Sukaina Bharwani has a Ph.D. in Applied Computing (Social Sciences) and a background in Social Anthropology. Her inter-disciplinary research in Anthropology and Computer Science provides her with a range of qualitative and quantitative skills. Some of her work at the Stockholm Environment Institute (based in Oxford) has focused on agent-based modelling of poverty and vulnerability scenarios. She has been involved in the Climate Outlooks and Agent-Based Simulation of Adaptation (CLOUD) project funded by the School of Geography, University of Oxford, SEI and Tyndall Centre at UEA. This project focused on the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of small-holder farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Sukaina is currently involved in several EC projects such as ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change), CAVES (complexity and land-use change) and NeWater (adaptive management linked to IWRM). Other projects involve research in the Mekong region on adaptation and vulnerability in high risk regions.

Sukaina’s research involves the further development of innovative methods and tools for knowledge elicitation (KnETs) and the representation of this knowledge to support fieldwork and/or for use in agent-based models. The long term aim of this research is to enhance an interdisciplinary and holistic understanding of the interactions of social models (such as those of adaptation, socio-cultural change, etc) and physical models (such as those of natural resource management, climate change, etc) and the way in which they manifest themselves as multiple stresses in complex and dynamic vulnerabilities.