Embedding resilience in impact assessment (BONDA1_U21SF) at University of East Anglia on FindAPhD.com

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Dr A Bond No more applications being accepted Self-Funded PhD Students Only

Norwich United Kingdom Architecture Built Environment Computational Mathematics Ecology Economic Geography Environmental Geography Public Policy Rural Planning Social Geography Urban Planning

About the Project

The interconnected global economic system - combined with high rates of resource utilization and the degradation of natural capital - is eroding the resilience of the economy, society and the environment to the point where, as illustrated by Covid-19, they have become a severe risk to the wellbeing of people and the economy (IRP, 2020). As the rate of economic growth increases, so do the risks to health, food security, environment and climate.

One of the underlying reasons for the current situation is that the variety of impact assessment processes that are intended to predict the consequences of a given development proposal (a policy, plan, program, or a major project) are unable to deal effectively with the complexity and uncertainty of environmental change (Bond et al., 2015). This mismatch between established impact assessment practice and unpredictability can be addressed by the consideration of resilience, as part of good impact assessment practice (Jones, 2018; Slootweg and Jones, 2011). This research aims to identify how impact assessment processes can best incorporate consideration of resilience:

Analyse different approaches to resilience assessments for their potential future use in mainstream impact assessment processes;
Prepare recommendations for the consideration of resilience in impact assessment processes, with an emphasis on strategic levels of decision-making.

The research will help to develop a number of skills including:

Research design
Stakeholder engagement
Documentary analysis
Interview techniques

The student will be embedded in the 3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) research group (https://3sresearch.org/) within the School of Environmental Sciences.

For more information on the supervisor for this project, please go here https://people.uea.ac.uk/alan_bond

This is a PhD programme. The start date is 1st October 2021. The mode of study is full time. The studentship length is 3 years.

Entry requirements: Acceptable first degree 2:1 Environmental Sciences, Geography, Ecology, Social Sciences, Planning.

Applications are processed as soon as they are received and the project may be filled before the closing date, so early application is encouraged.

Funding Notes

This PhD project is offered on a self-funding basis. It is open to applicants with funding or those applying to funding sources. Details of tuition fees can be found at https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/university-information/finance-and-procurement/finance-information-for-students/tuition-fees
A bench fee is also payable on top of the tuition fee to cover specialist equipment or laboratory costs required for the research. Applicants should contact the primary supervisor for further information about the fee associated with the project.

References

i) Jones, M (2018), "Can resilience thinking be integrated into the Strategic Environmental Assessment process?", Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 14(5), pages 571-577
ii) Slootweg, R and M Jones (2011), "Resilience thinking improves SEA: A discussion paper", Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 29(4), pages 263-276
iii) Bond, A, A Morrison-Saunders, J A E Gunn, J Pope and F Retief (2015), "Managing uncertainty, ambiguity and ignorance in impact assessment by embedding evolutionary resilience, participatory modelling and adaptive management", Journal of Environmental Management, 151, pages 97-104.
iv) IRP (2020), "Building Resilient Societies after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Key Messages from the International Resource Panel", available at , last accessed 15 May 2020.

Where will I study?

University of East Anglia

We’re one of the UK’s leading research institutions, ranked 10th in the UK for the quality of our research outputs and with more than 1,500 research students.