Kirsty Holstead
I am currently doing my Ph.D in The School of Management at The University of St Andrews in colaboration with The James Hutton Institute. My Ph.D focuses on understanding what happens when people work together to manage water (community water governance). I explores how people make decisions in these situations, the issues that affect these decisions, and how this type of governance affects peoples' relationships with water and other systems. You can see more information here.
Previous to this, I was a Research Assistant in the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences group at the James Hutton Institute for five years where I carried out social environmental reserach which broadly related to making Scotland a greener, happier and healthier place to live, work and play.
I have a background in social sciences, research and NGO experience, including an MA(Hons) in International Relations and Management from The University of St Andrews and an MSc in Environmental Protection and Management from The University of Edinburgh. I have professional experience in the area of international development in El Slavador and in Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Ministry of Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment in Motevideo, Uruguay.
My research interests focus around natural resource governance, and doing research that can inform and help improve policy and practice to manage natural resources. My research is also policy orientated, for example I presented my work in 2011 at the Natural Flood Management – POSTnote Launch, and my work on the The Value of Scotland’s Water Resources was used to inform the parliament discussion of the Scotland Water Resource Bill in 2013.
I also write for the SEGS blog on topics including natural flood management.
Current research interests
My work expands a number of themes, many of which are interdisciplinary including:
- Water and flood management including natural flood management
- Transition to a low carbon society, including the role of grassroots initiatives
- Natural resource governance
- Community renewable energy production
- Land management and agriculture
In all these areas I use qualitative and mixed methods, with a particular interest in participatory methods. I am a trained and experienced facilitator.
Past research projects:
- Barriers, opportunities and routes for implementing natural flood management in Scotland where researched barriers to natural flood management.
- EU FP7 TESS (Transition Towards European Societal Sustainability) which explores barriers and challenges to 'green' community based initiatives and issues surrounding 'scaling-up' in Scotland and Europe.
- I was the Project Officer of the James Hutton Institute-UNESCO Global Dialogue on Water Ecosystem Services.
- Scottish Government RESAS Theme 2: Water and Renewable Energy - WP2.3. Cost-effectiveness of mitigation of water quality pollution looking at behavioural barriers to implementation of measures to improve water quality.
- Scottish Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW), in particular projects relating to natural flood management
- Scottish Government RESAS Theme 8 “Vibrant rural communities” - 8.2 Governance and decision making for community empowerment in rural communities.
- EU FP7 FarmPath
- Scottish Government RESAS Theme 1 Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Ecosystem Approach Review and WP1.2. Assessment of monetary and non-monetary values of ecosystem services and transferability.
- In 2013/2014 I was a facilitator for the Ecosystem Approach Working Group (EAWG), as part of the Scottish Government’s research on ecosystem services. The main role of the EAWG is to facilitate research partnerships, knowledge exchange and collaboration between researchers, government agencies, NGOs and policy makers working in the area of natural resource management and ecosystem services.
- Scottish Government RESAS Theme 3 - 3.6 Understanding land managers’ attitudes and behaviour towards the management of environmental assets and responding to climate change
Related websites
Share our content
