Impacting the World

Durham Geography’s research culture is designed to generate research that is intellectually innovative and also provides wider public and societal benefit. In other words, research that has an impact. Impact is an integral part of the research process, from the inception of ideas and project design, to the conduct of the research and its outputs and outcomes.

We value impact in all its forms, whether in outreach, public engagement, knowledge transfer or exchange, or collaboration. This commitment stems from our experience since the mid-1980s in activist and participatory research, in shaping evidence-based policy, and in developing methods to monitor environmental change. Our aim is to create and maintain an environment that allows all staff to identify and nurture the impact of their research and to enhance relationships both during the research and after it has ended.

Learn more about research by our staff

Researchers across all levels of staff in Geography are pursuing dynamic, cutting-edge research. Below you can learn more about some of our on-going and recent projects.

Kang-Glac

Assessing ocean-forced, marine-terminating glacier change in Greenland during climatic warm periods and its impact on marine productivity

Algorithmic societies: Ethical Life in the Machine Learning Age

Rapid advancements in machine learning technologies are transforming social and political life in ways that uniquely challenge how we live in relation to others.

Programming and algorithmic concept visual

How will Emperor Penguins Respond to Changing Antarctic Ice Conditions (EPIC)?

Improving our understanding of past penguin colony changes and how they link to changing sea ice habitat conditions.

Occupation Debris

The ability of displaced communities to determine the fate of cultural heritage collections when they are denied access to ancestral land

Image showing site of archaeological dig

Past to future: Towards fully paleo-informed future climate projections

Paleoenvironmental data to improve climate change predictions

An aerial view of a shoreline with trees and buildings

Sajag-Nepal

Sajag-Nepal is a partnership to improve preparedness for the mountain hazard chain in Nepal

Fraying Ties

The first systematic analysis of the evolution and ongoing transformation of the UK’s strategic position in global oil production networks

An image of an oil rig to be used on a news post.

Sigma: Peru

A UK-Peru collaboration investigating the downstream consequences of Andean glacier change for water resources in the Rio Santa Catchment, Peru.

Community energy in East Africa

A research partnership exploring the potential of community energy systems to accelerate inclusive, just, and clean energy transitions in East Africa

Inclusive Urban Infrastructure

How is urban infrastructure provided in the Global South and how can the most marginalised benefit from it?

DenCity

The DenCity project examines density and its relationship to the city.

SCArFEthics

SCArFEthics - Sustainable Consumption, the middle classes and AgriFood Ethics in the Global South.

Reconstructing Antarctic Sea Ice Environments from New Seabird Archives

Professor Erin McClymont's ERC and Leverhulme Trust funded project.

Cities and Climate Change

Durham University research has played a pioneering role in the field of urban climate change by advancing the position of cities in global climate change agendas.

Image of flowers in Newcastle city centre

Evidence-based catchment management with SCIMAP

Durham Geography research is used to map and model diffuse pollution in river catchments

Image of stream and rural landscape in northern England

Building resilience to earthquake and landslide hazard in Nepal

Durham University research on earthquakes and landslides is used to inform the disaster preparedness planning in Nepal

Image of landslides in the Upper Bhote Kosi valley, Nepal, after 2015 Gorkha earthquake

Monitoring and modelling coastal erosion

Durham Geography research has informed understanding of rates and patterns of previous and future coastal erosion

Virtual Library

Much of our research takes final form in high-impact articles or books. But a considerable amount of our activity takes place in other mediums.

Virtual Library

Postgraduate Study

Postgraduate study at Durham helps you to develop a range of high-level research, analytic, and communication skills that are transferable to multiple career paths. Our postgraduates are highly valued employees in government, third sector and private agencies, as well as academia.

Postgraduate Study

Our Research Community

We are a world-leading research community of human and physical geographers conducting innovative and impactful research to transform lives and make a difference, globally and locally, addressing the pressing social and environmental challenges of our time.

Our Research Community