Prof Soledad Garcia Ferrari and Prof Lindsay Beevers worked with Earth Fellows Kaia Waxenberg and Nick Wray to research flooding geography and land management decisions.
Ashley Cooper via Getty Images
Enhancing flood resilience through interdisciplinary collaboration
Edinburgh Earth Initiative’s Earth Fellows programme enables University of Edinburgh researchers to further their climate and environment research aims with the support of a postgraduate student intern. In 2025, Prof Soledad Garcia Ferrari and Prof Lindsay Beevers worked with Earth Fellows Kaia Waxenberg and Nick Wray to research flooding geography and land management decisions.
The project brought together different types of expertise; geographical and quantitative data knowledge on river flows, plus knowledge of how we makeland use and planning decisions for our cities. They were looking at how the two influence each other, and whether historical land use decisions have had an effect on river flows and flood risk, particularly in the context of increasing challenges related with climate change.
Earth Fellows drive research success
Kaia and Nick employed a range of research methods to throw light on the influences of land use and climate change on rivers in the UK. Kaia facilitated and analysed stakeholder interviews while Nick focussed on statistical analysis of river flows. They have already written the research into a paper, which they took to the European Geosciences Union annual conference.
While Nick and Kaia’s work has created an excellent foundation for this project, ongoing research is necessary. Potential future work includes expanding the datasets used in the modelling to understand the relationships between river flows, land use and climate change from a more from a complex perspective, and enhancing coordination among stakeholders, such as government agencies and local councils, helping inform and coordinate decision-making.
Vital support from Edinburgh Earth Initiative
The Edinburgh Earth Initiative (EEI) played a crucial role by providing project funding and ensuring that all logistical aspects were efficiently managed. Soledad highly recommends the Earth Fellows model if you have a targeted piece of research work that needs to be completed, for example data gathering and analysing, stakeholder interviews or fieldwork. In addition, the Earth Fellows learn a lot and gain access to support and a network of likeminded students through EEI.
“I think the advantage was that although Lindsay and I come from different academic perspectives we could very quickly build up the project proposal and get the support from the Earth Fellows, who came from different disciplines as well. The programme offers a unique interdisciplinarity research environment.” – Prof Soledad Garcia Ferrari, Personal Chair of Global Urbanism and Resilience, Edinburgh College of Art
Interested in hosting an Earth Fellow?
Get in touch with Earth Fellows programme manager Chloe Francis (chloe.francis@ed.ac.uk) to discuss your project. Or look out for our annual call for project proposals in April 2026.
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