Cities, Settlements and Infrastructure - Equity, Justice & Hazards
Tracks
Cities, Settlements and Infrastructure
Tuesday, October 14, 2025 |
3:45 PM - 5:45 PM |
Speaker
Dr Alvina Edwards
Ngāti Irakehu – Te Taumutu, Ōnuku, Wairewa
Managing changing flood hazard and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand under climatic change– balancing consistency and flexibility for improved decision-making and greater resilience
3:45 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Alvina is a scholar with degrees in law, history, and Māori studies (PhD, Waikato). Her career combines academia and community service as a Māori mentor, researcher, and advocate. Her work on Māori identity, legal frameworks, and social justice demonstrates her commitment to cultural preservation and improving Māori representation and well-being.
Dr Emily Lane
Principal Scientist: Natural Hazards And Hydrodynamics
NIWA / National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
Managing changing flood hazard and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand under climatic change– balancing consistency and flexibility for improved decision-making and greater resilience
3:45 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Emily is a principal scientist in natural hazards and hydrodynamic focusing on flood, tsunami and storm surge inundation. She currently leads Mā te haumaru ō te wai - an Endeavour programme focused on understanding Aotearoa's flood inundation hazard and risk at a national level and using this to improve our resilience to flooding.
Assoc Prof Silvia Serrao-Neumann
University of Waikato
Managing changing flood hazard and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand under climatic change– balancing consistency and flexibility for improved decision-making and greater resilience
3:45 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Silvia researches catchment scale planning for water sensitive city-regions and participates in interdisciplinary research on climate change adaptation, community planning for disaster recovery and resilience, and action/ intervention research applied to planning for climate change adaptation. She publishes on water resource management, climate change adaptation, and urban and regional planning.
Dr Christina Hanna
University of Waikato
Managing changing flood hazard and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand under climatic change– balancing consistency and flexibility for improved decision-making and greater resilience
3:46 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Christina researches the governance of risk reduction and climate change adaptation, focusing on environmental planning. An important theme is applying managed retreats to reduce risks to human lives, assets, and ecosystems. Special focus areas include resource management instruments and frameworks, planning methods, spatial planning, collaborative planning and community resilience.
Rebecca McNaught
Community-centred Disaster Response and Adaptation
4:30 PM - 5:15 PMBiography
Rebecca McNaught is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. Her current research focuses on collaborative forms of disaster and climate change governance, community members as agents of change and the health implications of disasters and displacement. She currently volunteers as co-leader of the South Golden Beach Community Resilience Team.
Prof David Schlosberg
Director/professor
Sydney Environment Institute / University of Sydney
Community-centred Disaster Response and Adaptation
4:30 PM - 5:15 PMBiography
David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics, Director of the Sydney Environment Institute and Co-Theme Lead of the Climate Disaster and Adaptation Research Theme. His work focuses on environmental, ecological, and climate justice; environment and everyday life; and climate adaptation planning and policy. David has worked extensively with local and state governments on just adaptation and resilience planning, the social impacts of climate change, and community-based food systems and policy.
Anna Sturman
Community-centred Disaster Response and Adaptation
4:30 PM - 5:15 PMBiography
Anna Sturman is a Lecturer in Human Geography within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. Prior to this, Anna was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Sydney Environment Institute on the project, 'Developing systems and capacities for protecting animals during catastrophic fires'. Anna works at the intersections of political economy and ecology, economic and political geographies, and rural sociology to examine critical climate adaptation pathways in colonial-capitalist economies.
Scott Webster
Community-centred Disaster Response and Adaptation
4:30 PM - 5:15 PMBiography
Scott Webster is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sydney Environment Institute. Scott has previously investigated how communities self-organised before, during, and after the 2019-20 bushfires and multiple major floods in New South Wales since 2020. His research broadly explores connection to place: its meaningfulness, the knowledges and
interventions it enables, and the suffering and injustice caused when these connections are ruptured.
Assoc Prof Silvia Serrao-Neumann
University of Waikato
Managing changing flood hazard and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand under climatic change– balancing consistency and flexibility for improved decision-making and greater resilience
3:45 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Silvia researches catchment scale planning for water sensitive city-regions and participates in interdisciplinary research on climate change adaptation, community planning for disaster recovery and resilience, and action/ intervention research applied to planning for climate change adaptation. She publishes on water resource management, climate change adaptation, and urban and regional planning.
Prof David Schlosberg
Director/professor
Sydney Environment Institute / University of Sydney
Community-centred Disaster Response and Adaptation
4:30 PM - 5:15 PMBiography
David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics, Director of the Sydney Environment Institute
Mr Dejay Davison
Founder
Synaptek Studios
Modular, adaptive, and regenerative: the future of human habitats
5:15 PM - 5:30 PMBiography
Dejay Tane is the founder of Synaptek Studios, integrating sustainability, architecture, and cybernetics to create self-sustaining environments. With expertise in systems thinking, permaculture, and AI-driven design, he is committed to reshaping human-ecological symbiosis. His work bridges traditional knowledge and cutting-edge technology to redefine sustainable living.
Assoc Prof Magdalena Kuchcik
Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization / Polish Academy of Sciences
Adapting the city to climate change by transforming neighbourhoods with nature-based solutions and the support of motivated citizens
5:30 PM - 5:45 PMBiography
Geographer, climatologist, PhD in Earth Sciences in the field of geography. Magdalena's scientific interests focus on bioclimatology and urban climate. She developed a monitoring network of the urban heat island in the Warsaw agglomeration. I research the climate of neighbourhoods and the impact of Warsaw’s parks on the surrounding areas.
