Dr Susanne Lorenz

Profile

I am a lecturer in Climate Change Adaptation at the Sustainability Research Institute in the School of Earth and Environment and have been working in the field of climate change adaptation, both in research and in practice, for over 15 years.

Prior to joining the University as a lecturer, I have worked in the Local Government sector in the UK and in environmental consultancy on climate risk, resilience and adaptation.
In the latter role, I worked with a variety of different private and public sector clients and stakeholders across the UK focusing on supporting these organisation by undertaking climate risk and vulnerability assessments, developing adaptation plans and providing capacity building and training on climate risk and adaptation. I worked across a variety of sectors including professional services, buildings, food and drinks, highways and local government. In my early career, I worked in Local Government in the UK focusing on leading climate risk management processes, helping the different services within the organisation to understand their exposure to climate change, identify the possible risks and develop potential adaptation actions.

Responsibilities

• Co-Lead for the Climate Change Adaptation, Vulnerability and Services Research Group
• Joint Programme Leader for the MSc Climate Futures: Science, Society and Politics

Research interests

I am an interdisciplinary researcher and particularly enjoy applied and practice-relevant research.

My research interests include:

• understanding and facilitating organisational progress on climate adaptation
• understanding the demand for and use of climate information in adaptation decision-making
• trialling and improving the visual communication of climate data to enable more effective tailoring of climate services
• examining the impact of legislative and regulatory drivers on climate adaptation

• Local Authority Climate Service (LACS) User follow-up

Qualifications

• PhD, Communicating, tailoring and using climate projections in adaptation planning [Leeds]
• MSc, Sustainability (Climate Change) [Leeds]
• BA (Hons), Politics and Italian [Bath]

Student education

I am a joint Programme Leader for the MSc Climate Futures: Science, Society and Politics and teach on climate-facing modules and programmes across the School of Earth and Environment.

I am involved in the following modules:

• Social and Political Dimensions of the Climate Challenge (MSc)
• Engaging with Climate Change: Capstone Project (MSc)
• Climate Risk (MSc)
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation (UG)
• Environmental Research Project (UG)
• Change for Sustainable Development (UG)

I also act as the external examiner for the MSc Sustainable Resources: Economics, Policy and Transitions at UCL.

Teaching Fellowships

• Fellowship from Advance Higher Education (FHEA)

Current PhD Students

• Sheylla Breat Sulca Paredes – ‘Exploring the value of regional decadal climate prediction for adaptation planning’ (supervised with Suraje Dessai and Amanda Maycock)
• Dylan Dearnaley – ‘Protecting UK infrastructure from landslides triggered by climate extremes’ (supervised with Cathryn Birch and Fleur Loveridge)

Areas for PhD supervision:

I welcome queries on doctoral dissertation projects on topics such as:

• Climate change risk management
• Impacts of, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change
• Climate Services
• Climate adaptation governance

Research groups and institutes

• Climate Change Adaptation, Vulnerability and Services
• Sustainability Research Institute