Kelly Gunnell

Title: Examining the role of natural green infrastructure in provision of hydrological ecosystem services to and within cities under scenarios of climate change.

Cities will be where the impacts of climate change will be most acutely experienced. For some cities, these impacts will be increased surface water flooding due to increased precipitation and runoff. Understanding how green infrastructure, both in the city and in rural regions, can contribute to mitigating floods is crucially important for managing the risks of climate change. Kelly's project will take an ecosystem services approach to map and model the role of natural green infrastructure in the flow of flood risk mitigation to the world’s cities from their upstream catchments, under current conditions and then scenarios under various projections of climate change and land use change resulting from urban growth.

Research methods include modelling, remote sensing, use of GIS and site visits. 

Member of the Environmental Dynamics Research Group.

Cities will be where the impacts of climate change will be most acutely experienced. For some cities, these impacts will be increased surface water flooding due to increased precipitation and runoff. Understanding how green infrastructure, both in the city and in rural regions, can contribute to mitigating floods is crucially important for managing the risks of climate change. Kelly's project will take an ecosystem services approach to map and model the role of natural green infrastructure in the flow of flood risk mitigation to the world’s cities from their upstream catchments, under current conditions and then scenarios under various projections of climate change and land use change resulting from urban growth.

Research methods include modelling, remote sensing, use of GIS and site visits. 

Kelly is an environemntal scientist and ecologist. She is from Johannesburg, South Africa where her early experiences of the natural landscape fostered a passion for the biological sciences and conservation. She majored in Zoology and Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa, and then did a MSc at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA, on the conservation genetics of a threatened native trout species. Kelly worked for 8 years in the environmental sector, including as an environmental consultant, a project manager for the Bat Conservation Trust, and as an Ecology Manager for one of the London boroughs, before deciding to return to research. Kelly was awarded a NERC funded PhD studentship in 2014 via the London NERC DTP.