Climate and Environmental Change

About the Cluster

This cluster investigates the influence of past, present and future climate change and environmental change on a range of natural and anthropogenic systems. It utilises the latest generation of climate scenarios and observations alongside advanced statistical analysis and AI applications to deliver stakeholder-relevant climate information and new datasets in initiatives to drive to net zero. The cluster's objectives include:

advancing the understanding of climate mechanisms that drive environmental impacts, notably extreme events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires.
reconstructing the interactions between past climate, ecological and societal changes using historical and palaeoenvironmental archives.
enhancing community practices for assessing the performance of climate models.
improving the reliability of climate change scenarios for environmental impact assessments.
developing new sectoral impact scenarios of future climate- induced changes, integrating climate model information in hydrological, crop growth, fire spread, and species distribution models.
enriching communication of climate risks to leverage risk mitigation and adaptation planning using a range of multi- media approaches.

Cluster Lead

Dr Jonathan Eden

Jonathan Eden is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, which he joined in 2017 following research roles at the University of Birmingham and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. His research focuses on the impacts of climate variability and anthropogenic change on extreme events such as floods, droughts, and wildfires, with particular emphasis on using the latest generation of climate models and projections to assess future risk. He also contributes to advancing understanding of the resilience of agricultural and forest systems under climate stress, and to improving the communication of climate-related risks. Jonathan has a growing interest in applying machine learning and other AI techniques to climate and environmental data, and plays a central role in maintaining and developing the Centre’s research computing infrastructure.

Publications

The members of the cluster regularly publish articles, monographs, book chapters, and other media on this multidisciplinary subject. For the most recent publications, please see outputs on the Coventry University Pure page.

Publications

Projects

The members of the cluster lead and collaborate on a number of research projects and additional projects are available on the Coventry University Research Portal.

Projects

Featured Projects

A footpath running through a heather filled hillside

Anthropogenic Heathlands: disturbance ecologies and the social organisation of past resilient landscapes

This project explores how ancient communities in Northern Europe maintained vast areas of heathlands for several millennia through fire, grazing, and turf-removal. These currently threatened habitats depended on constant disturbance to survive, raising questions about how prehistoric societies self-organised around shared land and developed resilient governance systems. The research aims to uncovers the deep-time ecological and social strategies that enabled long-term landscape stability despite major societal changes.

Integrating risks of severe drought and fire into management of Swedish production forests (RISK-DF)

This project helps future-proof Swedish forestry by modelling how drought and wildfires, made worse by climate extremes, affect forest productivity. By integrating these risks into HEUREKA, a key decision-making tool, the research supports smarter, long-term forest management. It combines national data and new fieldwork to predict and manage climate-driven threats to Sweden’s wood production.

Eastern Madagascar: aerial view of deforested and degrading hills

Climate Change in Madagascar: Impacts on sylvo-hydro-agrosystems (CC-MADA)

This project investigates how climate change affects forests, water systems, and agriculture in Madagascar. Bringing together researchers from Madagascar and France, it combines scientific research with training and capacity-building. The goal is to better understand environmental changes in the region and support sustainable development by involving local researchers and stakeholders in long-term climate resilience efforts.

A farmer watering crops with a watering can in Uganda

Foreseeing Management Of Emerging Unprecedented Hydroclimatic Extremes To Embrace Resilience In Sub-Saharan African Communities

Sub-Saharan Africa faces growing risks from extreme floods and droughts, threatening water and food security. Current strategies lack future-focused insights, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) remain underexplored in the region. This project co-develops an interdisciplinary framework with local stakeholders to model future climate scenarios, assess NbS sustainability, and support equitable, climate-resilient planning for communities.