STEM Faculty

Professional biography

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Systems in the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University. I have a PhD in Geography, and have previously worked at the Scottish Association for Marine Science-University of the Highlands and Islands, Robert Gordon University, and the University of Edinburgh. I have served on the Scottish Government's First Minister's Environmental Council, and am a Future Earth Coasts Fellow as well as a former European Crucible participant. I'm also on the Editorial Board for the journal Sustainability Science.

Research interests

The big question I’m interested in is: whose knowledge counts – and why – within environmental management and policy? I explore these issues through three sub-areas of research:

(a) climate change adaptation governance at the city or regional scale, especially the integration of equity and justice concerns within techncially-led processes for climate risk reduction;

(b) risk, environmental infrastructure and the coastal and marine environment. I am especially interested in how environmental change may impact upon socially and culturally meaningful activities, and what the effects of this may be;

(c) ‘just transitions’ for high-emitting and carbon-intensive regions, where climate imperatives may have to be balanced with local concerns over employment and economic sustainability.

My research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust, the Japan Foundation, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh among others. Outputs from my work on environmental policy and governance have been published in journals including Global Environmental Change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and World Development.

Highlight publications

Mabon L, Kawabe M, Nakahara N and Lou X (2025) ‘Relational responsibility and host communities in complex and contentious environmental situations: coastal fisheries and treated water at the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear plant, Japan’ Environmental Policy and Governance DOI: 10.1002/eet.70003

Mabon L and Kawabe M (2022) Opinion: Bring Voices from the Coast into the Fukushima Treated Water Debate Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2205431119

Mabon L (2022) Football and climate change: what do we know, and what is needed for an evidence-informed response? Climate Policy 10.1080/14693062.2022.2147895

Mabon, L, and Shih, W-Y (2021) ‘Urban greenspace as a climate change adaptation strategy for subtropical Asian cities: a comparative study across cities in three countries’ Global Environmental Change DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102248

Mabon, L (2019) ‘Enhancing post-disaster resilience by ‘building back greener’: Evaluating the contribution of nature-based solutions to recovery planning in Futaba County, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan’ Landscape and Urban Planning DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.03.013

Funded research projects

2025-26 British Academy Evidence-Informed Policy Making Grant - Supporting evidence-driven policymaking for seawalls to mitigate sea level rise (PoliSeaWall) - (PI, Co-Is Syiah Kuala University; London South Bank University) (£130,000)

2025-26 Engineering and Physical Science Research Council Ecological Citizens Network - Community-led nature-based solutions for protection against erosion and flooding in a low-lying island: Tiree, Scotland - (PI; Co-I Tiree Community Development Trust £49,000)

2024-2026 – Royal Society International Partnerships – Coastal forests for climate resilience (Principal Investigator, Co-I Klaipeda University Lithuania) (£12,000)

2024-25 – Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers Seed Grant – Rising seas, collapsing walls (Co-I, PI London South Bank University) (£20,000);

2023 – Japan Foundation Endowment Committee – Bringing voices from the coast into the Fukushima Dai’ichi treated water debate;

2022-24 – British Academy International Interdisciplinary Research – Urban Greening for Heat-Resilient Neighbourhoods (Principal Investigator, Co-Is Ming Chuan University and Climate Ready Clyde) (£174,000) PROJECT PAGE

2021-22 – British Academy Just Transitions to Decarbonisation in the Asia-Pacific – Just transitions to a net-zero sustainable society in Japan (Principal Investigator, Co-Is Kyushu University and Kyoto University) (£74,000) PROJECT PAGE

2021-23 – ESRC-MOST UK-Taiwan Networking Grants – Urban greening for climate-resilient neighbourhoods (Co-Principal Investigator with Ming-Chuan University) (£23,000 + match-funding from MOST)

2021-22 – British Academy Sandpit Funding – Just Transitions in Biodiversity Governance (Co-Principal Investigator; Lead Institution University of Bristol) (£15,491)

2020-21 – Scottish Government/Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Asia Partnerships in Higher Education Grant (Principal Investigator) Building back better and a just transition – linking rural communities in Japan and Scotland (£7,900)

2019-23 – EPSRC Research Grant – Hydrogen Storage in Porous Media (Co-Investigator; Principal Investigator Prof Stuart Haszeldine, University of Edinburgh) (Co-I share £127,000)

2018-20 – ESRC-AHRC UK-Japan Social Sciences and Humanities Connections – Building Social Resilience to Environmental Change in Marginalised Coastal Communities (Principal Investigator; Co-Investigators Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology; Marine Ecology Research Institute) (£49,900)

2018-19 – National Centre for Resilience Research Project Grants – Developing a Digital Flood Evacuation Model for Climate Change and Wellbeing (Principal Investigator; Co-Investigator Dr Yang Jiang, School of Computer Science and Digital Media, RGU) (£29,000)

2018-21 – Global Challenges Research Fund/Scottish Funding Council Official Development Assistance RGU Allocation – social wellbeing through ecosystem health for coastal communities under climate change (Principal Investigator, Co-PI Dr Nguyen Song Tung, Institute of Human Geography, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (£15,000)

2017-19 – Minami-Soma City Government ‘Reconstruction University’ Initiative – Let’s Talk about the Sea and Fish of Minami-Soma (PI: Prof Midori Kawabe, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan)

2017-19 – IIED/SNIFFER TRACTION project – development of competences framework for assessing national-level climate change adaptation (£10,000);

2017-19 – EU-ACT Carbon Capture and Storage – ACORN Project (Work Package Leader, Principal Investigators Pale Blue Dot Energy/Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage) (Share: £30,000)

2017-18 – Wellcome Trust Seed Awards in Humanities and Social Sciences – Assessing Energy Precarity in Sub-Tropical Asian Cities (Principal Investigator, Co-Investigators Ming-Chuan University; University of Science and Technology Hanoi; Kyushu University) (£49,000);

2017-19 – Royal Society of Edinburgh-Ministry of Science and Technology Joint Research Projects – Integrating environmental and social urban data to assess climate hazards – the role of green infrastructure (Co-Principal Investigator with Ming-Chuan University) (£12,000 + match-funding from MOST);

2017-18 – Regional Studies Association Early Career Grant – Managed transitions in carbon-intensive coastal regions: a comparative study of Iwaki and Iburi, Japan (Principal Investigator – £9,700);

2016 – British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme – Climate Change and Coastal Communities (Principal Investigator, with Institute of Human Geography, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) (£10,000);

2015-16 – UK CCS Research Centre International Collaboration Fund – Public and Stakeholder Perceptions of Sub-Seabed Carbon Dioxide Storage in Tomakomai, Japan (Principal Investigator, with Dr Jun Kita, Research Centre for Innovative Technology for the Earth, Kyoto, Japan) (£17,000);

2015-16 – GB Sasakawa Foundation – Scotland-Japan Network on Consensus Building for Environmental Governance (Principal Investigator, with Prof Taisuke Miyauchi, Hokkaido University) (£5,000);

2014-15 – Work Package Leader (Public and Stakeholder Perceptions), Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery Joint Industry Project (£11,000);

2014 – Japan Foundation Japan Studies Fellowship (Short-Term) – Environmental Change and Risk in Coastal Communities (Principal Investigator, with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology). (JPY716,000).

Teaching interests

I am the production and presentation chair for T330: Environmental Management 2; and author the Environmental Management in Communities block for T220: Environmental Management. I am also on the module team for U116: Environment.

Impact and engagement

As well as my blog and social media account, I enjoy societal engagement activities, and engaging with policy stakeholders as well as civil society organisations and the public. A few examples of impact and engagement activities from recent years are:

2026

Having the outcomes of our British Academy-funded work on urban greening for heat-resilient neighbourhoods featured by the British Academy in film and text;

2025

Appearing on the FootPol podcast to talk about the sustainability aspects of the 2030 World Cup in Spain, Portugal and Morocco;

Media commentary in Metro, LBC and Relevo (Spanish) on nuclear power in Japan, marine oil spills, and extreme heat in football respectively.

2024

Joining the Lewes FC leg of Chris Boardman's Pedal for Paris initiative, where I talked to the participating athletes about football and climate change and then joined the last leg of the cycle, somehow managing not to be dropped on my Brompton,

2023

An Op-Ed in the Japan Times, discussing the need for a fair and just transition to a net-zero society in Japan;

Quoted on extreme heat and climate change in the press, including the Guardian, ITV, the Independent.

2022

Joining the British Academy delegation to the Royal Society of Canada-G7 Research Summit on One Health in Canada in November 2022;

Quoted in the Royal Geographical Society's Geographical magazine on climate change, disasters and weather extremes.

2021

Chairing a session at the Taiwanese government's Taiwan Day at the COP26 climate change negotiations in Glasgow;

An appearance on CBS' Canada Tonight programme, where I discussed the treated water sitaution at the Fukushima Dai'Ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan;

Being featured in Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, in an article discussing my research activites on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture since the 2011 nuclear accident;

My research into disaster risk reduction and societal resilience through restoration of ecosystems being cited in the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Words into Action Guide on Nature-Based Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction.

I am also a big fan of football, and have frequently appeared on podcasts and in print media talking about the relationship between football and climate change.

International links

I have a long-standing collaboration with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in Japan, where I work with Prof Midori Kawabe and the Department of Marine Policy and Culture on the revitalisation of fisheries and coastal communities in Fukushima Prefecture following the 2011 earthquake, tsnuami and nuclear accident;

Since 2016 I have worked with Dr Wan-Yu Shih of the Taipei GI Lab at National Taiwan University, Taiwan on nature-based approaches to climate change adaptation for cities. As well as currently co-leading an ESRC-MOST project on urban greening for climate-resilient neighbourhoods, we jointly run the Urban Green Adaptation Diary website and blog which shares insights on nature-based adaptation with researchers, policy stakeholders and practitioners;

I also work extensively with the Institute of Human Geography in the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, where we have developed a programme of joint fieldwork and early-career researcher capacity-building on societal dimensions of climate change adaptation for coastal communities.