Professor Darryn McEvoy

A qualified geographer, with an interest in interdisciplinary ’solutions-oriented’ action research, Dr Darryn McEvoy's expertise covers climate risk assessment and adaptation, innovative adaptation practice (both institutions and technologies), institutional adaptive management (and adaptation as a process), vulnerability assessment, the building of local adaptive capacity, and the synergies and conflicts between the adaptation and mitigation agendas. Of particular interest is the translation of theory into practice, and highlighting the implications for climate risk management and decision-making (including both public and private actors).

Prior to joining RMIT, Dr McEvoy was research manager for the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology at the University of Manchester (UK) working on projects relating to different aspects of the climate change agenda (with a particular emphasis on climate change and cities) before most recently working as a senior researcher on the EU consortium project ADAM (ADaptation And Mitigation strategies: supporting European climate policy) with personal responsibility for analysing institutional adaptive management and adaptation to extreme weather events. His personal research interest took a ’bottom-up’ actor-based approach and as such stakeholder engagement was central to this role. Risk and adaptation was analysed according to a range of learning examples; including urban planning and design, health (heat stress), tourism, insurance, drought, desertification, and flooding. As part of this process, he has been involved in stakeholder activity in London, Manchester and Berlin (urban planning and design, heat stress focus) Guadiana, Spain and Portugal (drought), Tisza river basin, Hungary (flooding), Inner Mongolia, China (desertification / sustainable livelihoods).

Dr McEvoy was based in the Netherlands 2006 – 09 firstly at the University of Maastricht, then spending the final year at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He took up his current post as principal researcher in climate change adaptation at RMIT in July 2009.

Accomplishments and achievements

Since July 2009 Dr McEvoy is the Leader of the Climate Change Adaptation Program within the Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT University, as well as acting as Deputy Director for the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research. Current research and management activity is multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional, with interests crossing local, regional, national, and international scales.

He continues his international outreach commitments, including acting as a paper reviewer for the following journals: Global Environmental Change, Climate and Development, Environmental Planning and Management, Regional Environmental Change, and Environmental Policy and Governance. In 2009 he acted as an expert international reviewer for several national research programmes including: the Dutch NWO research programmes on ’heat in the city’ and ’adaptation to climate change – climate proofing urban areas’ and the Norwegian ’Environmental Research Toward 2015’ research programme.

• National and international presentations in 2009:
• Dinner speaker at CSIRO sustainable cities event in Melbourne (November, 2009)
• Invited speaker at international conference – China’s Urbanization and Community Development under Globalization, Shanghai (September, 2009)
• Presentation on climate change and urban adaptation, 1st National Adaptation forum, Canberra (September, 2009)
• Keynote speaker at Dutch symposium: ’Understanding adaptation as both process and outcome’ (August, 2009)
• Selected speaker in session ’Adapting urban areas to climate change’ at Climate Change Congress, Copenhagen (March, 2009).

Leader, Climate Change Adaptation Program, Global Cities Research Institute

BSc (Bristol, UK), MSc (Heriot Watt, Edinburgh, UK), PhD (Hull, UK)

Professional interests and links to industry

• Deputy Director, Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research (VCCCAR)