Speakers of the Working Group
Mag. Dr. Andreas Mayer
Department of Geography University of Innsbruck Innrain 52f, 6020 Innsbruck/Austria
Phone: +43-512-507-54068 Email: Andreas.Mayer@uibk.ac.at
PD Dr. Alexandra Titz
Department of Geography Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg Wetterkreuz 15, 91058 Erlangen/Germany
Phone: +49 9131 85-22011 Email: alexandra.titz@fau.de
Prof. Dr. Liang Emlyn Yang
Department of Geography Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich Luisenstraße 37, 80333 Munich/Germany
Phone: +49 (0)89 / 2180-4092 Email: emlyn.yang@lmu.de
I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Geography. Trained as a sociologist and social ecologist, I am interested in aspects related to the multiple interactions between society and nature. In particular, I work on the social, economic and cultural aspects that drive and shape human (land-use) decisions, and the land-use patterns that emerge from these decisions. I am also interested in the links with risk and socio-ecological resilience in times of global change and climate change, and how mountain communities can contribute to climate change mitigation while adapting to increasing natural hazards and a rapidly changing environment.
I also work part-time at the Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Boku). My personal website can be found at https://boku.ac.at/en/wiso/sec/staff/mayer-andreas.
Research interests: society-nature interactions, risk, socio-ecological resilience, natural hazards, land use, ecosystem services
Regions: Alps, Eastern Austria, Europe
Methods: biophysical modelling, agent-based modelling, semi-structured interviews, expert interviews
My research focuses on the intersection of geographical urban and development studies, disaster studies, and the associated society-environment interactions. My current research focuses on the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary analysis of living environments and livelihoods, which are constantly challenged, contested, and in a state of flux in the context of social pressure, environmental and climate change, hazards, and risks. Aspects of urban development, regulatory processes in cities, and patterns of vulnerability in risk and disaster contexts are of particular importance here. The focus is also on serious disruptions in everyday life and the challenges and opportunities involved in adapting to, dealing with, and overcoming threats. Closely related to this is current research on urban food and livelihood security and urban green infrastructure for establishing a just, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient city.
My research explores the resilience of human-social systems to climate change impacts. I am particularly interested in how societies build and sustain resilience against environmental and climate threats. Another interest is in the assessment and modeling of resilience achievement, progress and potentials. My work emphasizes successful cases, demonstrates significant progress, and showcases the wide array of solutions, technologies, and strategies that enables resilient development. I frame climate resilience through a hopeful lens that underscores human potential, adaptability, and innovation, and fosters a narrative of optimism of human-climate relations against the backdrop of risk and crisis discourses. Besides the specific and technical work, I attempt to understand the fundamental, conceptual and theoretical issues of “resilience systems”.
I employ a diverse set of methodologies, including household surveys, expert interviews, stakeholder network analysis, agent-based modeling, geo-information system and data-driven machine learning. My research spans multiple global regions, including China, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, and Germany, with a historical perspective on social resilience over the past 5,000 years.
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