tectonic, lithologic, and climatic controls; sediment transport; fluvial dynamics; and the role of landslides in topographic change. His research has spanned the Deccan Traps and large Peninsular Indian river basins, examining erosion and sediment dynamics under a warming climate, and is now expanding to the Himalayan and European montane systems.

Team Members

Dr. Ziqiang Zhou
Postdoctoral Researcher

Ziqiang focuses on river incision and its role in landscape evolution and sediment transfer within source-to-sink systems. His research combines remote sensing, field observations, and numerical modelling to examine geometric river responses to external forcings, with particular interest in flux-dependent dynamics and threshold-stochastic processes. Motivated by the frequent coupling between hillslopes and channels, he is currently working to incorporate landsliding into fluvial incision frameworks. By improving understanding of river dynamics, he aims to better constrain river responses to global warming and refine their use in reconstructing past tectonic processes.

Ms. Helen Eifert
Ph.D. Student

Helen is a geomorphologist from the United States whose work investigates surface evolution and sediment dynamics on Earth and Mars, with a special interest in landslide susceptibility and mobility. Her experiences as an outdoor professional and wildland firefighter drive her curiosity toward landscape evolution and hazard mitigation in a changing climate. She is currently exploring the influence of landslide-generated sediment pulses on river systems in the Alps and Himalayas. Her research combines field, remote sensing, lab, and modeling techniques to understand the interplay of these surface processes under different climate scenarios.

Ms. Dilisha Kidwai

Ph.D. Student

Dilisha is a PhD student, and her doctoral research investigates how landslides influence drainage divide migration across contrasting lithological settings in the Himalaya and the Alps, two of the world's most tectonically and geomorphically dynamic mountain systems. She approaches these challenges using quantitative geomorphic methods, bridging field evidence with analytical and computational tools to decipher the feedbacks between mass movement and landscape reorganization. Dilisha aims to develop a generalizable framework for quantifying landslide-driven divide mobility across diverse tectonic and climatic regimes.

She is interested in mountain geomorphology because it provides an understanding of coupled mountain processes, from cascading hazards to long-term landscape evolution, while also aligning with her interest in mountain fieldwork.

Ms. Baneen Rizvi

Undergraduate Volunteer Research Intern (Remote)

Baneen recently completed an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and joined the group as a volunteer research intern (working remotely). Her work focuses on the influence of vegetation greening on sediment dynamics in the Himalayas, examining how long-term changes in vegetation cover shape erosion and sediment transport across the landscape. Her interest in this research stems from a fascination with remote sensing and data-driven methods, and she is drawn to using satellite and geospatial datasets.
Coming from a mountainous region, she feels a personal connection to these landscapes, which further motivates her to work on the Himalayas. Her aim is to contribute to a better understanding of how land-surface processes respond to environmental changes in mountain systems.

Collaborators

Dr. Gianvito Scaringi

Dr. Gianvito Scaringi is the leader of The Geohazards Group at Charles University. He Collaborates closely with the Coupled Earth Surface Research Group on landslide processes and student co-supervision.

Dr. Kristen Cook

Dr. Kristen Cook is a scientist at the Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre). She is an expert in cascading hazards, with a focus on the Himalayan region. She collaborates with the Coupled Earth Surface Research Group on a range of geomorphological research topics and co-supervises Ph.D. students.

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