Professor John Rowan
Director of UNESCO Centre for Water Law Policy and Science in Physical Geography
Energy Environment and Society, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
Contact
Biography
John was appointed Director of the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science in 2022. The mandate for the Centre is to advance the UNESCO mission for sustainable and equitable development, with a particular focus on Sustainable Development Goal 6: 'Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all'. For the five years prior, he was Vice Principal of Research, Knowledge Exchange & Wider Impact with overall institutional responsibility for research strategy and excellence in academic performance.
John is a Professor of Physical Geography, with particular expertise in the study of environmental change. His systems-based work on the impacts of climate and land use change - manifested by issues like soil erosion, flooding and biodiversity impacts - has a strong policy focus. Current collaborations extend across multiple countries, e.g., Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Zimbabwe and Turkey. He also has a strong national profile and serves in an advisory capacity to the Scottish Government’s Centres of Expertise in Climate Change (CXC) and Centre for Research on Water (CREW).
John has been at the University of Dundee since 1998. He was the Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR), a strategic and highly successful partnership with the James Hutton Institute, established to tackle interdisciplinary challenges around food, water, energy and health security. He was the inaugural Dean of the School of Social Sciences created through restructuring in 2015.
Media availability
I am available for media commentary on my research.
Contact Corporate Communications for media enquiries.
Areas of expertise
- Clean water/sanitation
- Climate change
- Environment
- Sustainability
- Water
- Weather
Research projects
Project lead
Research project
New and emerging pollutants in water present health threats to humans and the environment.
Research project
Recent research has supported the Scottish Government in shaping climate change adaptation policy, focusing on flooding, water quality, and resources, and developing a research-led monitoring and evaluation framework.
Research project
Rapid economic change and population growth increase the pressure on water resources management to address competing demands across river basins. The key challenge is to give adequate representation to the many local, small-scale water management interventions in larger-scale decision-making.
Stories
Press release
International water experts from four continents met in Scotland to mark the 20th Anniversary of the UK’s only UNESCO Category 2 Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science (CWLPS), on Thursday 24 April, at Discovery Point
Press release
The security of the world’s water has never been more precarious, a University of Dundee scholar has warned.
Press release
The University of Dundee will welcome the “thinkers and change-makers of the future” as part of a new, multi-million pound initiative.
