Humanitarian Frontiers Lab - News

See Awarded MPhil Degree!

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +1100

Sheryn See has been awarded her Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree for her thesis, Humanitarian Responses to Complex Displacement Crises. Her research examined how humanitarian responses can better serve communities trapped in overlapping cycles of disaster, conflict, and climate-induced displacement.

Sheryn’s thesis reviewed how climate change, disasters, and conflict increasingly intertwine to drive what she and her co-authors term “complex displacement”, and drew on interviews with humanitarian practitioners in the Philippines to understand how organisations classify displacement and decide when and how to respond. During her candidature, Sheryn also undertook a placement with the International Organization for Migration as a Climate Displacement Specialist, supporting development of the Risk Index for Climate Displacement. Sheryn is now working as a Water Resources Engineer at GHD. Congratulations Sheryn!

Besarra Featured on Behind the Science Podcast

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +1000

Isaac Besarra was featured on episode 75 of the Behind the Science Podcast, Flooded Futures: Modelling the Housing Damage in Leyte under Climate Change, discussing his research on flood risk to housing in Carigara, Leyte under future climate change scenarios.

In the episode, Isaac unpacks how he combined flood modelling with building-level vulnerability curves to project the cost of flood damage to housing at the local level under the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate scenarios — work completed during his MPhil in the lab and published in the Journal of Environmental Management. Isaac is now a PhD student at the University of Twente. Watch the episode below, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Nabong Awarded PhD Degree!

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +1000

Emily Nabong has been awarded her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree for her thesis, Habitability Dynamics of Pacific Islands in a Changing Climate. Her research examined how climate change is reshaping the habitability of Pacific Island nations and the implications for migration and adaptation planning.

Emily’s doctoral work used systems thinking to unpack how climate change shapes migration and habitability – mapping the economic, environmental, demographic, political, and social factors that interact in climate migration decisions, identifying leverage points where policy interventions can build resilience, and developing system dynamics models of habitability in Kiribati. Along the way, she designed serious games that help decision-makers explore climate change adaptation choices. Publications from her thesis can be found on our publications page. Emily has been selected as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Congratulations Dr Nabong!

Hadlos Awarded PhD Degree!

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +1000

Arvin Hadlos has been awarded his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree for his thesis, Local and Indigenous Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction: Analysing Multi-Hazard Housing Reconstruction Strategies in the Philippines. His research examined how the place-based and cultural knowledge of Ivatan communities in Batanes shapes safer housing reconstruction across multiple hazards.

Arvin’s doctoral work combined a systematic review of local and Indigenous knowledge in disaster risk reduction with fieldwork in Itbayat, Batanes, where the 2019 earthquakes reshaped typhoon-resilient construction practices. He derived expert-driven seismic and wind fragility functions for the island’s non-engineered housing typologies and traced how households’ rebuilding choices led to new housing forms that displaced vernacular architecture – work that was recognised by the Itbayat local government for its contribution to keeping the municipality’s heritage. Arvin has taken up a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Queensland. Congratulations Dr Hadlos!

Shadbolt Selected as SEI Honours Research Fellow

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +1000

Dylan Shadbolt has been selected as a 2025 Honours Research Fellow by the Sydney Environment Institute. His Honours research will evaluate the effectiveness of the Philippines’ anticipatory action framework for typhoons, combining weather forecasting with social variables to predict where disaster impacts will be greatest.

Dylan is completing a Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Civil) and Bachelor of Design in Architecture, and his research will draw out lessons and emerging challenges from anticipatory action implementation in the Philippines. He follows Lauren Hocking, who held the fellowship in 2024 for her research on social infrastructure and disasters. Congratulations Dylan!

Nabong Wins Humanitarian Pitch

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +1100

Emily Nabong has won first place in The Warren Centre’s Humanitarian Innovation Awards Pitch for her project, Empowering Climate Resiliency with an Interactive Policy Tool.

Emily’s tool lets policy makers simulate the long-term effects of climate change adaptation choices in a risk-free virtual environment, tracking how decisions play out across metrics including water needs, housing, land use and reclamation, health, and income. The tool builds on her PhD research into the habitability of Pacific Island nations under climate change, translating systems modelling into a format that decision-makers can explore directly. Watch her winning pitch below. Congratulations Emily!

See Supports International Organization for Migration

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 02:16:00 +0000

Sheryn See, currently an MPhil student with our lab, is undertaking a 4-month placement as a Climate Displacement Specialist with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Sheryn will be supporting the development of the Risk Index for Climate Displacement (RICD) – a risk index and predictive model that will improve quantification, understanding and forecasting of potential future challenges linked to climate change and migration, including climate-induced displacement. The RICD will help governments, communities, and partners to increase the resilience of populations most likely to be impacted by climate-induced displacement and work towards averting or addressing loss and damage.

Besarra Awarded MPhil Degree!

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:13:15 +0000

Isaac Besarra has been awarded his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree for his thesis, Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Housing Flood Risk in the Philippines. His research derived localised housing fragility and vulnerability functions from 394 post-flood damaged households across the Province of Leyte, and combined these with climate-projected flood models in the Municipality of Carigara to understand how flood risk to housing will shift at the household level under future climate scenarios.

Opdyke Joins Editorial Board of the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 22:28:32 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke was named to the editorial board of the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. The new editorial board consists of 70% women and 25% early-career researchers, showing a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the journal’s leadership. The full editorial board is available on the journal’s website.

The journal has long been a home for the lab’s research, publishing our work on humanitarian shelter, housing vulnerability, storm surge evacuation, and disaster risk creation – see our publications page. Dr Opdyke’s editorial role continues the lab’s commitment to strengthening the evidence base for disaster risk reduction.

Opdyke Recognised as Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +1000

Dr Aaron Opdyke has been recognised as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) by Advance HE. The fellowship recognises a sustained record of effectiveness in teaching and learning in higher education, benchmarked against the Professional Standards Framework.

The recognition reflects a sustained teaching record in the School of Civil Engineering, where Dr Opdyke has led units including Engineering for Sustainable Development and Global Engineering Fieldwork, with intensive field schools delivered in Samoa, India, and the Philippines. It joins earlier teaching recognition including a Dean’s Award for Teaching Innovation (2020) and a Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research and Teaching by an Early Career Academic (2022).

Disaster Risk Training for East Java Government

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:02:00 +0000

Through the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, our lab members Dr Aaron Opdyke and Grace Muir hosted a 3-day training for 20 representatives from the East Java provincial government in Indonesia. Delivered under the programme Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Plan on Infrastructure, the training included 2 days of classroom sessions with speakers on gender and inclusion, policy design, disaster risk reduction theory, and project monitoring and evaluation. The programme also included engagement with the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority and State Emergency Services.

Besarra Recognised with Best Student Presentation at APRU Conference

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 22:00:00 +0000

MPhil candidate Isaac Besarra was recognised with the best student presentation at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Sustainable Cities & Landscapes Conference held in Manila from 6 – 8 August 2024. Isaac’s presentation “What is the Cost of Climate Change? Examining Flood Risk at the Municipal Scale in the Philippines” shared recent findings modelling shifting flood impacts on residential structures.

The presentation drew on Isaac’s MPhil research assessing climate change impacts on flood risk in the Philippines, undertaken with collaborators at the University of the Philippines. The work combines housing fragility and vulnerability functions, derived from surveys of flood-damaged households in the Province of Leyte, with climate-projected flood models to understand how damage to housing in the Municipality of Carigara may shift under future climate scenarios.

Nabong and Hadlos Receive Career Advancement Awards

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:46:00 +0000

PhD candidates Emily Nabong and Arvin Hadlos were selected for the Faculty of Engineering Career Advancement Award. The competitive awards provide 6 months of funding to advance their research upon submitting their PhD theses.

Emily’s thesis examines the habitability dynamics of Pacific Islands in a changing climate, using systems approaches to understand climate mobility and adaptation. Arvin’s thesis analyses how local and Indigenous knowledge shapes multi-hazard housing reconstruction strategies in the Philippines. Congrats!

Itbayat Local Government Recognises Hadlos' Research

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:16:00 +0000

The Office of the Sangguniang Bayan of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Itbayat, Batanes in the Philippines has recognised Arvin Hadlos’ research work, “Pathways for multi-hazard post-disaster housing reconstruction among Ivatan Indigenous households“. Under Resolution No. 24-0657, the work was acknowledged as among those documentations and initiatives that contribute to the heritage keeping of Itbayat, ensuring appreciation of local heritage for future generations. The research work is part of Hadlos’ PhD thesis and is published in the Journal of Building Engineering, co-authored by Dr Aaron Opdyke and Dr Ali Hadigheh.

Hocking Selected as SEI Honours Research Fellow

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:42:06 +0000

Congratulations to Lauren Hocking who has been awarded a Sydney Environment Institute Honours Research Fellowship! Under the fellowship, Lauren will be researching how social infrastructure can reduce the impact of disasters in the Philippines.

Lauren is completing a Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Civil) and Bachelor of Science, and her honours thesis will investigate how everyday community spaces – from barangay halls to basketball courts – help build the social connections that communities draw on to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.

Hadlos and Besarra Win Humanitarian Pitch

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 01:02:47 +0000

Arvin Hadlos and Isaac Besarra have been awarded 1st and 3rd place, respectively, in The Warren Centre’s Humanitarian Innovation Awards Pitch, organised by the Warren Centre. Arvin’s winning pitch delved into his research focusing on multi-hazard housing reconstruction in Batanes, Philippines, offering insights crucial for disaster-resilient communities. Meanwhile, Isaac’s pitch centred on assessing flood risk for residential buildings in Leyte, Philippines, providing valuable perspectives for mitigating the impacts of climate change.

New Colombo Plan Grant to Support Undergraduate Disaster Research in the Philippines

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 01:24:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke has been awarded a New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant (AUD 44,000) from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The grant will support the placement of six undergraduate students over the next two years in the Philippines for six weeks as part of their final year honours research projects.

The grant continues the lab’s long-running engagement in the Philippines under the New Colombo Plan, building on an earlier mobility program led by Dr Opdyke that supported Australian students working on disaster risk reduction in the country from 2019 to 2023. Students will develop their honours research alongside the lab’s ongoing disaster risk reduction projects in the Philippines.

SEI Grant to Examine Climate Buffer Infrastructures

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 02:24:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke is part of a team awarded a Sydney Environment Institute Collaborative Grant (AUD 20,305) which will compare grey and green infrastructure approaches to coastal adaptation in the Philippines. The team consists of Dr Justin See (Sydney Environment Institute), Dr Sophie Webber (School of Geosciences), Dr Sandra Seno Alday (Sydney Business School), and Ginbert Permejo Cuaton (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), and Pearly Joy Peja (Eastern Visayas State University). The project titled, “Promises and Perils of Climate Buffer Infrastructures as Adaptation: Case Studies from the Philippines” will study two coastal projects in Tacloban in 2024.

Reza Recognised with JW Roderick Prize for Best Thesis in Civil Engineering

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 02:24:00 +0000

Honours student Nanako Reza from our lab was awarded the 2023 JW Roderick Prize for Best Thesis in Civil Engineering from the School of Civil Engineering. Nanako’s honours research looked at infrastructure reconstruction and sense of place after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Nanako completed the research in the lab as part of her Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Civil) and Bachelor of Design in Architecture. Findings from the project were presented at AIWEST-DR 2022 in Sydney, where Nanako and fellow honours students Emily Ha and Sophia Costantino received the Best Student Presentation award. Congrats!

NHRA Funding to Support Community Risk Assessment for NSW SES

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 02:25:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke is part of a team awarded funding (AUD 120,000) from Natural Hazards Research Australia to support the development of new community risk assessment processes (Project T3-A3) for the NSW State Emergency Services (SES). The team is led by Nader Naderpajouh, and includes Mary Crock, Amanda Howard, David Shlosberg, Floris Van Ogtrop, Jodie Bailie, Petr Matous, Hao Zhang, Willem Vervoort, and Ali Hadigheh.

The project is developing approaches to community risk assessment that connect technical knowledge with local and Indigenous knowledge, supporting the NSW SES to better understand the risks communities face from natural hazards.

Nabong Selected as American Australian Association Scholar

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 22:08:45 +0000

Congrats to Emily Nabong from our Lab on being selected as an American Australian Association Graduate Education Scholar! The prestigious recognition will provide support for Emily’s research which seeks to better understand human migration dynamics under climate change.

Emily’s doctoral research uses systems approaches to map how economic, environmental, demographic, political, and social factors interact to shape migration decisions under climate change – knowledge that can help governments and aid planners better support climate-affected communities. Find about more about the award here.

Nabong Interning at Asian Development Bank

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 06:45:24 +0000

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to ensuring that 75% of its operations support climate action by 2030. As part of this goal, their teams are looking for ways to efficiently integrate climate adaptation into their projects.

Emily Nabong – a PhD student with our lab – is currently interning with the ADB’s Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department to assist in this process. Her internship project is focused on developing a tool to identify and categorize projects by various climate risk and adaptation needs.

New SEI Grant to Study Climate Change Displacement

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 05:57:48 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke and Dr Susan Banki were awarded funding from the Sydney Environment Institute through its Collaborative Grants to study how climate change impacts the design of settlements and institutions coping with displacement. The project, Places of Refuge amidst Climate Change in Complex Displacement Contexts (AUD 40,950), will run through 2023.

Project Summary

The speed and intensity of climate change is poised to reshape the landscape of displacement contexts in the Global South. As governments and organisations develop places of refuge, climate change is placing new pressures on both temporary and permanent settlements as well as disrupting conventions of whether proximity to home environments matter. This project will explore how the complicating factor of climate change influences the design of places of refuge and the societal institutions therein that are altered by complex displacement.

Opdyke Named Supervisor of the Year by SUPRA

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 09:51:00 +0000

Our lab head, Dr Aaron Opdyke, was named 2022 Supervisor of the Year by the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA), the representative body for postgraduate students at the University of Sydney.

Dr Opdyke supervises the lab’s PhD and MPhil researchers, whose work spans disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation across the Asia-Pacific – from multi-hazard housing reconstruction and flood risk in the Philippines to climate migration in the Pacific.

Ha, Reza, Costantino Receive Best Student Presentation at AIWEST-DR 2022

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Emily Ha, Nanako Reza, and Sophia Costantino from our lab were awarded the Best Student Presentation at the 14th Aceh International Workshop and Expo on Sustainable Tsunami Disaster Recovery (AIWEST-DR 2022), hosted in Sydney, for their presentation on The ‘tsunagari’ to recovery: Social capital and place in facilitating infrastructure reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

The presentation shared findings from the trio’s final-year honours research in the lab, which examined how social capital and people’s connections to place shaped infrastructure reconstruction in communities recovering from the 2011 disaster in Japan. Congratulations!

New APN Grant to Advance Flood Risk Decision-Making Under Climate Change

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 01:25:00 +0000

The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research Collaborative Regional Research Programme has awarded funding (USD 70,000) to a team led by Dr Aaron Opdyke to build decision-making capacity for flood risk under climate change. The project “Advancing Local Flood Decision-Making for Disaster Risk Reduction” aims to transform disaster risk assessments by understanding how climate change will impact localised flood risk and unpack how these assessments can be better incorporated into local planning processes. The project team will accomplish this through an in-depth study of two catchment basins located in the Municipality of Carigara (Leyte, Philippines) and the Regency of Singkil (Aceh, Indonesia). The project will link the University of Sydney (Dr Aaron Opdyke and Emily Nabong), Universitas Syiah Kuala Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (Dr Ella Meilianda, Dedy Alfian, and Yopi Ilhamsyah), and the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (Joy Santiago, Jerico Mendoza, and Prof Mahar Lagmay).

Opdyke Receives AAEE Citation for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Engineering Education

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 05:49:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke was one of only two recipients nationally awarded a Citation for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Engineering Education by the Australasian Association for Engineering Education. The award recognises his contributions to professionalising humanitarian engineering education and “for development of engineering curricula, resources or services that reflect a command of the field”.

The citation reflects Dr Opdyke’s role in building the University of Sydney’s humanitarian engineering program – the first of its kind in Australia – which trains engineers to work with marginalised and low-income communities across international development, disaster response and recovery, work with Indigenous communities, and conflict and stabilisation. In any given year, around 40 students are enrolled in the formal humanitarian engineering major, with upwards of 200 students taking classes in the program annually.

New Project to Understand Aboriginal Infrastructure Research Priorities and Advance Indigenous Engineering Curriculum

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 02:25:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke has been awarded funding (AUD 9,000) from the University of Sydney Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services) for work in collaboration with Maranuka to examine research priorities for infrastructure needs in Aboriginal communities and how to integrate this knowledge into the existing engineering curriculum.

The project, Understanding Aboriginal Infrastructure Needs: Identifying Research Priorities and Embedding Knowledge in the Engineering Curriculum, will run through to December 2021 and is led by Dr Opdyke together with Petr Matous. It builds on the pair’s earlier participatory research on community-led housing development in remote communities.

ASCE Selects Opdyke as 'New Face of Civil Engineering'

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:17:10 +0000

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has named Dr Aaron Opdyke one of its 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering. The recognition celebrates ten early-career engineers each year whose work represents the breadth and future of the profession.

In an interview with ASCE’s Civil Engineering Source, Dr Opdyke traced the path that led him to humanitarian engineering — from volunteering with Engineers Without Borders on projects in India, Thailand, and Nicaragua, to working on housing reconstruction in the Philippines with Build Change in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan — and reflected on taking a holistic, people-centred approach to civil engineering education and research. Read the full interview at Civil Engineering Source.

Opdyke Awarded Early Career Researcher Development Grant by Faculty of Engineering

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 03:03:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke has received an Early Career Researcher Development Grant (AUD 50,000) from the Faculty of Engineering. The funding will support new research that will examine how local knowledge can enhance engineering flood models to transform disaster risk assessments. The one-year project will compare individual household perceptions, community-based assessments, and engineering models in the Municipality of Carigara, located in the Philippines.

The project, Transforming Disaster Risk Assessments at the Nexus of Local Knowledge and Engineering Tools, builds on an existing dataset in Carigara, where a household survey of flood hazards covering 2,162 households – around 20 per cent of the municipality’s population – has already been collected and more than 400 residents have taken part in community workshops mapping flood hazards. These hand-drawn community assessments will be digitised and compared against flood inundation models built from drone photogrammetry, census records, and historical weather and river gauge data – producing three flood hazard assessments for each household that can be weighed against one another: individual, community, and engineering.

Opdyke Awarded DFAT New Colombo Plan Grant on Disaster Risk Reduction in the Philippines

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 05:16:00 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke has been awarded a New Colombo Plan (NCP) grant (AUD 247,500) from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to support a 3 year mobility program in the Philippines focused on disaster reduction education. The program will partner with Ateneo de Manila University’s Humanitarian Action program and support 75 Australian students who will work alongside Filipino students in collaboration with local civil society and government organisations on short term placements.

Opdyke and Team Awarded Sydney Southeast Asia Centre Partnership Grant on Urban Informality in the Philippines

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 08:07:17 +0000

Dr Aaron Opdyke, together with a cross-disciplinary team spanning urban planning, development studies, economics, and civil engineering, has been awarded a Partnership Grant from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre to investigate how informality is increasingly shaping post-disaster and post-conflict responses in the Philippines. The team includes Associate Professor Paul Jones (Urban and Regional Planning), Mr Benigno (Ninoy) Balgos (Development Studies, Ateneo de Manila University), Associate Professor Acram Latiph (Economics), and Professor Erlinda Yape (Civil Engineering, both Mindanao State University, Marawi).