Research group

Coastal Communities

View of Blackpool Tower, beach and coastal defences on a sunny day.

Coastal Communities SIG focuses on bringing together researchers and non-academic stakeholders to tackle challenges facing coastal communities. 

About

We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers interested in tackling real-world challenges in coastal communities. We aim to improve understanding and capacity to adapt to these challenges by bringing together those researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders who are affected, interested and/or involved in coastal communities. Through creating a forum for discussion, sharing methods and best practice, and doing research together, we can improve understanding and management of the challenges that coastal communities face, ranging from the health impacts of air pollution to social effects of climate change-driven coastal change.  

On an annual basis, the Coastal Communities SIG will host three formal meetings to:

  • Bring together researchers from across all faculties and institutes at the University of Southampton to discuss coastal communities research and identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. This will support the sustainability of existing working relationships, create space to build new partnerships, and facilitate interdisciplinary coastal communities bid development.
  • Invite University of Southampton researchers and external stakeholders to participate in a methods/best practice workshop, focusing on a cross-cutting approach. This will provide opportunity for researchers and other stakeholders to meet and upskill in methods/best practice they may not have encountered within their own discipline or working practice.
  • Hold a lunchtime forum with academic, policy and practitioners invited both as guest speakers and participants to learn from and network with each other. This will enable researchers and other stakeholders to share leading-edge research and practice and facilitate new collaborative partners for future research.

The Coastal Communities SIG invites those from within and outside of the University of Southampton to join the group. We welcome new ideas for events, trainings, speakers.

To find out more about the Digital Oceans Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champion Sien Van Der Plank.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group and our other special interest groups.

People, projects and publications

People

Professor Toby Tyrrell

Professor of Earth System Science

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Tom Bibby

Professor of Biological Oceanography

Research interests

  • (1) The role of photosynthetic microbes in global biogeochemical cycles(2) The use of photosynthetic microbes for sustainable products

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Tom Ezard

Associate Dean Education

Research interests

  • The bridge from micro- to macroevolution.
  • Scaling ecological dynamics across individuals, populations and ecosystems.
  • Demography for conservation and life history evolution.

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Tom

Professor Toni Martinez Sykora

Professor

Research interests

  • Optimisation and Combinatorial Optimisation 
  • Cutting and packing problems
  • Transportation and vehicle routing problems

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Tony Kushner

James Parkes Professor of History

Research interests

  • Jewish migration history
  • Refugee studies
  • Representation and memory of the Holocaust
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Dr Vicky Dominguez Almela

Lecturer

Research interests

  • My work includes the use of individual-based models (IBMs), geographical information systems (GIS) and stable isotopes to increase understandings of invasion patterns and evaluate invasive species eradication programmes. I also use citizen science tools to co-produce knowledge with the general public and increase adaptation pathways to biological invasions.
  • I have mainly work with fish in the past, but recently I have been fascinated by the invasion of the brown pelagic seaweed called sargassum.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Emeritus Professor Victor Humphrey

Research interests

  • Professor Humphrey has particular research interests in the areas of medical ultrasound and underwater acoustics. Common themes running through his research include the understanding and application of non-linear acoustics and the laboratory measurement of physical acoustic phenomena including scattering. His main research interests include: · Nonlinear propagation, streaming and imaging in medical ultrasonics; · Ultrasonic heating and propagation in biological media; · Parametric arrays and their application to acoustic measurements in the laboratory; · Acoustic transmission and reflection properties of isotropic and anisotropic materials; · Scattering from objects and methods of measuring and predicting the scattered field for regular and irregular bodies; · Numerical modelling of transducers and fields.
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Dr Wassim Dbouk

Research Fellow

Research interests

  • I am currently involved in a multi-disciplinary research project as part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC - https://www.linkedin.com/company/idricuk/), where I am researching the legal and regulatory aspects of the transport of CO2 to support the implementation of the UK Government's Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) plans.
  • My wider research interests include the policy aspects influencing the governance and sustainable management of our oceans and the simultaneous implementation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their respective targets.
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Professor William Powrie

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering

Research interests

  • Railway track and trackbed behaviour and performance
  • Geotechnical transportation infrastructure (earthworks, retaining walls, tunnels)
  • Groundwater and groundwater control

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with William

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

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Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.