Background

Elizabeth is a PDRA in Water Governance on the EPSRC funded project Decentralised Water Technologies. 

Prior to her joining this team she completed her EngD at the University of Exeter as part of the STREAM IDC programme, where she was sponsored by Northumbrian Water. Here, her research was concerned with the operationalisation of resilience within the UK water sector, with a specific focus on how existing resilience theory can be translated into tangible actions at the operational level. 

Elizabeth has previously spent time working within the UK water sector before moving on to work as part of the Europe and Central Asia, Climate and Environment team for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, where she was based in Tirana, Albania. 

Qualifications

EngD Water Engineering- University of Exeter 

MSc Disaster Management and Sustainable Development - Northumbria University

BSc Geography and Environmental Management - Northumbria University 

Current Research

Decentralised Water Technologies (Nov 2021- ) As a research assistant on the EPSRC funded project "Decentralised Water Technologies" I am part of Work Package 7. Together with colleagues from the University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde, we are working together to create an international centre of excellence of policy implementation to facilitate the deployment of decentralised and sustainable solutions to water services. 

• Lawson E, Bunney S, Cotterill S, Farmani R, Melville-Shreeve P, Butler D. COVID-19 and the UK water sector: Exploring organisational responses through a resilience framework. Water and Environment Journal 2022, 36(1), 161-171.
• Farmani R, Dalton J, Charalambous B, Lawson E, Bunney S, Cotterill S. Intermittent water supply systems and their resilience to COVID-19: IWA IWS SG survey. AQUA Water Infrastructure, Ecosystems and Society 2021, 70(4), 507-520.
• Bunney S, Lawson E, Cotterill S, Butler D. Water Resource Management: Moving from Single Risk-Based Management to Resilience to Multiple Stressors. Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8609.
• Lawson E, Farmani R, Woodley E, Butler D. A Resilient and Sustainable Water Sector; Barriers to the Operationalisation of Resilience. Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1797.
• Cotterill S, Bunney S, Lawson E, Chisholm A, Farmani R, Melville-Shreeve P. COVID-19 and the water sector; understanding impact preparedness and resilience in the UK through a sector wide survey. Water and Environment Journal 2020, 34(4), 715-728.
• Rodriguez M, Lawson R, Butler D. A study of the Resilience Analysis Grid method and its applicability to the water sector in England and Wales. Water and Environment Journal 2020, 34(4), 623-633.