An ECI graduate has been highly commended for a paper she wrote while studying as a DPhil at the Environmental Change Institute.
Dr Lisa Thalheimer-Prezyna was a DPhil from 2017-2021. Her paper: ‘Compound impacts of extreme weather events and COVID-19 on climate mobilities’ was published in the academic journal Area in 2022.
The article was recently entered into the Area Prize, run by the journal’s publishers the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG), which ‘celebrates and rewards excellent geographical research published by early-career scholars’.
The editors said: “This paper is a great example of an Area article covering interesting and topical subject matter in a novel way, in this case using CV-19 and climate related mobility. By building on an established conceptual framework of causation of mobility decisions, the work adds important insights into the impacts of CV-19.
The paper is well structured and written with a clear view towards the policy relevance of its findings, making the work of significant potential impact. Many congratulations, on behalf of the Editors and the RGS-IBG.”
Dr Thalheimer-Prezyna said:
In the paper I assess compound effects from different hazards and climate impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. The study contributes to a growing body of literature that shows that climate migration outcomes are multifaceted.
There are some cases in which impacts of climate change might increase migration, but in a lot of cases, migration might not be possible because existing social vulnerabilities prevent vulnerable populations from accumulating the resources needed to migrate, for example from rural to urban areas.
Unpacking complexities when and where people can move when hit by extreme weather and COVID-19 has opened a window on early and anticipatory action: Dealing with a climate disaster after the fact means that adaptation becomes more costly. If we take the early warning signs from weather forecasts of an unfolding extreme weather event into consideration, we know the places that are most vulnerable in advance. Humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre can then provide support before the natural hazards get bad, equipping communities with the resources to deal with the extreme weather once it comes.”
The paper was one of a number Dr Lisa Thalheimer-Prezyna wrote while studying at the ECI. Others include; ‘Large weather and conflict effects on internal displacement in Somalia with little evidence of feedback onto conflict’ and ‘Advancing the evidence base of future warming impacts on human mobility in African drylands’.
Dr Lisa Thalheimer-Prezyna is now a Senior Researcher in Climate Science with the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), after completing a postdoc at Princeton.