Darren receives PhD for flood emergency planning research
Dr Darren Lumbroso has received his PhD certificate for his work on tools and methods to improve emergency planning for floods, and how these can help reduce loss of life.
Darren completed his PhD whilst working his usual hours, taking the opportunity afforded by HR Wallingford being an Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) with the Open University. He undertook the PhD via the published works route, which required him to submit a thesis including nine peer reviewed papers, previously published in academic journals, linked together by a newly written covering paper.
The papers cover methods to increase the effectiveness of flood emergency plans and how agent-based models, which represent the dynamic interaction of people with floodwater, can be used to investigate different emergency planning scenarios and to help to decrease the potential fatalities from different sources of flooding. Darren’s PhD can be read at https://oro.open.ac.uk/99500/ and many of the published works included in it are available at https://eprints.hrwallingford.com.
“A PhD by published works allowed me to include previously published papers as part of my thesis,” said Darren. “The first paper was published in 2011 and the most recent one in September 2023. I registered for one year with the Open University to compile my thesis, for which I had to dedicate a modest amount of time. I have really appreciated the opportunity to complete this PhD, which has allowed some of the research I have undertaken previously to be formally recognised.”
Darren’s PhD was supervised by Dr Paul Samuels and Dr Gina Tsarouchi of HR Wallingford, together with Professor Hannah Cloke of Reading University. He is pictured with Professor Richard Whitehouse, HR Wallingford’s Research Degrees Coordinator.
Find out more about studying at an OU Affiliated Research Centre on the Open University website.
