Publications include the first quantitative study of the impact of climate change on soil erosion by water, and a novel modelling study of soil erosion in prehistory together with archaeologist Martin Bell. In 1996 he developed a self-organising systems model for rill initiation and development, RillGrow. He is also responsible for the Soil Erosion website. Favis-Mortlock was elected a Council Member for the British Society of Soil Science, 2001–2003, and a member of the Executive Committee of the British Geomorphological Research Group, 2003-2006. Until 2010 he was a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He then returned to the Environmental Change Institute until 2020, and is currently a visiting researcher at the British Geological Survey.