About the project
Coastal flooding hazard will be increasing over the next century driven by unavoidable sea level rise and other climate change impacts. Since we cannot eliminate the risk of all marine hazards on coastal communities, many coastal management strategies are shifting towards adaptive solutions.
Understanding the relationships between people and nature is a key component of sustainable management and climate adaptation. However, lack of knowledge about the diversity of risk perceptions within and across communities, and limited understanding of climate-related coastal flooding risk, coastal change, and the need for adaptation, are limiting the effectiveness of coastal management strategies.
This project will gain new insight into the relationship between coastal communities and coastal adaptation by addressing the following questions:
- How and why do local perceptions of coastal hazards and risks vary within and between communities?
- How do community perceptions of risk compare with evidence from state-of-the-art coastal numerical modelling?
- What are the implications for adaptive capacity and engagement with local communities at various scales?
Outcomes from the project will include new evidence to support more effective communication between coastal managers and local communities and to help foster a widespread culture of engagement within coastal management.
The project will draw upon national scale modelling, the UK national survey on ocean literacy, and focus on communities from England’s south coast.
You will liaise with project partners and practitioners to choose appropriate cases. Case studies may include analysis on local practitioner engagement approaches to understand communication pathways with communities, and household surveys to assess risk perceptions, their drivers, and impacts on adaptive capacities.
You will adopt mixed methods to develop assessments of community perceptions of coastal change and risks, including drawing on the UK’s ocean literacy survey questions. There may be scope for workshops nationally to compare local results to the wider UK context and explore opportunities for co-developing adaptive pathways for the case study communities.
Please contact the lead supervisor if you require further information about the project.
Potential supervisors
Lead supervisor
Dr Sien Van Der Plank PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Research interests
- Multi-scale analysis using mixed methods of coastal flood risk management across policy domains, organisational stakeholders and households.
- Risk attitudes and behaviours to the natural environment in relation to perceived, expected and experienced social and physical changes.
- Mixed methods analysis of the form and evolution of stakeholder perceptions toward mining, expected impacts of mining, and experiences of consultation process.
Entry requirements
You must have a UK 2:1 honours degree or higher in a relevant subject.
You can also have its international equivalent.
International applications
If English is not your first language, you will need an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) overall score of 6.5, with a minimum of 6.0 in all components.
Visit our English language proficiency pages to find out about other qualifications we accept.
Fees and funding
For UK students, tuition fees and a stipend of £15,285 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.
How to apply
You need to:
- choose programme type (Research), 2025/26, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
- choose PhD in Ocean and Earth Science FLOOD CDT (full time)
- add the project title under ‘Topic or field of research proposed’
- add your supervisor in section 2
Applications should include:
- a 1 page statement of your research interests in flooding and FLOOD-CDT and your rationale for your choice of project
- a CV (resumé) giving details of your academic record and stating your research interests
- name two current academic referees together with institutional email addresses (on submission of your online application your referees will be automatically emailed requesting they send a reference to us directly by email)
- academic transcripts and degree certificates (translated if not in English) – if you have completed both a BSc and an MSc, we require both
- an IELTS/TOEFL certificate, if applicable.
Contact us
Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
If you have a general question, email our doctoral college: fels-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk.
Project leader
For project specific queries, email the lead supervisor Sien Van Der Plank: sien.vanderplank@soton.ac.uk.
