Dr Sien Van Der Plank

Research groups

Research interests

• Citizen science and public engagement impacts on adaptative capacity
• Oral history and archival methods to understand past human adaptation
• Qualitative and mixed methods to study social-environmental change
• Risk perceptions and behaviours to hazards
• Environmental, hazard and disaster policy discourses

Current research

Driving Transformation through Community Exchange

The practice and opportunities for transformational adaptation on the coast remain poorly understood, with limited comprehensive review of local level coastal adaptations, little empirical evidence of transformational adaptations and the role of the communities, no framework for sharing adaptation evidence between communities, and no understanding of the capacity of communities to engage in transformational adaptation. Increasingly, residents are expected to be part of coastal adaptation processes but equitable engagement of stakeholders and supporting their participation remains problematic, both in least developed and developed nations. This project explores the idea that achieving transformation depends on it being built on the lived experiences and needs of residents. The works will contribute new knowledge and understanding of transformational adaptation that would provide a step change in our approach to climate change adaptation.

Resilience of Coastal Communities

The climate and ecological emergencies, Brexit and Covid-19 illustrate the enormity of change and disturbance currently impacting coastal communities in the UK, and the urgency of building resilience to new forms of risk. The Resilience of Coastal Communities (ROCC) project aims to build the know-how to enhance the resilience of marine resource-users to environmental, regulatory and socio-cultural change, while simultaneously improving their wellbeing and reducing adverse impacts on the marine environment. 

Opportunities for Local Involvement in Transformational Adaptation on the English Coast, 2021-2022

Our coasts are facing unprecedented changes, with climate change driving rising global mean sea level and exacerbating extreme sea level events and coastal hazards.  Coastal communities are particularly exposed to risks of submergence, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion.  Whilst adaptations to change have been central to coastal life for millennia, climate change brings a speed and intensity of change not previously experienced. Researchers are noting that community level adaptations are needed that are large scale, systemic, and requiring significant changes to lives and livelihoods – Transformational Adaptations – yet there is little evidence of this in practice.  Research questions remain: where are transformational adaptations happening, how are they being delivered, how are communities being engaged or empowered to take transformational action; can transformational adaptations create community resilience to climate driven changes? This research aims to overcome that challenges by engaging with key stakeholders in coastal disaster risk reduction, planning and adaptation, to identify how households and community groups can be engaged in these processes.

More than Maps workshops, 2020-

More than Maps was launched in 2020 for the Festival of Social Sciences, and has since reached over one hundred children and adults through its workshops, and has expanded into a collaboration across continents and oceans with partners at the University of Ghana, University of the West Indies, The University of Western Australia, and The University of Sydney. More than Maps is a public engagement initiative, aiming to share replicable and open-access skills in mapping and social science analysis, to empower students and young professionals in research supporting climate change adaptation. The project has received funding from the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences and Public Engagement with Research unit seed funding. More than Maps is supported by the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season.

SARTRAC, 2019-2023

SARTRAC identifies new transformational developmental opportunities that build resilience equitably, for the poorest people affected by mass algal blooms of sargassum seaweed in the tropical Atlantic basin. Specifically, the project identifies drivers of sargassum landings, develop monitoring approaches that are transferable across regions within the basin, and identify adaptation opportunities and challenges generated through the management and re-use of the invasive Sargassum seaweed. Sien worked on this project in 2020-2021 as a Senior research assistant GIS and remote sensing and environmental social science.

Southampton Coastal, 2017-2019

Project launched in 2017 with Public Engagement with Research unit seed funding, supported in 2018 with Festival of Doctoral Research funding. This project developed a coastal system exhibit drawing from multiple disciplines, ranging from archaeology to engineering, to highlight the difficulties faced with life at the coast. Each Southampton Coastal member, PhD students at the University of Southampton, designed an exhibit including games, questionnaires and interactive activities that fit within the central coastal system represented. Southampton Coastal reached hundreds of children and adults across social media and a multitude of festivals and events, including BBC Countryfile Live, SOTSEF, Thomas Hardy School Festival, and the Solent Festival of Engineering. Exhibits and materials remain available for use by coastal PhD students at the University of Southampton. Many involved in this project have gone on to design and delivery further public engagement work.

Research projects