Community of paperdolls

People making changes

Human and social factors are important contributors to successful adaptation to change. Technological fixes can only take adaptation solutions so far; understanding how residents and communities view possible adaptation measures, how they use technology to improve their lifestyle, and what factors influence personal decision-making, all play a role in influencing successful and robust adaptation strategies.

We’re furthering our work in this space to better understand behavourial change and community networking in order to promote resilience.

Research projects

  • MaRIUS – developing a risk-based approach to managing drought and water scarcity in the UK, the project aims to understand drought impacts from household through to institutional level.
  • Liveable Cities – delivering global and societal well-being through radical engineering solutions, while adhering to a low-carbon, resource secure future.
  • Land of the MUSCos – Multi-Utility Service Companies – considering alternative approaches to infrastructure delivery focusing on end user service needs.
  • LoHCool – investigating and developing strategies to reduce CO2 emissions from space heating and cooling in typical urban buildings, working in China and the UK.
  • STEP-CHANGE – to better understand how people’s transport and travel practices have changed in the past and how they might change in the future
  • ARCoES – enhancing the resilience of coastal energy supply, including local level decision support.
  • SNACC – Suburban neighbourhood adaptation for a changing climate: identifying effective, practical and acceptable means of suburban re-design.
  • FutureNet – what will be the nature of the UK transport system in 2050, both in terms of its physical characteristics and its usage.