Dr Annie Lau

Senior Lecturer

School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
annie.lau@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 56654

Overview

BSc.Hons. (HKU), MPhil. (HKU), PhD (NUS)

Dr Annie Lau is a coastal geomorphologist with a primary research interest in analysing past occurrences of coastal hazards, in particular extreme waves generated by storms and tsunamis, through sedimentary, geomorphological and historical records for assessing the future threat in coastal areas. For example, she has specialised in using the characteristics of large coastal boulders (e.g. size and distribution of rocks) to estimate the strength of extreme waves and to reconstruct the history of extreme events in the past millennia at a few tropical islands in the Asia-Pacific area. More recently, Annie investigates coastline evolution of the sandy Central to Southern Queensland coasts in the late Quaternary - Holocene by analysing sediments and using OSL quartz dating.

Annie teaches a range of courses in Geography, Marine Science, and Geoscience disciplines. She is interested in all types of natural hazards and disaster management, some research areas that she's expanding into since acquiring in-depth knowledge through leading the "Environmental Hazards" course. Students who are interested in researching hazard topics are encouraged to discuss their research ideas with Annie.

She is a project leader of the following research networks:

IGCP Project 725 - Forecasting Coastal Change: "From Cores to Code: Bringing together scientists from coastal geology and numerical modelling to improve the predictive capacity of numerical models to fore- and hind-cast coastal change"

ISROC - Inundation Signatures on Rocky Coastlines: This network serves as a focal point for researchers, educators, and students to understand Coastal Boulder Deposits (CBD) and the storms and tsunamis that generate them.

Research Interests

  • Natural hazards
  • Coastal geomorphology
  • Quaternary environments
  • Sedimentology

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, National University of Singapore

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • With increasing population and development on the southern Queensland coast, accurate coastal hazard (e.g. cyclone, tsunami) risk assessment is essential for protecting people’s lives and properties, however this is currently hampered by short duration and spatially limited historical records. This study aims to determine long-term (millennial scale) records and to identify the maximum magnitude of cyclones (and possibly tsunami) from the landscape and the sedimentary record in southern Queensland. This will expand the coastal hazard event dataset, thereby improving risk assessment and guiding management strategies.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Lau, A.Y. Annie and Autret, Ronan (2020). Spatial patterns of subaerial coarse clasts. Geological Records of Tsunamis and Other Extreme Waves. (pp. 513-546) edited by Max Engel, Jessica Pilarczyk, Simon Matthias May, Dominik Brill and Ed Garrett. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-815686-5.00024-9

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

  • Vrinda Eswaran, Philip Gidley, Annie Lau and Iraphne Childs (2022). Binna Burra Trails Mapping Project. Brisbane, Australia: Royal Geographical Society of Queensland.

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • With increasing population and development on the southern Queensland coast, accurate coastal hazard (e.g. cyclone, tsunami) risk assessment is essential for protecting people’s lives and properties, however this is currently hampered by short duration and spatially limited historical records. This study aims to determine long-term (millennial scale) records and to identify the maximum magnitude of cyclones (and possibly tsunami) from the landscape and the sedimentary record in southern Queensland. This will expand the coastal hazard event dataset, thereby improving risk assessment and guiding management strategies.