Sara Mehryar
Sara is a research fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research is mainly focused on supporting decision-making and governance of climate change adaptation and resilience. Sara applies various tools and methods including mental modelling, social simulation, and resilience assessment tools to understand human adaptation behaviour and identify ways to improve resilience of local communities against future climate risks.
Since 2018, Sara has been largely working on the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance
programme which is a multi-sectoral collaboration focusing on finding practical ways to support communities in developed and developing countries strengthen their resilience to flood risk. In addition, sara has been a:
- Co-I for Ai-Assisted Resilience Governance Systems (ARGOS)
- funded by the UKRI TAS-hub
- Co-I for Learning from the Past to Build a Better Future: Supporting Urban Flood Resilience in Kuwait Through a Forensic Analysis of the 2018 Flash Floods funded by the LSE Kuwait programme
- Researcher for Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN)
Member of the management committee
- of the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA)
Background
Sara completed her PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at University of Twente, Netherlands. In her thesis, she developed a participatory method using a combination of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) and Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) to support policy option analysis for water scarcity. Sara also holds an MSc in Urban Design from the University of Delft, Netherlands, and a BSc in Architecture from University of Guilan in Iran.
Research interests
- Urban climate risk governance
- Decision making for climate adaptation and resilience
- Adaptation behaviour to flood and heat risks
- Participatory decision making
- Social simulation and mental modelling
Research articles
- Supporting urban adaptation to climate change: What role can resilience measurement tools play?
4 Dec 2021. Sara Mehryar, Idan Sasson, Swenja Surminski
Working papers
- Investigating flood resilience perceptions and supporting collective decision-making through fuzzy cognitive mapping
11 Dec 2021 - Supporting urban adaptation to climate change: what role can resilience measurement tools play?
16 Jul 2021 - The role of national laws in managing flood risk and increasing future flood resilience
9 Mar 2020 - From individual fuzzy cognitive maps to agent based models: modelling multi-factorial and multi-stakeholder decision-making for water scarcity
29 Aug 2019
Policy publications
- Submission to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Call for Evidence on the International Development Strategy
Policy publications, 25 Nov 2021 - Submission to the Environment Agency’s consultation on the Draft National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England
Policy publications, 17 Oct 2019 - Submission to Call for Evidence on Flooding and Coastal Erosion by Defra
Policy publications, 9 Oct 2019