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| Dr Katerina Michaelides |
In conversation with Dr Katerina Michaelides, co-theme
lead at the Cabot Institute
Why did you choose to become a theme
leader at Cabot Institute?
I was particularly attracted
to this role because I am strongly committed to increasing the visibility of
the great water-related work going on in the University, and because I feel
strongly about developing the water research community within Bristol and
further afield. Over the years since its creation, Cabot Institute has been instrumental
in developing my connections with others within the University, in fostering
new collaborations and in encouraging new and creative avenues of research. In
that same spirit, I relished the opportunity to perform a similar role within
the Cabot Water theme and give back to the community by helping to foster
collaborations, contacts, and new avenues of research. I believe in the Cabot
mission and ethos and felt that I can help strengthen the Water theme in this
more formal role.
In your opinion, what is one of the biggest global challenges
associated with your theme? (Feel free to name others if there is more than
one)
One of the biggest impacts of
climate change is on the water cycle. In fact, climate change can be thought of
as synonymous with changes in the water cycle with far reaching implications
for lives and livelihoods. Think catastrophic storms, droughts, floods,
declining water quality. Water is such a fundamental part of life that many in
the global north take for granted. So if I was to say one biggest challenge, I
would say: addressing global water scarcity and food insecurity challenges
under climate change and anthropogenic pressures. There are of course, many
other challenges….
Across the portfolio of projects in your theme,
what type of institutions are you working with? (For example, governments,
NGO’s)
Our
theme members work with a huge range of non-academic institutions – from
insurance companies, charities, climate services providers, NGOs, local businesses
among others.
What disciplines are currently represented within
your theme?
We have a broad set of
disciplines within the Water theme. These range from water and sanitation,
climate impacts on water balance, flood risk and hazard modelling, flooding and
infrastructure resilience, freshwater biogeochemistry (water quality), hydrometeorology,
dryland hydrology, tropical hydrology, hydrological modelling, forecasting
floods and droughts, water, and humanities. And much more!
In your opinion, why is it important to highlight
interdisciplinary research both in general and here at Bristol?
Global
challenges related to water and climate impacts are inherently multi- and
interdisciplinary in their nature. It starts from understanding how climate is
changing, to how these changes impact the water balance on the ground
hydrology) and may lead to destructive floods or devastating droughts through
their effect on agriculture and drinking water. Ultimately, because water
intersects society on so many different levels (from natural disasters, to
agriculture, to water resources, to droughts) research needs to be interdisciplinary
and consider both environmental and social aspects of the problem.
Are there any projects which are currently underway
in your theme which are interdisciplinary that you believe should be
highlighted in this campaign?
There
are lots of interdisciplinary projects across the Water theme. Personally, our
research focusses on water scarcity, as highlighted by these two projects
below:
Drought
Resilience in East African dryland Regions (DRIER) - This is a collaboration
between hydrologists, climatologists, social scientists, livelihoods experts,
climate adaptation experts. Awarded a Royal Society Grant of £500K for
2020-2023, with Bristol leading and colleagues from Cardiff, UEA, University of
Nairobi, and Addis Ababa University. DRIER has been selected as case study for
the Royal Society Challenge-Led grant scheme and by BEIS for the GCRF.
Mobile App Development for Drought Adaptation in Drylands
(MADDAD) - This
interdisciplinary project between hydrologists and computer scientists, funded
by a GCRF Translational Award (2019-2021) is developing a mobile phone app to
deliver water status forecasts to remote communities in Kenyan drylands. Under
climate change droughts are set to become more intense and frequent and there
is a pressing need for relevant, timely, and practical information about water
resources, particularly with a view to climate change adaptation. However,
rural agro-pastoral populations are sparse and distant from decision-making
centres making it hugely challenging to disseminate useable information in a
timely manner. The provision of a mobile phone app has the potential to
transform decision-making and drought adaptation for a large number of people
in remote, rural dryland regions of East Africa that currently do not have
access to useable and relevant information about the short- and long-term
changes in water scarcity in their location.
Down2Earth - Translation of climate
information into multilevel decision support for social adaptation, policy
development, and resilience to water scarcity in the Horn of Africa Drylands.
Awarded an EU H2020 Grant of €6.7M for 2020-2024, with Cardiff University as
the lead Institution and ~€1M to University of Bristol. In total, 15
Institutions across UK, EU, East Africa, are involved, including many
non-academic actors. This project is completely multi-disciplinary in nature.
For more information, visit Water.