Prof Bruce Glavovic

Contact details

• Ph: x2036
  Location: 2.16, Social Sciences Tower
  Campus: Turitea

Research Interests

Bruce’s research centres on how to make societal choices in turbulent times. He is internationally recognised for critical applied scholarship on: (i) Adapting to climate change, focusing on sea-level rise, flood risk, community-based adaptation, and climate resilient development; (ii) natural hazards planning, vulnerability, and resilience governance, focusing on disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery; (iii) coastal governance, integrated coastal management, and coastal and ocean equity, justice, poverty eradication, and sustainable livelihoods; and (iv) collaborative planning, deliberative democracy, public participation, dispute resolution, and conflict transformation.

Thematics

Resource Development and Management

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Built Environment And Design (120000):
Environment Policy (160507):
Environmental Management (050205): Environmental Science and Management (050200): Environmental Science and Management not elsewhere classified (050299): Environmental Sciences (050000):
Land Use and Environmental Planning (120504):
Natural Resource Management (050209): Other Environmental Sciences (059900):
Policy and Administration (160500): Policy and Administration not elsewhere classified (160599): Public Policy (160510): Studies In Human Society (160000):
Urban and Regional Planning (120500)

Keywords

Bruce’s research centres on how to make societal choices in turbulent times. He is internationally recognised for critical applied scholarship on: (i) Adapting to climate change, focusing on sea-level rise, flood risk, community-based adaptation, and climate resilient development; (ii) natural hazards planning, vulnerability, and resilience governance, focusing on disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery; (iii) coastal governance, integrated coastal management, and coastal and ocean equity, justice, poverty eradication, and sustainable livelihoods; and (iv) collaborative planning, deliberative democracy, public participation, dispute resolution, and conflict transformation.

Completed Projects

Teaching Statement

My current teaching centres on natural hazards planning, risk, resilience and sustainability. I teach undergraduate (132.217) and postgraduate (132.751) courses in this field. I also teach an undergraduate course (132.318) on public participation, public disputes and conflict resolution, with a focus on community-based planning interventions. These courses align with and are founded on my scholar-practitioner work with communities as they seek to navigage the challenges of the Anthropocene - a human-dominated era in which turbulence, disruption and surprise are the 'new normal'. The upshot is that communities face complexity, dynamism, uncertainty and contestation in local decision-making. Moreover, urgent transformative action is necessary to future proof communities in this era. 

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• Kerstie Van Zandvoort Zandvoort - Doctor of Philosophy
  Seasonal Rhythms in Practice: how institutions might adapt to environmental change

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• 2020 - Martin Garcia Cartagena - Doctor of Philosophy
  Community Resilience, Capitals, and Power relations: Stories from the Waimakariri District about the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquakes in New Zealand
• 2014 - Paul Schneider - Doctor of Philosophy
  Local reality and the climate change adaptation dilemma: Beyond technical fixes and 'business as usual'.
• 2012 - Wendy Saunders - Doctor of Philosophy
  Innovative land-use planning for natural hazard risk reduction in New Zealand
• 2011 - Winifereti Nainoca - Doctor of Philosophy
  The influence of the Fijian way of life (bula vakavanua) on community-based marine conservation (CBMC) in Fiji, with a focus on social capital and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)

Co-supervisor of:

• 2012 - Abdur Cheema - Doctor of Philosophy
  Exploring the role of the mosque in dealing with disasters: a case study of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan
• 2012 - Scott Bremer - Doctor of Philosophy
  Exploring a 'post-normal' science-policy interface for integrated coastal management

Media

• 29 Aug 2020 - Online
  Lessons people can learn from Covid-19 lockdown: '
  In a world struggling to cope with Covid-19 and climate change looming over its shoulder, are New Zealanders looking for ways to become more self-sufficient?
• 26 Sep 2019 - Online
  Climate change report underlines sea level rise
  The latest international climate report sends a stark message about the fundamental importance of the world's oceans, a New Zealand scientist says.
• 26 Nov 2014 - Magazine, Newspaper
  Navigating uncharted waters
  Article in Future NZ, Magazine Supplement in Herald
• 24 Mar 2015 - Online
  Coasts – the front line of climate change
  Rising sea levels and other climate change effects are forcing a major re-think of coastal planning approaches here and abroad, says Massey University natural hazards planning expert Professor Bruce G
• 13 Jun 2020 - Online
  Anzac Parade focus for Horizons Regional Council's
  The project will be led by Massey University's Professor Bruce Glavovic and Dr Martín García Cartagena, who are experts in natural hazards planning, flood risk reduction and community resilience build
• view more...
• 11 Apr 2017 - Online
  Experts slam government's hands-off approach
  Several catastrophic floods in quick succession have put the government in the firing line over its inaction on measures to help protect towns and cities from inundation.
• 08 Apr 2015 - Radio
  On Rising Sea Levels
  Interview on Radio New Zealand, From Nine to Noon
• 01 Jan 2012 - Magazine
  Global and local imperatives intersect at the coas
  New Zealand Local Government, 48: 29-30.
• view less...

Other Links

• Google Scholar
• ORCID