Climate Impacts and Adaptation
Climate Impacts and Adaptation
Our research
We are at the forefront of forecasting, predicting changes to, and identifying how to respond to climate hazards and impacts.
Climate research and future risk
Our research is improving the forecasting of droughts, floods, and other climate hazards. Rainfall, wind, heat and associated flood, drought and storm risks are on the increase. We are testing options for adaptation to future weather extremes.
We are developing high-resolution climate scenarios through new downscaling methods. We combine stochastic space-time modelling of extreme weather with high resolution climate models. This includes models that can represent convective rainfall.
UK Climate Projections
We developed the UKCP09 weather generator. This has been further developed into a cloud-enabled spatial weather simulator and an urban weather generator. We continue this work through involvement in the next-generation UKCP18 scenarios.
Global projects addressing current and future challenges
Our projects investigating rainfall extremes and flood risk are global in scope. Our work is crucial in helping to achieve global sustainable development goals.
We have developed practical applications to improve adaptation to climate change. We tackle challenges as part of the Global Water and Energy Exchanges Project.
As members of the Willis Research Network, we address the changing global flood regime and its impacts on the insurance industry.
Impacts of climate change on infrastructure in the UK are being investigated through EPSRC's Infrastructure and Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC). Our core membership of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research provides new policy-oriented challenges for our climate impacts analysis.
Developing the future generation of experts
Recently, NERC awarded us the ONE Planet Doctoral Training Programme. This allows us to draw on the expertise and facilities of both Newcastle and Northumbria University. We will provide a world-leading training environment for up to 60 PhD students.

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COLBE: The creation of localised current and future weather for the built environment
Project Leader(s): Chris Kilsby (Newcastle PI)
Project Dates: September 2015 - August 2018 -
CONVEX: CONVective EXtremes
Project Leader(s): Prof Hayley Fowler -
Future Storms
Project Leader(s): Prof Hayley Fowler -
Future Urban Flood Risk Management
Project Leader(s): Chris Kilsby (Newcastle PI)
Project Dates: October 2016 - September 2019 -
INTENSE
Project Leader(s): Professor Hayley Fowler
Project Dates: February 2014 – January 2019 -
RAMSES: Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for citiES
Project Leader(s): Prof Richard Dawson -
SINATRA: Susceptibility of catchments to INTense RAinfall and flooding
Project Leader(s): Hayley Fowler (Newcastle PI)
Project Dates: September 2013 - May 2019
Dr Haider Ali
Research Associate (Intense)
Email: haider.ali@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Stephen Birkinshaw
Researcher in Water Resources
Email: stephen.birkinshaw@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Stephen Blenkinsop
Senior Researcher in Climate and Climate Change
Email: stephen.blenkinsop@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)191 208 7933
Dr Steven Chan
Research Associate
Email: steven.chan@ncl.ac.uk
Professor Richard Dawson
Professor of Earth Systems Engineering, Director of Research & Innovation
Email: richard.dawson@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6618
Dr Alistair Ford
Lecturer in Geospatial Data
Email: alistair.ford@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7121
Dr Nathan Forsythe
Newcastle University Research Fellow
Email: nathan.forsythe@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: 0191 208 6875
Professor Hayley Fowler
Professor of Climate Change Impacts
Email: hayley.fowler@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7113
Vassilis Glenis
Lecturer in Hydroinformatics
Email: vassilis.glenis@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6413
Dr Selma Guerreiro
Research Fellow
Email: selma.guerreiro@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Oliver Heidrich
Senior Lecturer
Email: oliver.heidrich@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6563
Dr Abdullah Kahraman
Researcher in severe weather and climate change
Email: abdullah.kahraman@ncl.ac.uk
Professor Chris Kilsby
Professor of Hydrology and Climate Change
Email: chris.kilsby@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5614
Dr Elizabeth Lewis
Lecturer in Computational Hydrology
Email: elizabeth.lewis2@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7544
Dr Xiaofeng Li
Reserch Scientist in Rainfall Extremes and Tibetan Climate Dynamics
Email: xiaofeng.li@ncl.ac.uk
Dr David Pritchard
Research Associate
Dr Luke Smith
Lecturer in Data-centric Civil Engineering
Email: luke.smith@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 191 208 6766
Dr Claire Walsh
Senior Lecturer
Email: claire.walsh@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6447