My research focuses on the complex relationships between climate, hazards and society. I currently have two main focus areas as outlined below.
Historically informed approaches to hazards, disasters and climate change
This research aims to develop improved understandings of hazards and climate variability in the past, and to use this knowedge to inform contemporary disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This work uses historical sources to contextualise current events in three ways:
Conflicts and public participation in flood risk management
This work seeks to develop better understandings of the causes and consequences of conflicts in flood hazards management. It evaluates several themes including:
Recent Research Projects
Publications
Conference Papers and Presentations
Invited Lectures, Research Seminars and Workshops
Historically informed approaches to hazards, disasters and climate change
This research aims to develop improved understandings of hazards and climate variability in the past, and to use this knowedge to inform contemporary disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This work uses historical sources to contextualise current events in three ways:
- Constructing new chronologies of past hazard events to develop better understandings of event frequency, severity, impacts and societal adaptations.
- Exploring what lessons human-environment interactions in the past may offer for contemporary society in facing current (and future) risks and vulnerabilities.
- Analysing how ideas, understandings and interpretations of weather, climate and hazards have changed over time.
Conflicts and public participation in flood risk management
This work seeks to develop better understandings of the causes and consequences of conflicts in flood hazards management. It evaluates several themes including:
- The ways in which individuals and groups frame flood hazards and their impacts.
- The roles played by values, beliefs, relationships and lived experiences in shaping these framings.
- The ways in which different forms of knowledge and expertise are included or excluded from the decision-making process
- Transformative adaptation and public participation in decision-making.
Recent Research Projects
- Historical Perspectives on Wildfires in Ireland
- Cork Flood Defences Dispute
- HiFlo-Dat Flood Hazard Database
Publications
- Jeffers, J.M. (2022) 'Building constituencies for flood risk management: Critical insights from a flood defences dispute in Ireland' Risk, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2021) 'Particularizing adaptation to non-predominant hazards: A history of wildfires in County Donegal, Ireland from 1903 to 2019' International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 58: 10211.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2020) 'Barriers to transformation towards participatory adaptation decision-making: Lessons from the Cork flood defences dispute' Land Use Policy 90: 104333.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2019) 'Saving Cork City? Place attachment and conflicting framings of flood hazards' Geoforum 103: 26-35.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2017) 'Hazards, Climates and Cultures: Reflections on recent scholarship and proposals for future research' Journal of Extreme Events, 3(2): 11 pages. (Special Issue: 'Hazards in Context').
- Chatterjee, M., Jeffers, J.M. and Leichenko, R.M. (2017) 'Editorial: Researching Hazards - Keeping pace with changing contexts' Journal of Extreme Events, 3(2): 6 pages. (Special issue: 'Hazards in Context').
- Mitchell J.K., Jeffers, J.M. and Brady, M. (2016) 'The Changing Environment' In Auerbach, P.S., Cushing, T.A. and Harris, N.S. (eds) Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine. 7th ed. Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA. p.2524-2535.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2014) 'Environmental Knowledge and Human Experience: Using a historical analysis of flooding in Ireland to challenge contemporary risk narratives and develop creative policy alternatives' Environmental Hazards, 13(3) p .229-247.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2013) 'Integrating Vulnerability Analysis and Risk Assessment in Flood Loss Mitigation: An evaluation of barriers and challenges based on evidence from Ireland Applied Geography, 37 p.44-51
- Jeffers, J.M. (2013) 'Double Exposures and Decision-Making: Adaptation policy and planning in Ireland's coastal cities during a boom-bust cycle' Environment and Planning A 45(6) p. 1436-1454.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2011) 'The Cork City Flood of November 2009: Lessons for flood risk management and climate change adaptation at the urban scale' Irish Geography 44(1) p.61-80. (Special Issue: 'Climate Change: Positioning Ireland, positioning geography').
- Mitchell, J.K. and Jeffers, J.M. (2011) 'The Changing Environment' In Auerbach, P.S. Wilderness Medicine, 6th ed. Mosby, St. Louis. p.2134-2144.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2008) 'The Representative and Impartial Jury in the Criminal Trial: An achievable reality in Ireland today? Irish Criminal Law Journal 18(2) p.34-41.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2007) 'Climate Change and the Law: Reducing Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions' Galway Student Law Review 3 p.51-76.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2003) 'Dead or Alive? The fate of natural law in Irish constitutional jurisprudence' Galway Student Law Review 2 p.2-16.
Conference Papers and Presentations
- Jeffers, J.M.; Gonzalez, S.; Harwood, S. and Pulido-Sanchez, P. (2023) "Constructing a history of wildfires in Ireland using digitised newspaper archives " American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA [online].
- Jeffers, J.M.; Gonzalez, S.; Harwood, S. and Pulido-Sanchez, P. (2022) "A history of wildfires in Ireland (1850-2020) and its implications for contemporary climate change adaptation" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New York City, New York, USA [online].
- Jeffers, J.M. (2021) "Historical perspectives on wildfires in Ireland and their importance for contemporary adaptation" Conference of Irish Geographers, Trinity College Dublin [online].
- Johnson, R.M.; Edwards, E.; Jeffers, J.M.; Kuniyal, J.C.; Mishra, H.; Pandey, B.W.; Philips, V.; Roy, N.; Seviour, J.; Sharma, D.D.; Sharma, P.; Sharma,V.; Singh, H. and Singh, R.B. (2019) "HiFlo-DAT: Indian Himalayan flood database for disaster risk reduction in the Kullu District" PAGES Flood Working Group, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
- Johnson, R.M.; Edwards, E.; Jeffers, J.M.; Kuniyal, J.C.; Mishra, H.; Pandey, B.W.; Philips, V.; Roy, N.; Seviour, J.; Sharma, D.D.; Sharma, P.; Sharma,V.; Singh, H. and Singh, R.B. (2019) "HiFlo-DAT: Indian Himalayan flood database for disaster risk reduction in the Kullu District" International Geographical Union Conference, Central University of Haryana, India.
- Johnson, R.M.; Edwards, E.; Jeffers, J.M.; Kuniyal, J.C.; Mishra, H.; Pandey, B.W.; Philips, V.; Roy, N.; Seviour, J.; Sharma, D.D.; Sharma, P.; Sharma,V.; Singh, H. and Singh, R.B. (2019) "HiFlo-DAT: Indian Himalayan flood database for disaster risk reduction in the Kullu District" British Society for Geomorphology Meeting, University of Sheffield.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2018) "Complex conflicts in hazards management: Insights from the Cork flood defences dispute" Conference of Irish Geographers, Maynooth University.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2018) "Public consultation and community opposition in flood risk management: Insights from the Cork flood defences dispute" UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference, Queen's University Belfast.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2017) "Disruptive hazards and climates: Making sense of ambiguity" Conference of Irish Geographers, University College Cork.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2015) "A historical perspective on flooding in Ireland's coastal cities and its implications for current policy and practice" International Confernece of Historical Geographers, Royal Geographical Society, London.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2014) "Learning from the past to face the risks of the future: developing sustainable approaches to flood hazards management" Conference of Irish Geographers, University College Dublin.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2014) "Not reinventing the wheel! Learning from past theory and practice in climate change adaptation" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Tampa.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2013) "Learning from the past to prepare for the future: Using historical analysis of flood hazards in Ireland to contextualise current events" Nordic Geographers Meeting, University of Iceland, Reykjavik.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2013) "Space, time, place and climate: How perceptions of weather and climate may shape adaptation" Conference of Irish Geographers, National University of Ireland, Galway.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2012) "Managing uncertainty and constructing risk: The limits of contemporary hazards mitigation and climate adaptation policies" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New York.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2011) "Intersecting crises and double exposures: Economic recession and climate change in Ireland" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Seattle.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2010) "Conceptualizing climate hazards: Reflections on adaptation, vulnerability and decision-making in coastal cities" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2009) "Minding the gap: Knowledge, local decision-making and adaptation to climate change in Ireland's coastal cities" American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Las Vegas.
Invited Lectures, Research Seminars and Workshops
- Jeffers, J.M. (2018) "Developing historically informed adaptation research" Presentation at the workshop Climate Change Adaptation and History: An interdisciplinary conversation, Bielefeld University, Germany.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2017) "Living with contradictions: Messay and ambiguous interpretations of climate chnage by decision-makers and stakeholders in Ireland's coastal cities" Environment and Sustainability Research Group Seminar, University of Exeter.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2016) "Complex, contradictory and dynamic framings of hazards and disasters: Implications for social science research and theory" Hazards in Context: MaGrann Symposium, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2014) "Floods, climate change and economic crisis in Ireland's coastal cities" Environment, Politics and Development Research Group Seminar, King's College London.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2014) "Climate change adaptation and economic crisis in Ireland's coastal cities" Sustainability Research Centre Seminar, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia.
- Jeffers, J.M. (2010) "Ireland in 2009: Floods, frosts and financial crisis" Department of Geography Lunchtime Seminar, Rutgers University, New Jersey.