In June 2018 a group of students from the University of Southampton and the DECCMA India team visited Dulki, a village within the Indian Bengal delta, to investigate migration and adaptation and their opportunities and challenges. This short video clip provides insights into the nature of livelihoods in Dulki, how they are affected by climate and environmental change, and how they respond.
Following the passing of Dr Asish Ghosh, two of his colleagues on the governance and stakeholder engagement work package, Andrew Allan and Chris Spray from the University of Dundee, pen a personal tribute to him.
Dr Asish K. Ghosh, 1938-2018
“Our respected colleague, Dr. Asish Ghosh, sadly died on the 2nd of April. He was the lead researcher in India on governance and stakeholder engagement for the DECCMA Project, and a tenacious advocate for those affected by environmental change. His work on the project took up only a relatively small part of his time – but he worked energetically on many different issues right up to the end of his life. He led the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) in Kolkata for over 20 years and contributed regular articles for the environmental journal, Down to Earth, writing his last only in February shortly before his 80th birthday.
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For those of us who worked with him on the DECCMA project, he was a man of forthright views and a wealth of expertise informed by over 50 years of experience in environmental and biodiversity-related issues. The range of his experience was not always evident: his extensive consultancy and research work was acquired only after he had retired from his post as Director of the Zoological Survey of India in 1996.
We often had long and fascinating conversations about British and Indian history, about which he was passionately interested. He had a wicked sense of humour and British staff remember being recipients of many jibes related to that history – always delivered in good humour with a grin.Ā He was also very modest.Ā One of our historical discussions involved mention of T.N. Annandale, the first Director of the Zoological Survey, who had grown up near to us in Edinburgh. Asish never mentioned the fact that he had been one of Annandaleās successors.
He was a staunch defender of the interests of the researchers at the CED and worked diligently for the DECCMA project over the past four years. He will be greatly missed.
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by Colette Mortreux, Ricardo Safra de Campos and Neil Adger
[Reposted from www.transre.org]
International protocols exist to guide resettlement and planned location, but within individual states the decision is often political. In the Indian Sundarbans delta, the living conditions have become so precarious that communities are requesting government intervention, increasing the legitimacy of the resettlement. However, taking the example of three communities facing similar levels of threats, the response by government has not been correspondingly similar. So the question is ā what determines whether or not governments take action, and the nature of that action?
Developing a model to explain government (in)action
In aĀ new paper inĀ Global Environmental ChangeĀ we propose a conceptual model that is designed to explain government action or inaction with regard to planned relocation of vulnerable communities.
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The model takes into account three main factors: what a government wants to do, what it is obliged to do, and what populations demand from them. The model suggests that decisions to act or not act on relocation initiatives (as shown in section B) are driven by underlying political determinants (section A), leading to outcomes for the populations involved (section C). The pathways in the figure demonstrate the diversity of government responses, and what drives them, as well as the implications this can have on the communities affected by environmental change.
Figure 1: Conceptual model of planned relocation
Different approaches to relocation in the Indian Sundarbans delta
In the Sagar block of the Indian Sundarbans, there is a history of significant environment- displacement from coastal flooding, storm surges, erosion, and salinization. The number of people displaced since the 1970s is estimated to be around 4,000 from Ghoramara and Lohachara. Various resettlement programs have been used in the past. Recently, the communities of Ghoramara, Beguakhali and Dhablat have all demanded action, yet government responses to displacement have been diverse. In Ghoromara, there has been sustained government action to formally settle those displaced by erosion. In Beguakhali, the government has not formally resettled displaced households, but has invested in large-scale coastal embankments to protect the community. In Dhablat, the government has taken no action.
Figure 2: Location of the communities in the Sagar block, Indian Sundarbans delta
Planned resettlement from Ghoromara
Resettlement from Ghoromara began in 1977 after the government of West Bengal declared it a āno manās landā because of the high rates of erosion. The recently elected communist government of West Bengal declared a relocation policy in which land, and sometimes housing, were provided to resettled communities. But resettlement was not without problems. Some of the allocated land was saline and useless for farming. There was also tension with host communities in Sagar island, who resented the support provided to the former-Ghoromara residents.
Avoided resettlement: constructing an embankment to protect communities in Beguakhali
In Beguakhali the government has had a very different response to environmental pressures on the land. A coastal embankment was built and disaster relief provided in cases of breach, for example, after the major cyclone, Aila, in 2009. However, the embankment construction was primarily motivated by the government of Indiaās decision to develop a deep-sea port in Beguakhali for the transport of coal and iron ā although this has not yet started.
Dhablat: no government action to environmental pressures
In Dhablat, 10 kilometers east of Beguakhali, the government provided disaster relief after successive embankment breaches.Ā However, unlike Beguakhali, there has been no commitment to rebuild the embankment nor, as in Ghoromara, support for relocation. One resident explained that flooding can leave them waist deep in water in their house. Many that can afford to do so have migrated out, leaving a small ātrapped population.ā
Linking to the model: reasons for different government responses
Tracing the model back from the different outcomes in each community highlights the interplay of different factors that led to the action/inaction.Ā In Ghoromara, the newly-installed communist government was keen to show commitment to land redistribution and social welfare, creating a powerful incentive for government action.
This political change likely played a big role in overcoming the risk aversion and reluctance for action that often characterizes government response. This risk aversion was more evident in Begukhali, where embankment reconstruction also served the additional purpose of enabling the port construction, thus fitting with broader development goals.Ā In Dhablat, the remainingĀ trapped populationĀ are highly marginalized and lack sufficient voice to hold government accountable for inaction.
Implications for relocation elsewhere
Climate change will exacerbate the environmental pressures that create cause for relocation. To date, the focus on relocation action by government overlooks inaction. Our model provides a mechanism to analyze these decisions.
Ultimately, inaction on resettlement can give rise to other public policy issues. As shown in Dhablat, for example, lack of response by government tends to lead to migration of individuals and households of their own accord ā thereby altering the requirements for public infrastructure and services in their new locations. However, the capacity to migrate is dependent on resources, which means that trapped populations become concentrated in marginal and risky environments. Here they are likely to require regular disaster relief and measures for poverty alleviation.
For further information:
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“Life is cruel here” Stories fromĀ forced migrants in Chittagong, Bangladesh, has now been published. The story is based on experiences of migrants told to the DECCMA Bangladesh research team as they were undertaking surveys of migrants in receiving areas.
Migrant houses in Chittagong (photo: Prodip Das)
Gianluca Franceschini is a Biologist working on geospatial analysis related to environment and sustainable development in the domain of agriculture and livestock production and land cover mapping. His work spans from data collection and preparation, analysis, reporting and presentation with an emphasis on international adopted standards for data maintenance and harmonisation. He is working on Work Package 2 focusing on the coordination of land cover mapping activities in the study areas following internationally adopted standards for the production of land cover legends (the ISO Land Cover Meta Language, LCML), and supporting the use of FAO methodologies. He is also supporting the collection of GIS and tabular data for the implementation of national agro-ecological zones assessment. This is contributing to the development of a network of nodes for the management, storage and dissemination of geospatial data produced during the project.
Head of Mitigation Advice
Science Fellow: Climate Information
Climate Scientist
Managing Scientist for Oceans, Cryosphere and Dangerous Climate Change
Senior Scientist
No profile available
Alistair Rieu-Clarke’s research interests focus on transboundary water cooperation and governance. He has led and participated in numerous international multi-disciplinary research projects, wherein he has sought to explore governance aspects of transboundary water cooperation. In the DECMMA project, Alistair supports the implementation of Work Package 1, particularly in relation to the analysis of the governance systems pertaining to the Deltas.
Christopher Spray is a wetland scientist and catchment practitioner. He has worked in environmental protection and regulation, in conservation in the water industry, aquatic ecological monitoring and participative catchment management and, latterly in academia. His current research focuses on integrated catchment management using an ecosystems approach, stakeholder engagement, river restoration and science in to policy. Within DECCMA, Chris is part of Work Package 1 team, assisting with stakeholder engagement, governance, science to policy implications and scenarios.
Dr. Susan Kay is a scientist in the modelling group at PML. Her work involves setting up and running hydrodynamic-ecosystem models which can be used to investigate the possible impacts of climate change on the marine environment. She joined PML in 2011, and prior to this did a PhD in remote sensing. Susan is part of the fisheries modelling group and she will be running models of the physics and biogeochemistry of sea in the region of DECCMA deltas. These models give information about how climate change might affect production under different climate change scenarios. They can also give projections of sea level rise.
Dr. Jose Fernandes is a bio-economic modeller at PML, working on integrating modelling approaches towards an ecosystem services approach, the study of interactions between climate and environment with socio-economic activities and the use for policy and management for improving resources usage and adaptation to change. His work at with the DECCMA project implies fisheries projections and comparing fisheries in the studied deltas.
anil.markandya@bc3research.org
Prof. Anil Markandya is Director of BC3 and honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bath. His work is in the field of resource and environmental economics. He was a lead author for Chapters of the 3rd and 4th IPCC Assessment Reports on Climate Change and has just finished contributing to the 5th IPCC Report. He was nominated by Cambridge University as one of the top 50 contributors to thinking on sustainability in the world. In 2012 he was elected the President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and in has become a member of the Scientific Council of the European Environment Agency. In the DECCMA project Anil leads the BC3 team that is providing the economics analysis
Inaki Arto is a research fellow at BC3. He has a PhD in Economics, a MSc in Engineering and a degree in Economics. He has occupied research positions at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2010-2013) and at the University of the Basque Country (2001-2010). In the DECCMA project he is contributing to the analysis of the economic impacts of climate change.
ignacio.cazcarro@bc3research.org
Ignacio Cazcarro has a BA, MA and PhD in Economics (University of Zaragoza, Spain). He worked 2 years as a post-doctoral research fellow (Department of Economics, RPI, Troy, NY, USA) participating in a National Science Foundation project. Ignacio is involved in Work Package 4, in the economic analysis, of construction of input-output tables and related models for the deltas.
click here for more about Ignacio
mikel.gonzalez@bc3research.org
Mikel Gonzalez-Eguino is a senior researcher at BC3. He holds a PhD in Economics (a degree in Engineering). His main interests lie in the fields of environmental, energy and public economics. His involvement in the DECCMA project will be related to the economic assessment of the impact of climate change in the deltas using a multi-regional CGE model.
Prof. Robert Nicholls is the Lead PI for the consortium. His research concerns long-term coastal engineering and management, especially the issues of coastal impacts and adaptation to climate change, with an emphasis on sea-level rise.
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Dr. Craig Hutton is the Deputy PI for the DECCMA Project. Ā His research, applied research & consultancy focus lies at the intersection between the environment and social implications of environmental/climate change and management for sustainable development.
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Jon Lawn is the Consortium Coordinator for the Deltas Vulnerability and Climate Change; Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) research project. He graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc in Geography in 2003. Ā Since then he has undertaken management roles in retail, catering, office and charity sectors. Ā Jon joined the staff at the University of Southampton in 2011 and has coordinated the NERC funded iCOASST project and Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation funded ESPA Deltas Project. Ā He has interests in environmental and poverty issues and has previously volunteered in wildlife conservation in South Africa and charities that work with the poor in the UK.
Dr. Emma Tompkins is a Reader in Environment and Development. Ā She has worked on climate change adaptation since 2001, specifically barriers and limits to institutional adaptation, public-private partnerships for adaptation, and drivers of individual action and national policy on adaptation. Ā She has published numerous papers, articles and policy briefs on environmental management, adaptation to climate change, and social and ecological resilience as well as handbooks on surviving climate change in small islands and participatory coastal zone management. Ā She has a PhD Environmental Science (UEA), MSc Environmental and Resource Economics (UCL) and BA Economics (Leicester).
Dr. Natalie Suckall is an environmental-social scientist with an interest in understanding how rural and urban communities respond to climate change. Before joining DECCMA, Natalie examined the trade-offs and synergies between autonomous adaptation, mitigation and development in subsistence communities in Zanzibar. Ā Prior to this, Natalie’s PhD (University of Leeds) investigated the effect of climate change on rural-urban migration patterns in Malawi. Ā Natalie is acting co-lead for DECCMA’s work package 6, which will identify and evaluate feasible and acceptable planned and autonomous adaptations in the three deltas. Ā Natalie is also DECCMA’s Theory of Change lead.
Dr. Chris Hill is a graduate of Exeter University (BSc Combined Honours, Biology and Geography). Ā He is Director of the GeoData Institute, a university based enterprise agency, where he directs its geospatial, spatial data infrastructure, remote sensing and environmental data management programmes.
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Dr. Fiifi Amoako Johnson is a lecturer in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton with expertise in geospatial analysis, small area estimation, complex survey modelling and demographic analysis. Ā His research primarily focuses on healthcare inequalities, climate change, environmental disaster impact and socioeconomic impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
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S.E.Darby@soton.ac.uk
Prof. Stephen Darby is Professor of Physical Geography in Geography and Environment and Head of the Academic Unit. Ā He has worked at Southampton since 1997. He served as the Vice Chair (Research) of the British Society for Geomorphology (2012-2015) and is currently the Junior Deputy Chair of that society. Ā Prof. Darby will be working on Work Package 2 for the DECCMA project.
Prof. John Dearing’s research career has been mainly in palaeoenvironmental change. Ā He now focuses on the nature of recent social-ecological dynamics, such as trends and thresholds, using lake sediments and other records to reconstruct changes in ecosystem services. He is working with PhD students to apply these methods to understand the vulnerability of DECCMA delta systems.
Sabu Padmadas is Professor of Demography and Global Health, and co-Director of the Centre for Global Health, Population, Poverty and Policy at Southampton. His research focuses on the application of demographic and statistical methods to global health and population dynamics in low-middle and transition economies, impact evaluation and population projections.
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Dr. Attila Lazar is a post-doctoral Research Fellow, trained mechanical engineer (BEng), environmental scientist (MSc) and riverine and wetland modeller (PhD, post-doc). Ā He is employed on the ESPA Deltas project which aims to provide the Bangladeshi policy makers with the knowledge and tools to evaluate the effects of policy decisions on people’s livelihoods within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta, linking changes in the bio-physical environment to livelihoods, poverty and health. Attila is an integrative modeller who designs, implements and tests the model framework, and applies it to study sites to answer policy questions. Ā Within the DECCMA project, Attila is part of the Work Package 5 (Integration Modelling) team.
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Dr. Abiy S. Kebede is a Research Fellow in Integrated Modelling within the Engineering and the Environment Faculty at the University of Southampton and is also part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Ā Abiy has a background in Civil Engineering (BSc), with multiple Master’s degrees in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (CoMEM) from three European universities: University of Southampton (UK), Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway). Abiy did his PhD at the University of Southampton as part of the EU-funded FP7 CLIMSAVE project, with his thesis titled “The food-water-land-ecosystems nexus in Europe: An integrated assessment”. Ā Abiy is interested in understanding the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change, sea-level rise and socio-economic changes and assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation to these changes at different spatial (from local to global) and temporal (from short- to long-term) scales and across multiple sectors/sub-systems for informing robust adaptation policy decision-making. Within the DECCMA project, Abiy will be working as part of the Work Package 5 (Integration Modelling) team, helping to develop and apply the integrated methods and models that will be used to analyse environmental change, adaptation and migration at the case study deltas.
Frances Dunn is a postdoctoral researcher and is currently finishing her PhD. Her thesis is focused on modelling multidecadal fluvial sediment fluxes to deltas under future environmental changes. Her background is in physical geography, with a BSc in Geography and an MSc in Environmental Modelling, Monitoring, and Reconstruction from the University of Manchester. Frances is working on Work Package 2 on subsidence and physical adaptation mapping, as well as aiding the delta portal setup and timeline administration.
Gregory Cooper is a first year PhD student at the University of Southampton, studying ‘Socio-ecological tipping points in world deltas’; likely focusing on the Mahanadi and GBM or Volta. He graduated with a first-class degree in Geography in 2014 and his research interests include complex social-ecological systems, environmental change and critical transitions. Gregory’s PhD concentrates on observing/modelling the past and future sustainability of key deltaic socio-ecological functions (e.g. regulating and provision services), with specific reference to tipping point transitions. Saliently, this work assesses the sudden and widespread losses of ecosystem services, livelihoods and the associated sustainability of deltaic populations in the face of growing social and natural stresses in a changing world.
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Sarah Spinney has degrees in BSc Geography and MSc Climate Change and Risk Management, both from the University of Exeter and commenced her PhD at the University of Southampton 2014. She has an interest in how shifting climate regimes will present new risks to society and how the resilience of exposed populations can be increased; particularly in coastal and fluvial systems. Sarah’s PhD study aims to provide projections of morphological change in deltaic systems under a range of climatic and environmental change scenarios. As well as identifying potential critical thresholds in the morphological component of the delta system, this study aims to identify important feedbacks between the morphological system and supporting ecosystem services that effect the habitability of the delta; thus providing a route towards the development of an integrated biophysical assessment tool. It is hoped that this tool can be utilised within Work Package 2 in order to identify vulnerability hotspots in the DECCMA deltas. She is also interested in how the effects of shifting land-use practices will influence biophysical processes, and how viable management strategies can be incorporated into morphological modelling.
Tristan Berchoux holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences and a MSc in Agricultural Economics, and has previously worked in different international development programmes. Tristan’s research focuses on the spatio-temporal associations between livelihoods and natural hazards. It contributes to DECCMA through different outputs: land cover mapping, characterisation of livelihoods, impact of natural hazards and data gathering.
Giorgia Prati is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton where she is looking at the implications of migration on women’s adaptive capacity in the Mahanadi delta. She holds an MSc in Climate Change and Development and her previous collaborations include CARE international, Mercy Corps and EuropeAid.
Margherita Fanciotti is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton, where she is looking at tropical cyclone resilience of coastal communities in the Mahanadi delta. She is a civil engineer specialised in flood risk management and her previous collaborations include UNESCO and the World Resources Institute.
Amy Welch holds a BSc in Oceans, Climate and Physical Geography and an MSc(Eng) in Civil and Environmental Engineering, both of which were obtained from the University of Liverpool. Her PhD study aims to focus on the development and sustainability of various engineered systems that have been utilised within the four deltas. She will also consider how these systems can be effectively characterised and simulated in coupled integrated models of deltas and coastal zones in general.
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Kashif Salik is a PRISE Senior Research Associate from the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. He joined the DECCMA team at the University of Southampton to complete his PhD, which aims to explore climate-induced components of migration patterns and associated vulnerabilities and risks on livelihoods/food security and urbanisation through the analysis of socio-economic parameters. Kashif did his M.Sc (Hons) degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He has over 15 years’ experience and has been involved in a number of international/regional projects, including food security/systems, socio-economic vulnerability assessments, infrastructure, water resources development, climate change and environment.
Dr Sophie Day has over a decade of environmental social science research experience in both academia and consultancy. Her expertise lies around the interplay between the social, policy and technical challenges facing long-term adaptation to climate change Ć¢ā¬ā particularly in complex coastal contexts at local to international scales. Sophie is working to produce deliverables for Work Task 6.3, Ć¢ā¬ÅTheorise interactions between autonomous household adaptation and planned adaptationĆ¢ā¬Ā, for the Ć¢ā¬ĖAdaptationĆ¢ā¬ā¢ Work Package 6.
Carolin Bothe-Tews is the “Research into Use” Co-ordinator for DECCMA. Ā She holds a Diploma in Geography from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Ā She has almost 20 years of experience in communication and knowledge management, mainly in the field of development co-operation.
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Dr Sally Brown has a background in geomorphology, coastal engineering and climate change adaptation. Sally has a BSc in Geophysical Sciences, MRes in Coastal Engineering for Climate Change, and a PhD in Coastal Engineering. She has joined DECCMA at the University of Southampton to analyse what the impacts of 1.5Ā°C mean for delta regions, focusing on implications of sea-level rise, following the global temperature goals agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement. She has previously published research in the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna delta into subsidence and wetland loss, so is looking forward to expanding her knowledge and working with others in developing nations in DECCMA. She enjoys working across different sectors affected by coastal problems, and evaluating wider development issues on the coast. Previously, Sally’s research assessed the impacts of sea-level rise at a global scale and around European coasts, and wider coastal and management issues in the Maldives, China and in the UK.
Susan Kay, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
I work in marine ecosystem modelling, using computer models to make projections of how much plankton biomass could develop in the sea under different environmental conditions. This is a multi-disciplinary activity - the models involve the physics of ocean movement and the chemical transfer of carbon, nitrogen and other materials, as well as an ecological understanding of species interaction and competition. My original degree subject was physics, and Iāve also done Masters degrees in education and bioinformatics. My PhD was in the field of remote sensing, modelling the way light interacts with the sea surface with the aim of improving satellite images of the ocean. So I hope I bring quite a diverse background in natural science to the project. Iāve worked in marine ecosystem modelling since 2012. My other current research work is about European seas, looking at how we best look after the ecosystem health of these heavily exploited seas.
Iām contributing to the work on fisheries modelling in Work Package 2. Iāll use climate model data to produce projections of primary production in the seas around each delta and then Jose Fernandes, my colleague at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, will use that data to make estimates of the future catch of some important fish species in each area. Fish are key sources of nutrition and livelihood in delta areas so we need to understand how climate change, as well as fisheries management practices, could affect the available catch. For the ocean as a whole, it is expected that global warming will tend to reduce productivity because the higher surface temperatures will stabilise the water column and reduce the mixing that brings nutrients to the sunlit areas where plankton live. Itās uncertain how this process will affect the shallower water of delta areas, and thatās what Iām aiming to investigate in DECCMA.
DECCMA is bringing a multi-discipline, multi-country group together to investigate a really important topic. Itās quite a communications challenge! But we need many different kinds of expertise and approach to make progress in understanding the many pressures that influence peopleās decision to migrate. Often the most interesting and exciting ideas emerge when people work together across traditional boundaries, so Iām looking forward to seeing what DECCMA will produce.
I enjoy looking after my garden and exploring the local countryside on foot or by bike ā the south west of England is very beautiful. Iām always interested in learning more about the wider world and I belong to two book groups where we read and discuss books that give us insight into the lives of people in other cultures and societies ā at the moment Iām reading about the emergence of Ebola virus in central Africa and everyday life in modern Tehran. I also help to run a charity that gives opportunities for children and adults in my local area to learn more about life in other countries, especially the developing world.
Ignacio Cazcarro, BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change
I carried out my BA, MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), where I have been a member of the research group āGrowth, Demand and Natural Resourcesā. Within that group I was involved in several projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science and the regional Government of Aragon, particularly focused on the analysis of the link between the economy (production, trade, technology, etc.) and the environment, especially estimating (mostly water) footprints. After that I worked for more than 2 years as post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (New York, USA) participating in a National Science Foundation (USA) grant project on Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems. The approach was similar but global in scope and although it was quite interdisciplinary, it had a specific focus on water and rivers. In particular our economic analysis consisted on building a world trade model, based on comparative advantage, in which based on the availability of all types of natural resources (also water, studied in its different qualities) we could see the changes in specialization, production and trade of the different regions in the world for different climate change scenarios and diet change scenarios.
At the BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change we are involved in the Economic modelling. This means that we need to make the best use of the interaction with other work-packages, such as the ones involved in looking at the biophysical modelling and the vulnerability of hotspots, as well as obtaining insights on the economic variables (production by sectors, availability of jobs -by gender- and livelihoods in the deltas, changes in prices of commodities, the availability of scarce non-produced inputs such as water, land, etc.). These are also useful also for other areas of the project such as those looking at migration. Potential and actual migration patterns within the delta and outside will also be a function of relative economic opportunities in the context of climate change, and any gender-sensitive adaptation strategy will have to take account of these economic aspects. All in all, the purpose of our research is twofold: (a) providing a tool that allows policy makers to see how different climate scenarios affect the economic options in the delta and how these in turn affect vulnerability and sustainability in the region and (b) linking economic factors to the availability of jobs and livelihoods in the delta and thereby to potential migration fluxes ā all in the context of climate change and its effects on different economic activities in the delta.
Many aspects. The project has a very focused, interesting and extremely relevant topic of research, since climate change, its expected effect in coastal areas and deltas, and in migration processes have emerged -to me, with reason- as priorities in many research and political agendas. Furthermore, the ones we study seem clearly among the main vulnerable delta regions around the world, and as far as I could see in our recent visit to the Mahanadi River Delta in India, the economies of the Delta are quite distinct in terms of the key activities developed, but also on lifestyles, so understanding, modelling and being able to help in these areas seems to me extremely worth and rewarding. The project is also allowing us to work with partners from those relatively distant regions and cultures, which is always enriching, and it is outstandingly multidisciplinary, which also enables us the understanding of such complex processes, finding that we always complement and learn from the interaction with the project colleagues and the people we are meeting during the project. If that was not enough, this project is allowing us to also learn from leading experts in the fields of sea level rise and related areas of research.
Multiple. For me it is somehow a trade-off the path of specializing in a research topic, when we see today so many interesting topics and challenges worth studying. So far I feel I have been able to keep a relatively broad perspective and study issues that interest me, finding that I often hybrid my work and leisure time. Apart from usual hobbies such as sports (e.g. cycling) and cinema (documentaries, but also social, political or science fiction movies often open our minds on envisaging our near and distant possible futures), I participate with friends in a group of sociopolitical reading, research and training. In spite of having great concerns for most conflicts, news and affairs all around the world, I particularly follow the current situation in Spain with great interest where as in some other places many social movements, parties and debate are boiling.
Gregory Cooper, University of Southampton
I completed my undergraduate degree in Physical Geography, here at the University of Southampton. Over the three years I became keenly interested in complex social-ecological systems: past, present and future. My undergraduate dissertation explored how Chinese urban heat islands coevolve with the major social-ecological drivers, such as human population, energy use and vegetation coverage. I am currently in the second year of my PhD, entitled āsocial-ecological tipping points in world deltasā. Specifically, I am developing a system dynamics model to explore the future sustainability of fish production from the Chilika lagoon (Mahanadi delta), in relation to the various emergent biophysical and social-economic stresses. Ultimately, the model aims to assess the potentiality of fishery collapse in future, and inform decision making processes by identifying a āsafe operating spaceā for Chilika.
I am associated with work package 2, as Chilika is vulnerable to a suite of climatic and biophysical vulnerabilities. The model has benefitted significantly from data collected by the Chilika Development Authority, who are also part of work package 2 through Dr AK Pattnaik and Dr RN Samal.
The broad range of backgrounds, expertise and disciplines involved in DECCMA, which will all be combined within work packages 5 and 6. The use of integrated modelling in work package 5 has similarities with my own project, albeit it at a significantly greater scale. Therefore, the approaches and outputs are of special personal interest. Also, working as part of DECCMA provided the amazing opportunity to visit India during spring 2016, where I conducted interviews with Chilikaās fishers and decision makers, and collected quantitative data otherwise unobtainable. The six-week trip was extremely worthwhile and I developed some hopefully life-long professional and social networks. I certainly hope to visit India again in future. I am additionally excited about the opportunities to present and share my research amongst the DECCMA community. The two DECCMA PhD associates seminars to date have been very beneficial, as they have provided opportunities to share methodologies, initial insights and future plans.
I enjoy organising and playing for the Shackleton Geographicals five-aside football team twice a week. I am also a fair weather cyclist, and I try to get down to the local park-run 5km as often as possible. In quieter moments I am a keen reader of Lee Childās āJack Reacherā novels, and I enjoy spending time with friends and family whenever possible.
Amy Welch, University of Southampton
I completed my undergraduate degree in Oceans, Climate and Physical Geography at the University of Liverpool. During this time, I participated in a range of modules and took particular interest in coastal management and change. I then completed my MSc(Eng) at the University of Liverpool, in Civil and Environmental Engineering. This course allowed me to explore my interest in coastal engineering, as well as give me an understanding of the importance of considering sustainability and the environmental impacts of engineered structures. I am currently carrying out my PhD research under the supervision of Prof. Nicholls and Dr Lazar, with my research title being āCharacterising engineered adaptations in deltasā. I am in my first year of research, which has focussed on a sample of deltas located across the globe. I have reviewed literature to determine the engineered adaptations the delta has followed, focusing on the drivers of these.
I am involved in work package 5 and 6. I will be using conceptual models to explore engineered adaptations that could be used within deltas based upon future scenarios. I will analyse the feasibility and the sustainability of these adaptations.
The DECCMA project gives me the opportunity to begin my research career with a diverse group of people who are all extremely knowledgeable, and I believe that I can learn a lot from this. The project addresses major issues that are faced across the globe, in an area that is of particular interest to me. The opportunity to work and seek advice from experts across the globe is very exciting.
I enjoy hill walking and regularly visit National Parks across the UK. I also enjoy travelling, cooking and going to the gym.