Professor Liz Sharp
School of Geography and Planning
Professor of Water and Planning
+44 114 222 6941
Full contact details
School of Geography and Planning
Room D23
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
91Ö±²¥
S3 7ND
- Profile
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I am an environmental social scientist supporting practical improvements in our environment.
My background is Geography, Planning, Environmental Consultancy and Environmental Science.
My research career has spanned a number of local issues including water supply, waste and flooding. I am interested in the interactions between the public and organisations taking formal environmental governance responsibilities like local government and water companies. In my research I partner with engineers and landscape specialists, among others.
My teaching supports students in exploring and supporting changes in environmental action and policy.
I studied in Cambridge and 91Ö±²¥ and have worked in Birmingham, Bradford and 91Ö±²¥.
- Research interests
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I focus on the governance of the environment, and specifically the processes through which the public are engaged (or not) in making and implementing environmental policy. The two central research questions that my research addresses are:
What new patterns of water governance are emerging, and how do they serve the sustainability goals of adaptation to climate change and effective public engagement?
How can interpretive research collaborate with more traditional approaches to science and water practice in driving forward new patterns of water governance?The main empirical focus for my work is water policy including water supply and demand, water in the landscape, and flooding. Some elements of my work have also looked at waste and energy policy.
Current and Recent Research Projects
- Mobilising Citizens for Adaptation (MOCA) (Natural Environment Research Council)
- (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council)
- (Economic & Social Research Council)
- (European Commission - Framework 7)
- ) (INTERREG)
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
- . Climate Risk Management, 35, 100390-100390.
- . Planning Theory and Practice.
- . Global Environmental Change, 62.
- . Global Environmental Change, 57.
- . The Geographical Journal.
- . Global Environmental Change, 34, 196-206.
- . Journal of Hydrology, 519, 2613-2623.
- . Critical Policy Studies, 8(4), 427-446.
- . Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 14(4), 1237-1237.
- . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(4), 501-515.
- The necessity of biomass application for developing combined heat and power (CHP) with biogas fuel: Case study. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 66, 505-510.
- . Journal of Environmental Management, 91, 411-419.
- . Planet, 22(1), 34-38.
- . Water Supply, 9(3), 311-319.
- . Environmental Politics, 18(1), 37-57.
- . Local Environment, 13(3), 253-270.
- . Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 32(3), 221-232.
- . Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 49(6), 869-889.
- . Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 47(3), 277-294.
- . Water Science and Technology, 54(6-7), 415-422.
- . Community Development Journal, 40(1), 62-75.
- . Urban Studies, 41(8), 1485-1505.
- . Local Environment, 7(1), 7-22.
- . Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 3(3), 193-209.
- . Environmental Politics, 8(4), 137-159.
- . Planning Practice & Research, 13(1), 81-89.
- Monitoring the take up of GIS: the local authority scene. Monitoring the take up of GIS: the local authority scene.
- . Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1-13.
Chapters
- , Quantifying Climate Risk and Building Resilience in the UK (pp. 63-74). Springer International Publishing
- , Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline (pp. 59-80). IWA Publishing
- Both critical and applied? Action research and transformative change in the UK water sector In Bartels K & Wittmayer J (Ed.), Action Research in Policy Analysis: Critical and Relational Approaches to Sustainability Transitions Routledge
- WATER QUALITIES, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 105-127).
- WATER OUT OF PLACE, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 128-151).
- WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 163-184).
- WATER IN THE HOME Learning from the past, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 65-78).
- VISIONS FOR WATER MANAGEMENT, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 1-24).
- URBAN WATER USE IN CONTEXT, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 25-40).
- UNDERSTANDING WATER PRACTICES AND MOBILISING CHANGE, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 79-104).
- THE GOVERNANCE OF WATER SUPPLY AND DEMAND, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 41-64).
- RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER Public Engagement and Sustainable Urban Water Management INTRODUCTION, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. VIII-+).
- RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER Public Engagement and Sustainable Urban Water Management CONCLUSION, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 185-211).
- FLOOD RISK GOVERNANCE, RECONNECTING PEOPLE AND WATER: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT (pp. 152-162).
- Enabling Change: Institutional Adaptation In Hulsman A, Betriebe G, Van Den Berg G, Racuch W, Jensen A, Popovych V, Mazzola M, Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia L & Savic D (Ed.), Climate Change, Water Supply and Sanitation: Risk Assessment, Management, Mitigation and Reduction (pp. 355-373). London: IWA Publishing.
- Developing Adaptive Capacity in a Water Utility In Hulsman A, Betriebe G, Van Den Berg G, Racuch W, Jensen A, Popovych V, Mazzola M, Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia L & Savic D (Ed.), Climate Change, Water Supply and Sanitation: Risk Assessment, Management, Mitigation and Reduction (pp. 29-32). London: IWA Publishing.
- Theorising participation: pulling down the ladder In Rydin Y & Thornley A (Ed.), Planning in the UK London: Ashgate.
- Routledge
Conference proceedings papers
- Water in everyday use: A study on water-using technologies and the water user in Essex. Proceedings of the Combined International Conference of Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2007 and Sustainable Urban Water Management, SUWM2007 (pp 329-336)
- Why we should celebrate water: Recommendations for engaging the public in sustainable water management. Proceedings of the Combined International Conference of Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2007 and Sustainable Urban Water Management, SUWM2007 (pp 681-688)
- Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) in urban regeneration projects. Proceedings of the Combined International Conference of Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2007 and Sustainable Urban Water Management, SUWM2007 (pp 675-680)
- The governance of Blue Green infrastructure funding: a case study comparison from the UK and the Netherlands. IFoU 2018: Reframing Urban Resilience Implementation: Aligning Sustainability and Resilience, 10 December 2018 - 12 December 2018.
- . Proceedings of IFoU 2018: Reframing Urban Resilience Implementation: Aligning Sustainability and Resilience
- Mobilising publics for resilient water management. Mobilising publics for resilient water management
- Social science to support water sensitive cities. IWA World Congress. Lisbon, Portugal, 22 September 2014 - 26 September 2014.
- Water sensitive urban design in a European context. ACT: Engineers Australia, 2013: 209-219 (pp 209-219). Melbourne, 25 November 2013 - 29 November 2013.
Reports
- Designing Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI) for water management, human health, and wellbeing: summary of evidence and principles for design
- Change Points: A toolkit for designing interventions that unlock unsustainable practices
- Final report for the Reshaping the Domestic Nexus project
- The Domestic Nexus: interrogating the interlinked practices of water, energy and food consumption
Preprints
- Research group
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PhD supervision
I am Primary Supervisor for the following PhD students:
- Fiona Calder, Involving customers in directing water supply and sewerage outcomes
- Fatima Ajia, Public communications in the adaptive water utility
- Juliet de Little, Planning for resilience under multi-stakeholder risk management
- Emmanuel Maiyanga, Domestic water consumption patterns and the future of potable water in Abuja, Nigeria
- Hayyan Rozi, Strategies for incorporating low carbon city planning into government regulations to reduce the carbon emissions of rrban areas: A case study of Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia
I welcome applications from students interested in PhD research relating to:
- water management policies and practices in the UK or in other developed countries (with a particular focus on whether and how sustainability is defined, developed or promoted)
- the processes and experiences of innovation and knowledge development in water management (with a particular focus on how co-operation is achieved between academic disciplines, and how academia and practice interact).
- Teaching activities
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My role as a teacher is to support students in learning how to access information and to think critically about environmental topics.
My classes are conceived as a forum in which students can develop, support and interrogate their understandings and opinions. I teach on the following modules:
- , The Environmental Challenge
- , European Fieldclass
- , Environmental Policy and Planning