Maureen's research interests cover climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation within environmental and social systems. She has over 20 years’ experience working on a variety of domestic (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, MRC-NERC, The Leverhulme Trust, and County Councils) and internationally-funded projects (European Union) in the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia, UK).
Research has focussed on integrated assessments of climate impacts and vulnerability that consider variability and change in climate alongside the dynamics of other environmental and social systems. Most recently this has involved an indicator-based assessment of climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptive response in the Mediterranean using a series of case-studies to represent urban, rural and coastal environments within the EU CIRCE project. Implications of climate variability and change for human health have been another focus of research. In the EU ATOPICA project this has involved an assessment of allergy disease vulnerability in response to environmental change (in climate and pollen exposure). Key to this research approach has been the integration of impacts and vulnerabilities through multidisciplinary tools, knowledge networks and stakeholder participation.