Professor Edmund Penning-Rowsell
- Visiting Research Associate
- Head, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University
- Tel: 020 84115359
- Email: edmund@penningrowsell.com
Academic Profile
Professor Edmund Penning-Rowsell is a geographer by discipline, taking his PhD from University College London. His research interests are the political economy of major hazards and how this affects decisions about investment in hazard mitigation.
He has more than 35 years experience of research and teaching in the flood hazard field, analysing floods and investment in flood alleviation, river management, water planning, and landscape assessment. His focus is on the social impact of floods, and the policy response from regional, national and international organisations. He has published several books and many papers on his research, and acted as consultant to numerous national and international environmental agencies, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Red Cross/Crescent, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organisation. He has worked in Argentina, China, the USA, Canada, Iceland, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bangladesh and Egypt, as well as most of the EU countries.
Edmund founded the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University in 1970. The Centre has been an acknowledged world leader in the socio-economic analysis of flood hazards, and a British flagship in international research on natural disasters, risk and urban pollution. This was recognised in 2000 by the Centre's prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education and the Centre's 2002-04 leadership role in Sir David King's 'Future Flooding' Foresight project.
In addition, the Centre's research over 22 years on flooding and health has led to its inclusion in 2006 in the Eureka100 list of Universities UK's 100 most important research projects of the last 50 years.
Edmund was twice the Chair of the Defra / Environment Agency Advisory Group on Flood and Coastal Defence Research and Development (2004/5), and is currently a member of the Defra / Environment Agency Research Programme Board.
Edmund was awarded the O.B.E. by the Queen in May 2006 for services to flood risk management.
Selected Publications (since 2004)
- Johnson, C. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2010) What really determines policy? An evaluation of outcome measures for prioritising flood and coastal risk management investment in England. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 3(1): 25-32.
- Harries, T. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2010) Victim pressure, institutional inertia and climate change adaptation: the case of flood risk. Global Environmental Change, 21(1): 188-197.
- McFadden, L., Penning-Rowsell, E.C. 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. Ocean and Coastal Management, 52(12): 636-645.
- Jonkman, S.N. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2008) Human instability in flood flows. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 44(4): 1-11.
- Bosher, L., Penning-Rowsell, E.C. and Tapsell, S. (2007) Resource accessibility and vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh: caste and non-caste influences. Development and Change, 38(4): 615-640.
- Johnson, C., Penning-Rowsell, E.C. and Tapsell, S. (2007) Aspiration and reality: flood policy, economic damages and the appraisal process. Area, 39(2): 214-223.
- Johnson, C., Penning-Rowsell, E.C., and Parker, D.J. (2007) Natural and imposed injustices: the challenges in implementing 'fair' flood risk management policy in England. The Geographical Journal, 173(4): 374-390.
- Thorne, C., Evans E.P. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (eds.) (2007) Future Flooding and Coastal Erosion Risks. Thomas Telford. 528 pp. ISBN: 9780727734495.
- McFadden, L., Nicholls, R. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (eds.) (2006) Managing Coastal Vulnerability. John Wiley. 284 pp. ISBN: 9780080447032.
- Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Johnson, C. and Tunstall, S.M. (2006) 'Signals' from pre-crisis discourse: Lessons from UK flooding for global environmental policy change? Global Environmental Change, 16(4): 323-339.
- Penning-Rowsell, E.C. and Wilson, T. (2006) Gauging the impact of natural hazards: the pattern and cost of emergency response during flood events. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 31(2): 9-15.
- Evans, E.P., Hall, J.W., Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Saul, A., Sayers, P.B., Thorne, C.R. and Watkinson, A.R. (2006) Drivers, responses and choices for future flood risk management. Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers, Water Management, 159: 53-61.
- Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Johnson, C., Tunstall, S., Tapsell, S., Morris, J., Chatterton, J. and Green, C. (2005) The Benefits of Flood and Coastal Risk Management: A manual of assessment techniques. London: Middlesex University Press. (Manual, Handbook and CD). ISBN: 1904750516.
- Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Floyd, P., Ramsbottom, D. and Surendran, S. (2005) Estimating injury and loss of life in floods: a deterministic framework. Natural Hazards, 36(1-2): 43-64.
- Parker, D.J. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2005) Disaster transformation and management issues in London. In, Hunt, J.C.R. (ed.) London Sustainability. UCL Press.
- Johnson, C.L., Tunstall, S.M., and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2005) Floods as catalysts for policy change: historical lessons from England and Wales. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 21(4): 561-575.
- Pottier, N., Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Tunstall, S.M. and Hubert, G. (2005) Land-use and flood protection: contrasting approaches and outcomes in France and in England and Wales. Applied Geography, 25(1): 1-27.
- Penning-Rowsell, E.C., Tapsell, S., and Wilson, T. (2005) Key policy implications of the health effects of floods. In, Kirch, W., Menne, B., Bertollini, R. (eds.) (2005) Extreme Weather and Climate Events: Risks to Human Health and Public Health Responses. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. pp. 207-223.
- Green, C.H., and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (2004) Flood insurance and Government: "Parasitic" and "Symbiotic" Relations. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 29(3): 518-539.