ProfessorMartin Dallimer

We live in a time of profound technological, environmental and societal change. Phenomena such as urbanisation and agricultural expansion and intensification have led to unsustainable natural resource use, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. As the importance of diverse, well-functioning ecosystems for everything from carbon sequestration to agricultural yield improvements, landscape resilience to climate change and human health, is increasingly recognised, environmental resource management is finally moving centre stage for society and policy.

My research centres on applying and integrating quantitative and qualitative research techniques from across the natural and social sciences to understand how to deliver sustainable, viable and equitable solutions to some of the grand environment and development challenges facing the world today. I work in across low-, middle- and high-income countries (predominately in Africa, South Asia, the UK and Europe), within rural areas and cities. Primarily, I use and develop innovative interdisciplinary methodological approaches/frameworks to understand, measure and trade-off the values (including monetary, non-monetary, and metrics of ecological ‘quality’) people have for different aspects of the natural environment. I am principally interested in how these values might be linked to biodiversity, well-functioning ecosystems, and ecosystem restoration, as well as human health, wellbeing and life chances, the role of technological innovation, and how evidence can underpin policy, decision-making and successful interventions to sustainably manage natural resources.

I have always worked in collaboration with engineers, conservationists, ecologists, economists, social scientists, public health researchers, behavioural and environmental psychologists. Research has involved fieldwork, manipulation/interrogation of large datasets, GIS, questionnaires, choice experiments, computer modelling and many forms of statistical analysis. More recently, I have used expert elicitation processes, qualitative participatory and deliberative techniques. I firmly believe in engaging with stakeholders at all stages of the research process, from project conception through to knowledge exchange and capacity building to ensure research has impact, is equitable in outcomes and can have ‘real world’ value.