Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Robert Nicholls was the Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research from 2019 to 2024 and is currently Professor of Climate Adaptation. His research focusses on coastal problems and their solution, with a strong focus on sea-level rise, coastal erosion and flooding, and how society can adapt to these changes. He has studied the implications of sea-level rise in the UK and in many of the most sensitive regions of the world such as deltaic areas (e.g., Bangladesh) and small islands (e.g., the Maldives). A distinctive dimension of his research is taking an integrated assessment approach — assessing the coastal zone as an interacting system. This allows all the full range of drivers and factors of change to be considered, facilitating policy-relevant analysis and conclusions.
Robert is one of the principal developers of the DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) model, which assesses coastal risks and adaptation at broad scales up to the globe. DIVA has been used extensively for policy analysis such as estimating global coastal protection costs as part of the World Bank funded ‘Beyond the Gap’ 2019 study of infrastructure investment costs for climate change. He continues to use DIVA in international research such as in the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme (including the PROTECT, CoCliCo and REST-COAST Horizon2020 Projects). He also led a global assessment of flood exposure in large port cities with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Robert has also led significant international projects on the integrated assessment of the development of deltas, including climate change, sea-level rise and other key human-induced drivers making an integrated assessment approach essential. Much of this recent work is in Bangladesh, via the ESPA Deltas and DECCMA Projects, including supporting the Bangladesh government Delta plan 2100.
Robert has published nearly 300 peer-reviewed papers, is the co-editor of six books, and many articles and book chapters, including authorship of five assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He co-led the World Climate Research Programme Sea-Level Rise Grand Challenge to deliver sea-level science to support better coastal impact and adaptation assessment from 2013 to 2022. He is a member of the COPRI Coastal Engineering Research Council who organize the bi-annual International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE). He holds a BSc in Geology and a PhD in Civil Engineering both from the University of Southampton, where he was Professor of Coastal Engineering from 2004 to 2019.
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services
Ferrini, S., Forster, J., Ferrini, S., Marca, A., Nicholls, R., Nolte, S. & Turner, K.
1/09/22 → 31/08/26
Project: Research
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Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems: river to sea connectivity
1/10/21 → 31/03/26
Project: Research
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Surveying the evidence landscape for UK-focused spatial climate risk assessment.
Nicholls, R., Jones, M. & Smith, A.
6/02/23 → 15/05/23
Project: Consultancy
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Port and Coastal Cities and Towns Network (PoCCiToNe)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/03/22 → 28/02/25
Project: Research
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Aging dams, political instability, poor human decisions and climate change: Recipe for human disaster
Shirzaei, M., Vahedifard, F., Sadhasivam, N., Ohenhen, L., Dasho, O., Tiwari, A., Werth, S., Azhar, M., Zhao, Y., Nicholls, R. J. & Aghakouchak, A., 16 Jan 2025, In: npj Natural Hazards. 2, 1, 5.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Open AccessFile10 Downloads (Pure) -
An innovative multi-hazard climate change risk assessment framework: Evidence from a place-based assessment of challenges and solutions in the UK Fens
Jenkins, K., Nicholls, R., Sayers, P., Redhead, J., Price, J., He, Y., Minns, A. & Pywell, R., 15 Mar 2025, EGU General Assembly 2025. EGU25-18584Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
Open Access -
A systems perspective for climate adaptation in deltas
Eslami, S., Oude Essink, G., Paszkowski, A., Seeger, K., Minderhoud, P. S. J., Sloff, K. & Nicholls, R. J., Jul 2025, In: Nature Climate Change. 15, 7, p. 687-691 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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Intermittent estuaries deserve global attention as vulnerable and vital ecosystems
Khojasteh, D., Rao, S., McSweeney, S., Ibaceta, R., Nicholls, R. J., French, J., Glamore, W., Largier, J. L., Adams, J., Hughes, M. G., Barry, M., Power, H. E., Du, J., Tucker, T. A., Cienfuegos, R., Catalan, P. A. & Hanslow, D., 6 Jun 2025, In: Communications Earth and Environment. 6, 443.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Migration, land loss and costs to 2100 due to coastal flooding under the IPCC AR6 sea-level rise scenarios and plausible adaptation choices
Ballesteros, C., Lincke, D., Nicholls, R. J., Heslop, J., Hinkel, J., Malagón-Santos, V. & Slangen, A. B. A., 27 Mar 2025, In: Frontiers in Marine Science. 12, 1505633.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure)
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Independent Climate Change Risk Assessment to inform the Fens2100+ programme and the Future Fens
Robert Nicholls (Consultant), Katie Jenkins (Consultant), Yi He (Consultant), Jeff Price (Consultant), Paul Sayers (Consultant) & Richard Pywell (Consultant)
May 2023 → May 2024Activity: Consultancy
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Critical Climate decade: Implications for Water
Robert Nicholls (Organiser), Yi He (Organiser), Vittoria Danino-Appleton (Organiser) & Jo-Anne Geere (Organiser)
Jun 2022 → …Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Schools engagement