Mr Claude Nsobya

Claude holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford, UK, and a BSc in Environmental Sciences from Makerere University, Uganda. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted empirical research on smallholder farmers' vulnerability to drought in Uganda. His study applied a theoretical framework incorporating exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to analyse vulnerability. For his MSc research, Claude continued his focus on drought-related studies, this time exploring how smallholder farmers adapt to drought conditions. He developed a conceptual framework that examined sustainable adaptation, transformational adaptation, and mal-adaptation, offering insights into both effective and ineffective responses to drought.

Currently, Claude is pursuing a PhD, where his research explores the relationship between community resilience and community involvement in Flood Risk Management. He is employing his six capacity community resilience framework as well as a co-production framework. He is particularly interested in under-explored contexts. One such focus is flash flooding in Uganda, where community-driven approaches to resilience remain insufficiently studied. Another aspect of his research investigates groundwater flooding in Buckinghamshire, UK—an often-overlooked source of flood risk.

His research is part of Project Groundwater, a program funded by DEFRA (UK) under the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme (FCRIP). FCRIP consists of 25 projects led by councils across the UK, with Buckinghamshire Council overseeing Project Groundwater. Through this work, Claude aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how communities engage in flood risk governance and what resilience strategies prove most effective.