Dr. Covington's primary area of research interest lies along the intersection of hydrogeology and geomorphology, with a particular focus on karst aquifers and landforms. Much of Dr. Covington's recent work studies the variations in water quality and quantity at karst springs and in cave streams. This work has employed simple physically based mathematical models to try to understand the relationship between the variations at a given spring and the internal structure of the aquifer. Further work attempts to incorporate such variations into models of cave formation(speleogenesis). Ultimately, this helps us to better understand how caves and karst landforms are created and evolve over time in response to tectonic and climatic forces. Some of these advances also help us to better characterize, manage, and model karst aquifers, which are often both fragile and difficult to predict. In addition to studying karst, Covington researches the dynamics of glacial caves, which form inside the ice of glaciers and are a key ingredient for predicting the response of Greenland's ice sheet to climate change. A common thread that runs through much of his work is an effort to construct physically based mathematical models of hydrological and geomorphological processes using a combination of theory and field data.
