Background
Climate risk is studied in different ways across disciplines. Natural sciences model projected climate changes and then analyse potential human impacts, while social sciences examine risk as a social construct. Integrating these perspectives is challenging but researchers at Leeds are developing new tools to combine both for studying risk, structured by the concept of ethnoclimatology. Ethnoclimatology is the study of the relationships between people, climate, and risk grounded by a focus on how different cultures encounter, perceive, and interact with climate. Starting with the question ‘what is it about climatic conditions that are important for communities’, ethnoclimatology seeks to develop risk models that are parametrised according to hazards that matter locally; incorporate locally-grounded rules which capture decision making processes; integrate climate and societal scenarios to model trajectories of how risk may change; and specify risk transitions that are socially meaningful.
PhD opportunity
The ethnoclimatology approach being developed at Leeds has been piloted in research in the Arctic (Ford et al., 2019, 2023, 2024), where it has helped bridge science and Indigenous knowledge in climate risk research. Your goal will be to further develop and apply the approach in new regional contexts, collaborating with researchers and partners on the Indigenous Peoples Observatory Network (IPON). IPON is a long-term collaborative project between university researchers, government and community partners, and UN-bodies, that is examining links between climate change, food systems, and heath. Co-chaired out of Leeds, IPON is working in >100 communities across 13 countries in the global south, and has completed extensive qualitative data collection on the lived experiences, perceptions, and responses to climate change. You will use this work as a basis for co-developing future climate risk projections for the partner communities, working in two IPON countries (locations to be decided based on your interest).
In the PhD you will have the opportunity to:
i) Draw upon already collected data from partner communities to develop risk models which identify quantitative thresholds at which particular climatic conditions or sets of condition create risk, and explore the potential to create different thresholds to capture social determinants of risk (e.g. access to resources, knowledge etc)
ii) Use downscaled climate model data to project how and to what extent risk thresholds may be surpassed at different levels of warming, over different timescales, and for whom
iii) Work with partner communities to develop scenarios of how adaptation might offset projected future risk(s), and how different social groups may be able to draw upon these adaptations.
iv) Model how adaptation scenarios affect risk, quantifying averted risk for different adaptations
v) Disseminate findings with partner communities and examine how potentially effective adaptations can be promoted
Other information
Applicant profile. This project would suit applicants who have a modelling and/or statistical analysis training and who are interested in engaging in a highly interdisciplinary and participatory project. Experience with qualitative research approaches will be an asset. You will be expected to conduct fieldwork and thus be comfortable working in challenging cross-cultural contexts and climates.
- https://ipon-research.net/
- Ford, J. D. et al. Projected decrease in trail access in the Arctic. Communications Earth & Environment 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00685-w.
- Ford, J., Clerici, S., Clark, D., Biesbroek, R. & Harper, S. Re-conceptualizing the IPCC’s ‘burning embers’. NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00594-2.
