Dr Alhassan Ibrahim

Personal statement:

Environmental decisions around land use, freshwater, and restoration are rarely straightforward. They are shaped by complex political, social, and institutional dynamics, often unfolding in messy and uncertain contexts. As an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist, I investigate how these dynamics influence ecosystem restoration, nature-based solutions, and governance processes. Using primarily qualitative methods, and occasionally quantitative ones, I explore how decision-making systems can better navigate such complexity to support more just and sustainable transformations in environmental and land management. Through my work across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia, I contribute to policy-relevant, research that addresses climate challenges and enhances liveability.

Key topic areas of research or interest:

• Problem: Climate risks, land use complexity, and water insecurity (flood, drought), competing policy and stakeholder interests.
• Environmental setting: Freshwater systems (particularly peatlands, wetlands, riverways) and rural and per-urban landscapes in the UK Europe, Africa sometimes globally.
• Thematic and conceptual focus: Governance, policy arrangement, social justice, transformations, nature-based solutions, blue-green infrastructure, ecosystem approaches.
• Methods: Mostly qualitative, but sometimes quantitative, including surveys. Specially, interested in methods focused on policy analysis, stakeholder participation, scenario development and exploring empirical case studies.
• Intended outcomes: Socially supported and policy ready pathways for climate adaptation, sustainable and just land use and freshwater systems.

Collaboration opportunities:

I am open to collaborations that advance inclusive, policy-relevant approaches to freshwater and land use governance, ecosystem restoration, nature-based solutions and climate adaptation. I welcome partnerships across academia, government, civil society, and industry to co-produce knowledge that supports socially just and context-sensitive environmental management. I am especially interested in interdisciplinary collaborations, UK, EU and African-relevant project consortia, and stakeholder-focused research that shapes real-world outcomes.

Publications:

• Ibrahim, A.; Marshall, K.; Carmen, E.; Blackstock, K.; Waylen, K. (2025) Raising standards for stakeholder engagement in Nature-based Solutions: Navigating the why, when, who and how, Environmental Science and Policy, 163, 103971
• Carmen, E.; Ibrahim, A.; Blackstock, K.; Waylen, K. (2024) A transformations framework for mainstreaming a nature-based solutions approach, Nature-Based Solutions, 6, article 100199
• Ibrahim, A.; Bartsch, K.; Sharifi, E. (2024) Waterways transformation and green stormwater infrastructure: enabling governance for Adelaide’s River Torrens Catchment, Australia, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 40(1), 33-56
• Ibrahim, A.; Salifu, A.; Peprah, C. (2023) Does governance matter when disaster looms? Zooming into proactive institutional measures for flood risk management, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 97, Art. 104021
• Ibrahim, A.; Bartsch, K.; Sarifi, E. (2023) Overarching barriers to mainstream green stormwater infrastructure in Ghana: Towards good green governance, Environmental Science & Policy, 147, 15-28

• Ibrahim, A.; Bartsch, K.; Sharifi, E. (2020) Green infrastructure needs green governance: Lessons from Australia’s largest integrated stormwater management project, the River Torrens Linear Park, Journal of Cleaner Production, 261, Art. 121202