Maciej Pawlik

Supervisor(s): Dr Dan Haines, Dr Megnaa Mehtta and Dr Kaori Kitagawa Funding: Self-funded Email: maciej.pawlik.24@ucl.ac.uk

Green Learning for Disaster Resilience: A Study of Nature-Based Solutions Storytelling in Flood-Prone Communities in Glasgow & Kyoto

This research seeks to understand the influencing factors that impact Green Learning (the process by which communities gain insight/agency into the NbS within their communities). It will seek to uncover the learning processes that occur within specific communities through immersive research methodologies that will tell the narrative via storytelling of the perceived role of NbS in disaster resilience. Through better contextual understanding, there may be an increased capacity to bridge human-nature interactions to facilitate greater disaster resilience.

The epistemological basis for this research stems from Posthumanist Philosophy, asserting the need to transcend human-centric thinking, and pro-actively engage with the biophilia hypothesis to actualise mutualism with the natural world.

Selected publications

• Pawlik, M., Kitagawa, K., Shiroshita, H., Jayaratne, R., Nomoto, S., Okumura, Y., & Kono, K. (2024) 'Proposing Thematic Mapping for Integrated Risk Communication: A study of British & Japanese perspectives in flood-prone communities', International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 107, 104472.
• Pawlik, M., Takabatake, T., Shiroshita, H., Jayaratne, R., Haddad, H., Kitagawa, K., Hasegawa, N. (2025) ‘Agent-Based Modelling for Flood Evacuation as Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Pilot participatory action research with 11- and 12-year-old children from a Japanese school’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 117, 105180

Qualifications

• Royal Holloway, University of London – MSc Global Futures (2022) and BSc (Hons) Psychology, Clinical Psychology & Mental Health (2021)

Experience

• Research Assistant, University of East London (Sept 2022 – Aug 2024)
• Guest Speaker, DRR Workshop at the British Science Festival (2024)
• Guest Lecturer, DRR Seminar at the Institute of Education (May 2024)
• Climate Change Primary School workshop in Bracknell (2023; 2024)
• Climate Change Workshops at a Japanese High School (2023)

Achievements and awards

• International fieldwork across Japan (March 2023 and November 2023)
• Awarded 5th place Young Scientist Award at the IDRiM conference (2023)
• Secured £50k Impact Builder Grant from the University of East London (2023)

Affiliation and memberships

• Associate Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (2024)
• Member, British Ecological Society; WWF; Avoidable Deaths Network; Green Party of England and Wales