Climate change impacts (and variability) on livelihoods and key sectors of the economy / economic models

Several International reports (E.g. IPCC) identify climate change as one of the defining global challenges during recent times. Climate change has increased the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, droughts, flooding and rainfall-triggered landslides (IPCC, 2021). In certain places some of these impacts seem to have intersected. For example, the very recent devastating flood events in Pakistan (August 2022) were said to have been triggered due to a prolonged heatwave, which initially created some of the Himalayan glaciers to melt and also caused an early start to the monsoon season with above normal rain (Mallapaty, 2022). In many countries, particularly in developing countries these climate hazards then affect agriculture sector, which tends to be extremely weather sensitive causing severe food shortages in the medium to longer term. Tol (2018) argues that the uncertainty about the estimates of the impact of climate change on total economic welfare is rather large and the impact is felt more intense in developing countries due to their excessive vulnerability and exposure to climate change impacts. Other challenges such as increasing poverty, environmental degradation and global security concerns including food security also dominate the global agenda and often interconnected with the effects of climate change. Whilst this affects urban areas dominated by various forms of agriculture, lots of other sectors, interconnected with agriculture are also affected. Esham and Garforth (2013) for instance argued that the reduction of agriculture productivity has severely affected the rural per capita income in most of the countries and thereby the poverty levels of the communities have been significantly increased due to the effects on peoples livelihoods.

The aim of the PhD project is to investigate the effects of climate change impacts / variability on livelihoods of people and sectors of economy. The Centre for Disaster Resilience (CDR) researchers in association with the THINKlab at the University of Salford (www.thinklab.salford.ac.uk) have been conducting research into digital platforms which provides users with a collaborative environment so they can build their intelligence in disaster risk reduction and, ultimately, save people’s lives. Therefore, there is opportunity for this PhD project to use some of THINKlab technology platforms (e.g. the MOBILISE platform – see https://thinklab.salford.ac.uk/research/mobilise/) to add more context to the PhD project with the use of digital visualisation techniques. Prospective students can further define their PhD project based on the desired economic sectors and the use of digital visualization techniques (this is optional not essential) using the expertise of one of Salford’s state of the art digital centres: the THINKlab. 

For more details/enquiries contact Prof Bingu Ingirige: m.j.b.ingirige@salford.ac.uk. Please follow these links to gain information on fees and funding: Fees and funding | University of Salford; Fees and funding | University of Salford.