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People
> Human Settlements research group

David Dodman

Director, Human Settlements

David Dodman is an expert on climate change vulnerability and resilience in urban centres. His current work focuses on understanding the nature of urban risks, and the way in which daily hazards, major disasters and climate change can affect low-income urban residents. He is working with local organisations, international agencies and universities to build resilience in urban communities and cities.
Full biography

He has expertise in urban governance for adaptation, urban livelihoods in the context of climate change and community-based environmental management. His work has a particular focus on eastern and southern Africa and Southeast Asia.

Expertise
  • Climate change vulnerability and resilience in urban centres
  • Urban governance for adaptation
  • Urban informality and livelihoods in the context of climate change
  • Community-based environmental management
Before IIED

Lecturer in human geography, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.

Current work

Building understanding of the nature of urban risk, and the way in which everyday hazards, disasters, humanitarian emergencies and climate change contribute to this – particularly for low-income urban residents.

Working with local organisations, international agencies, and universities to understand and build the resilience of individuals, households, communities and cities. Regional focus in eastern and southern Africa, and Southeast Asia. 

Interviews

IIED expert interviews: David Dodman
David Dodman's picture
Telephone: 
+44 (0) 20 3463 7399
Email: 
david.dodman@iied.org
Twitter: @dee_are_dee
ORCID
ResearchGate
Google Scholar
 

David Dodman's projects

An aerial view of Nairobi, with slums in the foreground alongside green space

Tomorrow’s cities: reducing disaster risk for the poor

Project, Feb 2022
View of informal housing by a lake, with a boat in it. In the background modern buildings and skyscrapers

Advancing inclusive and resilient urban development targeted at the urban poor

Project, Feb 2022
Makeshift camps for internally displaced people sprang up in Kathmandu after the severe earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. Relief workers are struggling to help displaced people find durable shelter as the country braces for the monsoon season (Photo: SIM Central and South East Asia, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Urban Crises Learning Fund

Project, Nov 2020
Aerial view of Accra, Ghana.

African Cities Research Consortium

Project, Oct 2020
A view of Karachi from the film Karachi Rising (Image: Arif Hasan)

Focus on urbanisation issues in Karachi

Project, Jul 2015
A 'living room on the street' in Paposh Nagar, Karachi (Photo: Fareena Chanda)

Helping low-income groups in Karachi, Bangkok and Kathmandu to take advantage of urban density

Project, Jul 2015
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Latest publications

Disruptive resilience: an agenda for the new normal in cities of the global South

Responding to climate change in contexts of urban poverty and informality

Responding to climate change in contexts of urban poverty and informality

A spectrum of methods for a spectrum of risk: Generating evidence to understand and reduce urban risk in sub‐Saharan Africa

Responding to climate change in cities and in their informal settlements and economies

The urbanization of humanitarian crises

View more publications by this author

 

David Dodman's blog posts

A 'peace wall' in Mukuru, one of the largest slums in Nairobi, Kenya (Photo: Urban ARK)

A special approach to slum upgrading: the Special Planning Area in Mukuru, Nairobi

Blog, Oct 2017
A traditional farmer in the Eastern Himalaya where indigenous communities use seed networks to protect their knowledge. Research should not publish details of traditional knowledge that could be used commercially without equitable benefit-sharing (Photo: Ruchi Pant/Ecoserve)

Striving for the highest standards in research ethics

Blog, Jun 2017
Ibadan, Nigeria, a city that has experienced devastating high winds and flooding (Photo: David Dodman/IIED)

How risk accumulates in African cities – and ways to break the cycle

Blog, Jan 2017
An image of crouching community members in a village in Champasak province, Laos identify areas where open defecation is taking place ahead of implementing sanitation measures (Photo: Viengsompasong Inthavong/World Bank, Creative Commons, via Flickr)

An urban approach to 'leaving no one behind'

Blog, Jun 2016
An image of an open sewer in the Kibera informal settlement, in Nairobi, Kenya, Refugees in such informal settlements face even more challenges than existing habitatants to access to services, such as language barriers (Photo: Eoghan Rice/Trócaire)

Revealing the hidden refugees in African cities

Blog, May 2016
Syria refugees in Lebanon learn how to make fishing nets, a skill which will help them find work along the northern coast (Photo: DFID, Creative Commons, via Flickr)

Why urbanisation matters in responding to humanitarian crises

Blog, Sep 2015
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50 years linking local to global

Find out more about IIED’s plans in our 50th birthday year: our achievements and what comes next…

IIED's mission is to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence in partnership with others. We link local priorities and global challenges, and our 2019-2024 strategy details how we will Make Change Happen

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Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399

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