About
Emma Tompkins is an environmental social scientist / human geographer working on how people adapt to climate and weather hazards. She collaborates with natural scientists, oceanographers, hydrologists, biologists, engineers, arts and humanities researchers, and remote sensers on floods, droughts, storms, and complex and compound hazards. She teaches climate adaptation. She currently researches: the effectiveness of adaptations to climate and weather hazards; how to assess global/large scale evidence of climate adaptation; and how people are adapting in real-time to complex hazards e.g. the nuisance seaweed (sargassum spp.) affecting the tropical Atlantic
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- How households and businesses are adapting to climate and weather hazards
- Monitoring real-time adaptation to hydro-meteorological/climate hazards, (including compound and cascading hazards)
- Methods to assess the effectiveness of climate adaptations
- Household, business and community adaptation to coastal change
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Undergraduate class in: Adapting to climate and weather hazards
I am open to PGR supervision in the following areas:
- Human (household, individual, business and community) adaptation to climate and weather shocks, stresses, and compound/complex hazards (in UK, coastal areas, small islands)
- Adaptation pathways for coastal change
- Citizen science for resilience building in hazard-prone areas
Biography
Emma has been researching human adaptations to environmental and climatic shocks. stresses and change for 30 years. Over the last 20 years, she has focussed on how people can and are adapting to past, present and emerging climate and weather hazards, and the nature of climate resilience.
She has been a lead author for the IPCC (AR5, Chap 29. Small Islands), as well as a contributing author to other IPCC Assessment Reports. She contributed to the first and third UK Climate Change Risk Assessments (2012, 2022). She graduated from Universities of Leicester, London and East Anglia with degrees in economics, environmental economics and environmental science respectively.
Prizes
- SUSU Academic Awards 2018: Best Academic Support (Highly Commended) (2018)
- SUSU Academic Awards 2018: Most Engaging Lecturer (Nominated) (2018)
- SUSU Academic Awards 2018: Best Academic Feedback (Nominated) (2018)
- SUSU Academic Awards 2023: Best Academic Support (Winner) (2023)
- VC Awards 2023 for Research Impact (Shortlisted finalist) (2023)
- SUSU Academic Awards 2024: Best Pastoral Support (Nominated) (2024)
- SUSU Academic Awards 2021: Best Academic Support (Nominated) (2021)