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Professor Emma Tompkins

Professor of Geography, Environment and Development

Emma Tompkins is a Professor of Geography, Environment and Development. She has worked on human dimensions of climate change adaptation since 2001 specifically barriers and limits to institutional adaptation, public-private partnerships for adaptation, and drivers of individual action and inaction, as well as national policy on adaptation.

Research

Publications

Teaching

Contact

Research interests

processes of human/social adaptation to climate variability and change (individual, household, community and state level)
the role of institutions in hazard/climate resilience
risk mitigating behaviours and attitudes (in relation to natural hazards and disaster preparedness)
synergies and trade-offs between climate adaptation, mitigation and development

Her focal areas are:

natural hazards, especially tropical cyclones, floods and drought
climate extremes, variability and change
small island states
coastal zones
Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa

Current research projects

CoastalRes: pathways to coastal resilience in England and Wales over the next 100 years

CoastalRes, led by Professor Robert Nicholls, is a one year NERC funded project, running from February 2019 – January 2020. The aim is to develop and demonstrate prototype methods to assess realistic pathways for strategic coastal erosion and flood resilience in the UK the light of climate change, including sea-level rise.

Recently completed projects

Deltaic Environments, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration as Adaptation (DECCMA)

DECCMA is a 4 year, IDRC-funded, CAD$13.5million programme of applied research on the adaptation options, limits and potential in deltaic environments to current weather variability and extremes, as well as climate change. The project ran from February 2014 to September 2018. Research focussed on four deltas – the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (Bangladesh and India); the Nile (Egypt); the Volta (Ghana); and the Mahanadi (India). Large tracts of land at low elevation make deltas vulnerable to sea-level rise, but they also experience climate impacts such as droughts and fluvial flooding. Deltas have some of the highest population densities in the world with 500 million, often poor, residents. Key outputs all free to download:
Tompkins et al (2018) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.545
Suckall et al (2019) https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/419960/
Nicholls et al (2019) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-23517-8

Pathways of resilience to future storms - PREFUS (2013-2017)

This Leverhulme-funded project investigated the drivers of resilience of crop lands to tropical cyclones. We focussed on a case study of Kendrapara, Odisha in East India. PREFUS focussed specifically on identifying where (and why) rice croplands withstand or recover rapidly from tropical cyclone impacts such that there is little or no harm to livelihoods, food security and economic development in the region. Key outputs from this project (free to download):
Duncan et al (2017) https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/411640/1/agrfood_02_00165_002.pdf
Duncan et al (2017) https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss4/art3/

Linking Adaptation, Mitigation and Development in East Africa in Coastal Forests and Agricultural Systems (2011-2013)

This project explores the synergies and trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and development, looking at different development pathways and policy mixes in coastal areas.

Achieving Triple Wins: Identifying Climate Smart Investment Strategies for the Coastal Zone (2011-2012)

This demand-led project aims to support policy makers in making hard choices about resource allocation to achieve climate compatible development. The project involves an assessment of the co-benefits of adaptation and mitigation activities in the coastal zone. It focuses on case studies in four areas off Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Research group

Environmental Change and Sustainability (ECaS)

Research project(s)

Coastal resilience in the face of sea-level rise

Pathways of resilience to future storms

Linking Adaptation, Mitigation and Development in East Africa in Coastal Forests and Agricultural Systems

Achieving Triple Wins: Identifying Climate Smart Investment Strategies for the Coastal Zone

Deltas, Vulnerability & Climate Change: Migration & Adaptation

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Key Publication

Suckall, N., Tompkins, E. L., Nicholls, R. J., Kebede, A. S., Lázár, A. N., Hutton, C., Vincent, K., Allan, A., Chapman, A., Rahman, R., Ghosh, T., & Mensah, A. (2018). A framework for identifying and selecting long term adaptation policy directions for deltas. Science of the Total Environment, 633, 946-957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.234

Articles

Books

Boyd, E., & Tompkins, E. (2010). Climate change. A beginner's guide. Oneworld.
Brown, K., Tompkins, E., & Adger, W. N. (2002). Making waves. Integrating coastal conservation and development. Earthscan Publications.

Book Chapters

Conferences

Letter/Editorial

Suckall, N. R., & Tompkins, E. L. (2020). Climate compatible development: generating co-benefits from climate change planning. Sustainability, 12(2), 1-4. [496]. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020496

Reports

Waite, R., Burke, L., Gray, E., van Beukering, P., Brander, L., Mackenzie, E., Pendleton, L., Schuhmann, P., & Tompkins, E. L. (2014). Coastal capital: ecosystem valuation for decision making in the Caribbean. World Resources Institute.
Tompkins, E. (2014). IPCC Assessment Report Five: chapter 29 on Small Islands. IPCC.
van Beukering, P., Brander, L., Tompkins, E., & Mackenzie, E. (2007). Valuing the Environment in Small Islands: An Environmental Economics Toolkit. Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Tompkins, E. L., Boyd, E., Nicholson-Cole, S. A., Weatherhead, K. (Ed.), Arnell, N. W., & Adger, W. N. (2005). Linking adaptation research and practice. University of East Anglia.
Tompkins, E. L., Nicholson-Cole, S., Hurlston, L-A., Boyd, E., Hodge, G., Clarke, J., Trotz, N., & Varlack, L. (2005). Surviving climate change in small islands: a guidebook. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Arnell, N., Tompkins, E. L., Adger, N., & Delaney, K. (2005). Vulnerability to abrupt climate change in Europe. (Tyndall Centre Technical Report; No. 34). Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Brown, K., Adger, W. N., & Tompkins, E. (2001). Building consensus among stakeholders for management of natural resources at the land water interface. (Final report to Natural Resources Systems Programme Department for International Development, Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia). Department for International Development.
Brown, K., Adger, W. N., Tompkins, E. L., Bacon, P., Shim, D., & Young, K, K. (1999). Evaluating trade-offs between users of marine protected areas in the Caribbean. (Final report to Natural Resources Systems Programme Department for International Development. Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia). Department for International Development.

Review

Fanchiotti, M., Dash, J., Tompkins, E. L., & Hutton, C. W. (2020). The 1999 super cyclone in Odisha, India: a systematic review of documented losses. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 51, 1-10. [101790]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101790

Working Papers

Porter, J. J., Dessai, S., & Tompkins, E. L. (2014). What do we know about UK household adaptation to climate change? A systematic review. (Sustainability Research Institute Paper; No. 70). SRI, University of Leeds.
Tompkins, E. L., Mensah, A., King, L., Long, T. K., Lawson, E. T., Hutton, C. W., Hoang, V. A., Gordon, C., Fish, M., Dyer, J., & Bood, N. (2013). An investigation of the evidence of benefits from climate compatible development. (Sustainability Research Institute Paper; No. 44). Sustainability Research Institute.
Tompkins, E. L., Fraser, E., Stringer, L., Beharry, N., Quinn, C., Termansen, M., Challinor, A. J., Paavola, J., Gouldson, A., & Forster, P. (2008). Response from the University of Leeds, Sustainability Research Institute and Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution study on adapting the UK to climate change. University of Leeds.
Tompkins, E. L. (2003). Development Pressures and Management Considerations in Small Caribbean Islands' Coastal Zones. (Environmental Change and Management; No. ECM 03-08). CSERGE.
Tompkins, E. (2003). Using Stakeholders Preferences in Multi-attribute Decision Making: Elicitation and Aggregation Issue. (Environmental Change and Management; No. ECM 01-13). CSERGE.

Undergraduate:

GEOG3057 – Adapting to climate and weather hazards (convenor)

PhD supervision:

Emma is currently supervising:

Margherita Fanciotti (Southampton, started 2014)
Tropical cyclone resilience in the Mahanadi Delta, India

Giorgia Prati (Southampton, started 2014)
Gender and adaptation: the implications of migration for women’s adaptive capacity in the Mahanadi delta, India

Heather Brown (Southampton, started 2016)
Governance of cyclone risk in coastal zones: a case study of Samoa https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/postgraduate/research_students/hb11g13.page

Sien van der Plank (Southampton, started 2016)
Management of coastal flooding in England through spatial planning, engineering and insurance https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/postgraduate/research_students/svdp1c16.page

Martin Watts (Southampton, started 2018)
The role of multi-storey home gardens in adaptation to climate change in mountainous regions
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/postgraduate/research_students/maw2u17.page

Yanna Fidai (Southampton, started 2019)
‘The assessment of the spatial and temporal distribution and impact of Sargassum seaweed across the tropical Atlantic basin’

Emma's previous students include:

Miriam Joshua (Southampton, 2012-2019)
Formal institutions in equitable access to drinking water for food security in Malawi

Fiona Simmance (Southampton, 2013-2017)
The role of small-scale Inland Capture Fisheries for food security in Malawi

Radhika Dave (Southampton, 2012- 2016)
The relationship between forest management and agricultural resilience in smallholder farming communities in Madagascar

Alex Chapman (Southampton, 2012-2015)
Climate change adaptation, mitigation and development in the Mekong Delta

Tudor Vilcan (Southampton, 2012-2016)
Discourses of resilience in climate change adaptation policy

Paola Hernandez Montes de Oca (Leeds, 2009-2013)
Vulnerability and resilience of SMEs to extreme weather events in south-east México

Khandaker Munim (Leeds, 2008-2013)
Vulnerability of food systems to salinity intrusion in south-west Bangladesh

Salma Hegga (Leeds/Southampton, 2008-2013)
Social capital and flood preparedness in Kilosa District, Tanzania

Arnoldo Matus Kramer (Oxford, 2006- 2011)
Adaptation to climate change in the tourism sector of the rapidly urbanizing Yucatan Caribbean coast

She is interested in supervising in the following areas:

Human dimensions of climate change adaptation (including drivers and barriers)
Socio-ecological resilience for natural disaster management
Natural hazard risk management
Science-policy links in integrated coastal zone management
Small island sustainability

Professor Emma Tompkins
Building 44, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ

Room Number: 44/2083

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