Our Research
Our research focuses on three main areas.
Health
Our health research has four main strands. The first focuses on the health impacts of environmental factors that could alter as a result of global environmental change, including: temperature and food poisoning; rainfall, flooding and cryptosporidiosis; exposure to sunlight and the risk of blindness. A second strand focuses on the social characteristics of neighbourhoods as a determinant of the risk of injury to children and on the environmental, engineering and attitudinal factors affecting road traffic accidents. A third strand seeks to understand the effects of the built environment on physical activity, food consumption and consequent levels of obesity. The fourth strand focuses on the nature of the decision-making interface between land use planning and health, and approaches for incorporating health issues into decision making within planning (for more information, see research by Graham Bentham, Robin Haynes, Andy Jones, Iain Lake, and others).
Understandings of risk and participatory decision-making
Core funding by the Leverhulme Trust supported the development of a major programme of research on public perceptions of risk and on its governance, in particular the turn to greater participation in decision-making. This work has contributed to scientific and policy understanding in relation to several prominent contemporary problems, notably genetically modified crops, foot and mouth disease, nuclear power and, in collaboration with Tyndall, climate change. Research is continuing, much of it in co-operation with colleagues in the UK, Europe, the USA and Canada, on a range of technological issues and natural hazards, including nanotechnology, energy futures, long-term radioactive waste management and volcanic risks (see research projects below and work by Jacquie Burgess, Irene Lorenzoni, Gill Seyfang, Peter Simmons and others).
Decision support (including GIS)
Our decision-support work is problem-focused and has made significant contributions both to knowledge and practice. An example of the former is research on the role of knowledge and expertise in decision-making under uncertainty, while the latter includes a wide range of activity including: designing and implementing innovative decision-support methodologies (such as participatory option evaluation processes or scenario and visualisation methods to explore alternative futures and, with Tyndall, to address the impacts of climate change on coastal processes); meeting new EU obligations for Strategic Environmental Assessments without prejudice to assessment processes required under the Habitats, Birds, Water Framework Directives, as well as English regulatory requirements for Sustainability Appraisal; and developing new protocols for evaluating the effectiveness of environmental management tools and techniques, including processes of public engagement in decision-making.
The use of GIS has underpinned significant elements of our research in these areas. For instance, several investigations of public health issues (e.g. on Crohn’s disease or obesogenic environments) have applied GIS techniques to integrate data sets, calculate measures of exposure to possible risk factors or assess variations in accessibility to services. We have also employed GIS methods to examine environmental equity with respect to pollutant exposure and to improve groundwater vulnerability assessment. Other research has focused on the development of GIS-based techniques for rural or coastal landscape visualisation and the evaluation of how such representations can enhance decision-making processes (for more information see visualisation and virtual reality or the research by Katy Appleton, Andrew Lovett)
Research projects
This section outlines a selection of projects focusing on risk, climate change and low-carbon economies, and sustainable consumption undertaken within the group.
Understanding Risk: Climate Change and Energy Choices
This project aims to theoretically and empirically investigate understandings, conceptualisations and responses to climate change within existing and emerging energy policy framings. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust over four years (2007–2010) in collaboration with partner colleagues at Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield.
Contact: Irene Lorenzoni, Tee Rogers-Hayden, Jacquie Burgess.
More information
Visible Energy
Evaluation of the impact of an innovative SMART metering system on household behaviours and routines. Funded by Carbon Connections (2007–09), in partnership with Green Energy Options, Ltd. and SYS Consulting at UEA.
Contact: Jacquie Burgess
Transition pathways to a low carbon economy
Funded by EPSRC and E.ON (2008–11) in partnership with colleagues at Imperial College, Bath, Loughborough and Strathclyde Universities.
Contact: Jacquie Burgess, Tee Rogers-Hayden
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CARL: Stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management decision making
A collaborative project involving community stakeholders, regulators and waste management organisations from Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Principal Investigator. UK involvement is funded by the Radioactive Waste Management Division (formerly Nirex) of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (2004–2008).
Contact: Peter Simmons
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Socio-technical Risk, Decisions and Values: A Narrative Approach
This multi-method project, conducted in partnership with colleagues at Cardiff University, is investigating the experience of living with a source of major technological risk by focusing on two communities living close to nuclear power stations. Funded as part of the ESRC Priority Network Social Contexts and Responses to Risk (SCARR) (2003–2008).
Contact: Peter Simmons
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