Professor Emma Tompkins

Personal statement:

I am an environmental geographer working on:

i) Place-based household lived experience of, impacts of and adaptations to climate and weather hazards including: inland and coastal floods; storms; droughts; nuisance seaweeds; sea level rise; extreme heat. Including monitoring real-time adaptation to hydro-meteorological/climate hazards (including compound and cascading hazards)

ii) Methods to assess the effectiveness of climate adaptations including coping, incremental change and social transformation, including conceptualising methods; small-scale (e.g. surveys, focus groups, interviews) and large-scale data collection (systematic reviews, inventorising).

iii) Theory of climate adaptation, links to equity, justice, and the intersection between social science and policy-making

Key topic areas of research or interest:

Social science perspectives on adapting to climate and weather hazards, sustainability and social-ecological resilience e.g. re: UK floods, storms, sea level rise and erosion. Small islands storms and floods; mega-delta sea level rise;

Environmental (risk) perception, experience and policy: human behaviours re: environmental risk (tropical cyclones and floods)

Place, planning, engagement and coastal change (e.g. UK coastal change management)

Publications:

Atiglo, D. Y., Jayson-Quashigah, P.N., Sowah, W., Tompkins, E.L. & Appeaning Addo, K. (2024). Misperception of drivers of risk alters willingness to adapt in the case of sargassum influxes in West Africa, Global Environmental Change, 84, p. 102779. Misperception of drivers of risk alters willingness to adapt in the case of sargassum influxes in West Africa – ScienceDirect

Sowah, W., Jayson-Quashigah, P.N., Atiglo, D. Y., van der Plank, S., Dominguez-Almela, V., Anderson, R., Dash, J., Tompkins, E.L. & Appeaning Addo, K. (2024) Unleashing Potential: Collaborative Research as a Catalyst for Capacity Building and Enhancement. Oceanography Unleashing Potential: Collaborative Research as a Catalyst for Capacity Building and Enhancement | Oceanography

Brown, S., Tompkins, E. L. et al (2023). Transitions in modes of coastal adaptation: addressing blight, engagement and sustainability. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10:1153134. Frontiers | Transitions in modes of coastal adaptation: addressing blight, engagement and sustainability

Dominguez Almela, V., Addo, K. A., Corbett, J., Cumberbatch, J., Dash, J., Marsh, R., & Tompkins, E. L. (2023). Science and policy lessons learned from a decade of adaptation to the emergent risk of sargassum proliferation across the tropical Atlantic. Environmental Research Communications, 5(6), 061002. doi:10.1088/2515-7620/acd493 Science and policy lessons learned from a decade of adaptation to the emergent risk of sargassum proliferation across the tropical Atlantic – IOPscience

Dominguez Almela, V., Tompkins, E., Dash, J., & Tonon, T. (2023). Brown algae invasions and bloom events need routine monitoring for effective adaptation. Environmental Research Letters. Brown algae invasions and bloom events need routine monitoring for effective adaptation – IOPscience

Lonsdale, K., Arnell, N., Coles, T., Lock, K., O’Connell, E., O’Hare, P., & Tompkins, E. (2023). Climate Resilience: Interpretations of the Term and Implications for Practice. In: Dessai, S. et al (eds) Quantifying Climate Risk and Building Resilience in the UK. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39729-5_2

Townend, I., French, J. R., Nicholls, R., Brown, S., Carpenter, S., Haigh, I., Hill, C., Lazarus, E., Penning-Rowsell, E., Thompson, C., & Tompkins, E.L. (2021). Operationalising coastal resilience to flood and erosion hazard: A demonstration for England. Science of the Total Environment, 783, [146880] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146880

Suckall, N. and Tompkins, E.L. (2020) Climate Compatible Development: Generating Co-Benefits from Climate Change Planning. Sustainability 12(2), 496; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020496

Tselios. V. and Tompkins, E.L. (2020) Can we prevent disasters using socioeconomic and political policy tools? International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 51, December 2020, 101764 Can we prevent disasters using socioeconomic and political policy tools? – ScienceDirect

Olazabal, M., de Gopegui, M. R., Tompkins, E. L., Venner, K., & Smith, R. (2019). A cross-scale worldwide analysis of coastal adaptation planning. Environmental Research Letters, 14(12), 124056. A cross-scale worldwide analysis of coastal adaptation planning – IOPscience

Tselios, V. and Tompkins, E.L. (2019) What causes nations to recover quickly from disasters? An inquiry into the roles of wealth, income inequality, and social welfare provision. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 33: 162-180 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.10.003

Tompkins, E.L., Vincent, K., Nicholls, R.J., and Suckall, N. (2018) Documenting the state of adaptation for the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement. WIREs Climate Change. 2018; e545. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.545