Climate change adaptation, vulnerability and services
The CCAVS research group co-led by Dr. Susanne Lorenz and Dr. Ajay Bhave, brings together climate change researchers from across a range of academic disciplines, scales and geographies. We recognise the urgent need to accelerate adaptation and build resilience to climate variability and change. Our group focuses on research on uncertainty, changing risks, vulnerability, future climate information, risk perception and communication, and adaptation decision making.
Specifically, we focus on;
Climate change adaptation: decision-support under deep uncertainty, climate risk perception and communication, adaptation tracking, and the design and implementation of adaptation policies and programmes.
Climate change vulnerability: vulnerability assessment approaches with a strong focus on Indigenous communities and the integration of diverse sources of knowledge (western science, local and Indigenous knowledge).
Climate services: co-production and development of climate services using multi-disciplinary approaches, methods for generating, provisioning, contextualising, and communicating future climate information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision making at all levels of society.
Climate risk perceptions and communication: testing and tailoring of different formats, channels and modi of climate risk information, and how these are perceived, understood, and used by different audiences.
Our research is truly global; ranging from Indigenous communities in the Arctic to European organisations, and from fast changing economies like India and China to countries in Africa. Central to our thinking is using knowledge co-production, collaborating with stakeholders in an iterative approach that is based on mutual trust and shared ownership of the research. The ethical dimensions are critical to us as individuals and as an academic organisation and underpins all our research activities. The nature of the challenge requires a multi- and inter-disciplinary research group. Collectively, we are able to draw on insights and methods from environmental social science, health sciences, human geography, science and technology studies, psychology, and sustainability science. We also collaborate with climate science experts, industry experts, communities, and other users of climate information.
We also have close links with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) and the Leeds Climate Commission (LCC) which are two independent advisory bodies that bring together a wide range of people from the public, private and third sectors to support, facilitate and enable the delivery of ambitious climate action across Yorkshire and the Humber and the city of Leeds. Our latest collaborative project with the YHCC has been the development of weather narratives for the Yorkshire and Humber region (here) and some members the CCAVS group as LCC Commissioners (here).
Further information
View all members of our research group, our recent projects and publications.
PhD projects
We have opportunities for prospective postgraduate researchers. Find out more.
Contact us
If you would like to discuss an area of research in more detail, please contact Dr. Susanne Lorenz or Dr. Ajay Bhave.