I am currently working as a Principal Investigator at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria). I hold a PhD from the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University in London (UK) with a focus on political geography and flood risk management. My research interests are generally broad, but I am focused urban environmental change, resilience, and adaptation transitions. In the past three years, I have received over €2.5 million in funding as Principal Investigator or Co-Applicant from National and European sources; these include JPI-Urban, the Austrian Climate Research Programme, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
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The research projects focus on how extreme hydrological events have focused the attention of communities on their vulnerability to natural hazards. Both ongoing and past research projects build on the disaster risk, as well as communities’ conceptual framing of risk, investigating the influence of socio-political developments on hazard exposure, vulnerability, and the capacity to cope with and adapt to extreme events.
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Within these research projects I use a broad methodological repertoire, integrating quantitative and qualitative social science research methods, data collections and assessments. My research methods have been driven by (1) qualitative research methods, such as semi-structure interviews with government officials as well as households, q-methodology and focus group discussions, (2) quantitative approaches, such as surveys and social networks and (3) scenario-based stakeholders.
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I have been involved in past and ongoing Special Reports of the Austrian Panel of Climate Change, as well as acting as expert reviewer for reports of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Further, I act as a Coordinating Lead Author for the chapter on “Socioeconomic and climatic drivers of land use change in Austria: past and future developments and their drivers, integrated, socio-ecological perspectives” for the current Special Report on Land use, land management and climate change of the Austrian Panel of Climate Change. Currently, I serve on the editorial board of the Journals Society & Natural Resources and Journal of Flood Risk Management.
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I have followed through with a number of project, consistently having published in top ranking international journals, including Science of the Total Environment, Current Opinion of Environmental Sustainability and Environment Science & Policy, as well as numerous policy-informing book chapters and government reports.