Sue Tapsell
Head of the Flood Hazard Research Centre
Department: Health and Social Sciences
Contact
- Telephone: + 44 (0) 20 8411 5352
- E-mail: s.tapsell@mdx.ac.uk
Qualifications
BSc, MA
Research Interests
Sue has many years of experience in designing and managing both quantitative and qualitative research projects, although specialises in qualitative research. Her early research focused on the public perception of flood risk, flood defence schemes, river restoration schemes and river environments, and upon children’s perception and use of river environments. Later research included the human ‘intangible’ impacts of flooding (e.g. health and social aspects), flood damage appraisal to non-residential properties, and stakeholder communication and engagement in flood risk management. Sue managed the FHRC contribution to the large European Commission-funded FLOODsite project (2004-2009), which sought to improve flood risk management strategies and practice across Europe.
Recent projects have included: developing conceptual models to assess the risk to life from European flood events and health impacts for FLOODsite; research to improve the social and institutional responses to flooding and social data collection related to flooding; research to inform the development of a Strategy for Social Science within the Defra/Environment Agency Joint Flood and Coastal Management R&D Programme; public understanding and perception of severe flash flooding; learning from children’s flood narratives; risk construction, social capacity building and community resilience; development of an integrated vulnerability framework tool for management of risk from natural and na-tech hazards; work on reviewing appropriate interventions to reduce the health impacts of flooding in Europe; the role of innovative spatial planning for flood and coastal erosion risk management.
Current projects
- THESEUS project: Innovative technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate. European Commission
- ‘Social capacity building for natural hazards: towards more resilient societies’ (CapHaz-Net). European Commission
Biography
Sue has been employed at the Flood Hazard Research Centre since 1990. In March 2010 Sue took over as Head and is responsible for the direction and the management of the Centre. Sue also has responsibility for initiating and managing research projects, contributing to projects, input into teaching and CPD activities and supervision of PhD students.
In 2006 Sue was appointed to the Joint Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Risk Management R&D Programme Theme Advisory Group for ‘Incident Management and Community Engagement’. She was an invited member of the Cabinet Office Science and Engineering Review panel for the Pitt Review of the summer 2007 floods as well as a contributor to the Office of Science and Technology’s ‘Foresight Project on Future Flooding’ (2002-2004) and it’s update for the Pitt Review in 2008. Since 2008, Sue has served on the Steering Committee of the Natural Environment Research Council’s Flood Risk from Extreme Events (FREE) Programme. Sue was also an invited member of an advisory group for a global review on flood risk, adaptation and health (2003-2004) by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change. Sue is also a research Associate at HR Wallingford.
From 2000 to 2008 Sue was involved in managing and contributing to Continuing Professional Development training courses for Environment Agency staff: the Flood Risk Management Foundation Course; and Flood Forecasting, Warning and Response Course. Until 2010 she was the Middlesex University Link Tutor for FHRC’s contribution on the Environment Agency and Local Authority sponsored BSc Foundation Degree in River and Coastal Engineering run by the University of the West of England.
Current Research Student Supervision:
Simrat Riyait: Migrants in the UK and their engagement with flood risk
Selected Publications:
Nye, M., Tapsell, S. and Twigger-Ross, C. (in press) New social directions in UK flood risk management: moving towards flood risk citizenship? Journal of Flood Risk Management.
Walker, M., Whittle, R., Medd, W., Burningham, K., Moran-Ellis, J. and Tapsell, S. (in press) ‘It came up to here’: Learning from Children’s Flood Narratives. Children’s Geographies.
Kuhlicke, C., Scolobig, A, Tapsell, S., Steinführer, A., and De Marchi, B. (2011) Contextualizing Social Vulnerability: Findings from case studies across Europe. Natural Hazards 58: 789-810
Priest, S.J., Parker, D.J. and Tapsell, S.M. (2011) Modelling the potential damage-reducing benefits of flood warnings using European cases. Environmental Hazards. Published online on 21 Jun 2011
McFadden, L., Penning-Rowsell, E. and Tapsell, S. (2009) ‘Strategic coastal-flood risk management in practice: actors’ perspectives on the integration of flood risk management in London and the Thames Estuary’. Journal of Ocean and Coastal Management Vol. 52, 636-645.
Parker, D.J., Priest, S.J., Tapsell, S.M. (2009) “Understanding and enhancing the public’s behavioural response to flood warning information”. Meteorological Applications, 16, 103-114
Tapsell, S.M. and Tunstall, S.M. (2008) ‘”I wish I’d never heard of Banbury”: the relationship between ‘place’ and the health impacts of flooding’. Health & Place (forthcoming June 2008) Vol. 14 (2), 133-154.
Parker, D.J., Tapsell, S. and McCarthy, S. (2007) ‘Enhancing the human benefits of flood warnings’. Natural Hazards Vol. 43 (3), 397-414
Johnson, C.; Penning-Rowsell. E.; Tapsell, S. (2007) ‘Aspiration and reality: flood policy, economic damages and the appraisal process.’ Area. 39.2, 214-223.
Tunstall, S.; Tapsell,S.; Green, C., Floyd, P. and George, C. (2006) ‘The health effects of flooding: Social research results from England and Wales’. Journal of Water and Health, Vol. 4, (3), 365-380.
Tapsell, S.M.; Penning-Rowsell, E.C.; Tunstall, S.M.; Wilson , T. (2002) 'Vulnerability to flooding: health and social dimensions'. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 360, 1511-1525.
Tapsell, S.M.; Tunstall, S.M.; House, M.; Whomsley, J.; Macnaghten, P. (2001) 'Growing up with rivers? Rivers in London children's worlds'. Area. Vol. 33 (2), 177-189.
Ohl, C.A. and Tapsell, S.M. (2000) ‘Flooding and human health: the dangers posed are not always obvious’. British Medical Journal, 321, 1167-8
