Diana Reckien

Dr. Diana Reckien is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management (PGM) of the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands.

She is Coordinating Lead Author for 'Chapter 17: Decision-making options for managing risk' of the Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).

Dr. Reckien is on the Editorial Board of 'Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews' (Elsevier, IF 8.050).  

The scientific publication record of Dr. Diana Reckien comprises more than 60 publications, including more than 20 peer-reviewed journal papers. She was Guest editor of

• A Special Issue "Climate Change and Simulation/Gaming" for the journal Gaming & Simulation 

• A Special Issue "Innovative Geo-Information Tools for Governance" of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information  

Before joining the University of Twente Dr. Reckien has worked at Climate Analytics Berlin, Germany, Columbia University in the City of New York, USA, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. She was also a Social Development Specialist for the Asian Development Bank in parallel and during parts of these positions.

Dr. Reckien received her PhD (magna cum laude) in Geography in 2007 from the University of Marburg, Germany, in cooperation with the John-Moores-University Liverpool, UK. Her PhD focused on “Intra-regional migration in formerly industrialised regions: Qualitative Modelling of household location decisions as an input to policy and plan making in Leipzig/Germany and Wirral/Liverpool/UK”.

Dr. Diana Reckien specializes at the interface of climate change and interdisciplinary urban research, focusing on:

• Climate change impacts and adaptation (e.g. differences across socio-economic groups);
• Urban resilience;
• Differential social vulnerabilities;
• Climate change mitigation, mainly in the transport and building sector;
• Climate change gaming;
• Climate change migration;
• Intra-regional migration, suburbanization, re-urbanization, shrinking cities, and
• Climate change policy and practice in intercultural comparisons.

She recurrently analyses the preparedness of European cities with respect to climate change planning, evaluating urban climate change adaptation and mitigation plans in European cities with a team of researchers from the EU-28.

While striving for policy- and planning-relevant research, she enjoys working on method developments for interdisciplinary and complex research problems, e.g. investigating the suitability of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, Qualitative Modelling, cognitive mapping and other network and system's dynamics approaches for the assessment of impacts of extreme weather events and socially sensible adaptation options. She also explores the integration of fuzzy knowledge, stakeholder experiences and qualitative data into more formal, quantitative research methods and applications. Most of her research concentrates on large urban areas in Europe, India and the US.

Current projects/ research groups:

1. Title & Aim: Evaluating options to integrate temporal aspects into Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM)

• Role: FCM research group leader
• Team: 1 PhD

2. Title & Aim: Second update of the inventory and analysis of Local Climate Plans in Europe (EURO-LCP2)

• Role: Group leader, Coordinator
• Team: Network of urban researchers from EU-28 countries

Selected recent projects and research groups:

1. Research Project - Title: Subjective realities of climate change – Perceived climate-related impacts across social groups in urban areas and the quantitative deduction of socially sensible adaptation strategies           

• Role: Independent researcher
• Funding1: Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University, USA; Funding2: DFG RE 2927/ 2-1 German Science Foundation
• Aims: Further exploration of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping as a tool for climate change impact and adaptation studies; Developing socially sensible adaptation options for the NYC area
• Exemplary research output: Perceived causal climate change impact networks for heavy rainstorms in New York City & largest problems during heat and rain across boroughs

 2. Networking Project - COST Action Network TU0902: Integrated assessment technologies to support the sustainable development of urban areas