The project's PhD students and postdocs
Training of four PhD students is an important and integrated part of the RurbanClimate research project. Two PhD students from Ghana and two from Burkina Faso have since their start on the project been working on their research proposals, which they have just, mid-August, presented and discussed with the project team in Copenhagen and their supervisors from their home universities. As per August 2023, the project team has also been expanded to include a postdoc researcher, who will join the project for a year. Below you will find a short presentation of each PhD student and the postdoc, including an introduction to their specific research.
Mansourou Cisse, International Institute of Water and Environment Engineering, Burkina Faso
Cisse is aiming at filling the significant knowledge gap regarding the dynamic relationship between population growth and urban sprawl of small towns on the one hand and natural resources on the other. His research will focus on the two study sites of the project, Ziniaré and Kombissiri both small towns located in the central part of Burkina Faso. The main objectives of his study is to analyze the demographic and spatial dynamics as well as projected climate change effects on the small towns, and to determine the impacts of the small town expansion on the exploitation of natural resources. Lastly, the aim is to develop a spatio-temporal model determining the dynamics between availability and use of natural resources, demographic evolution, and the extension of small towns that can inform how the interaction between the urban expansion of small towns and natural resource use and availability can support future small towns in being inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable spaces.
Batan Roméo Kadeba, University Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso
Kadeba will explore the connections between climate variability and the transformations of the urban environment and use of ecosystem services. For this, his project focuses on the municipality of Ziniaré. Kadeba’s research will address issues of ecosystem services related to changing biophysical, anthropogenic and demographic factors, such as climate variabilities and urban and agricultural expansion. The research will draw on the scholarship of socio-ecological systems and contribute with a better understanding of how and if small towns can play a positive role in securing a positive transformation of eco-system use.
Mercy Obenewaah Owusu, University for Development Studies, Ghana
Owusu’s research is concerned with a gender analysis of the nexus between governance, climate variability, ecosystem services and livelihoods in the small towns of Kumbugu and Savelugu. Her study will explore how governance structures and arrangements (formal and informal) determine climate change responses, availability of and access to ecosystem services as well as livelihood outcomes for men and women and different age groups within the context of emerging and small towns. Related to this research objective, Owusu will investigate and discuss how to devise innovative governance mechanisms that engender local level mobilizations to support climate smart, gender transformative and generationally responsive livelihood options for sustainable and inclusive development.
Mahamadou Soumaila Konte, University for Development Studies, Ghana
Konte’s PhD project will focus on gender-sensitive mobility and livelihood strategies in the context of small-town development, based on research on the two study sites of Kumbugu and Savelugu. Konte’s study will explore different types of gender-sensitive mobility and the factors that influence gender-sensitive mobility-based strategies of adaptation to climate change, with a strong focus on migrants’ livelihoods and how these are intertwined with ecosystem dynamics. It will also investigate the coordination mechanisms of gender-based climate change adaptation strategies towards sustainable resource use to inform local governance.
Sinne Borby Ørtenblad, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Sinne has a PhD from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at UCPH and has in August 2023 been engaged to join RurbanClimate as postdoc for a year. She has a background in studying rural transformation, rural-urban linkages and agri-food value chains. Her main task will be to develop a survey in collaboration with project partners, as well as plan and oversee the employment of the survey, sampling strategy, data storing and cleaning as well as general strategies for data analysis. She will spend 3 months in Ghana during 2023/24.