Most of Dan’s teaching (listed below) is focused on current societal dilemmas regarding environmental degradation, resource depletion and associated deprivation. Drawing on relevant theories across the social sciences and highlighting historical path dependencies, his teaching seeks to nurture a better understanding of how we got into this ‘mess’ in the first place, what the trade-offs are in the implementation of mitigation & adaptation policies and what challenges we face in the development of better governance structures which can produce and sustain such transformative policies. Dan also teaches formal methods for environmental assessment, but not without drawing critical attention to their often politicised application in ‘actual’ environmental decision making.

• Environmental Management and Assessment (Y2)
• Environmental Management field course (Y2)
• Geographies of Energy and Capitalism (Y3)
• Environmental Risk and Society (Y3)
• Environmental Management in Business (Y3)
• Negotiating Environmental Controversies (Masters)

Dan would welcome PhD applicants interested in sustainable natural resource management, and especially those who are interested in the governance of low carbon energy transitions. Current/completed PhD students:

• Jianping Wang (Ford Foundation) Community Based Natural Resource Management practices in Yunnan and Northern Thailand. 2005-2009 (completed)
• Tunde Anifowose (Nigerian government). Environmental Impact Assessment protocols for the Nigerian oil transport infrastructure. 2007-2011 (completed).
• Luz-Maria Lozada-Ellison (Macaulay Development Trust) Integrating socio-economic and ecological sustainability in landscape-scale agri-environment schemes. Full time 2007 – now (based at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen)
• Jose Barbedo (self funded). Spatial planning tools to alleviate flooding risk for informal settlements (focus on Brazil). Part-time 2008-now (co-supervision with Philip Amis, International Development Department).
• Saadatu Baba (Nigerian government): Adaptation to desertification in Northern Nigeria. 2009-now
• Forough Jafari (self-funded). Management of water scarcity in Iran. Full time 2010- now
• Anna Bateman (University of Birmingham funding – College of Engineering & Physical Sciences) Sustainable phosphorus management for decentralised anaerobic digestion in the UK

External funding won

2005 “Public Engagement in Energy Mapping”. Funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Co-investigator.

2006-2007 “Inventory of socio-economic data relevant for ecosystem-based approaches”. Funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Co-investigator.

2007 “Landscapes of Energies”: International workshop sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF). Co-applicant.

2007-2009 “Insights from pioneers in renewable energy (INSPIRE)”: Interdisciplinary Early Career Research Fellowship, providing buy-out from teaching for 2 years. Funded by ESRC, EPSRC & NERC. Principal investigator.

2009-2012 “Interdisciplinary Cluster on Energy Systems, Equity and Vulnerability” (InCluESEV), funded by EPSRC/ESRC. Convenor of WP on built environment & design for energy resilience.

2010 “Energyscapes and Ecosystem Services”. Developing a method to assess the impact of land based renewables on the provision of ecosystem services. Funded by NERC. Co-investigator.

2010-2012 “Seanergy” Best practice in marine spatial planning for renewables. Funded by Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE). Co-investigator.

2011-2013 “Bridging knowledge systems for pro-poor management of ecosystem services”.  Funded under the ESPA programme (ecosystem services for poverty alleviation; NERC/ESRC/DfiD). Co-Investigator

• Visiting professor at the Czech Academy of Sciences 2011-2013
• Research Committee member of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) 2009-2011
  Contributing Author on forthcoming IPCC report on renewable energy policy
• Expert reviewer of research proposals for the EU (FP-7, IEE and ESF) and for UK (ESRC, NERC, EPSRC), Swiss, Portuguese, Canadian and Netherlands research councils.

Selected peer reviewed papers

See a full list of publications (PDF - 114KB)

Van der Horst D. and Vermeylen S. (2011). Spatial scale and social impacts of biofuel production. Biomass and Bioenergy  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.11.029

Van der Horst D. (2011) Adoption of payments for ecosystem services: an application of the Hägerstrand model. Applied Geography. 31(2), 668-676.

Van der Horst D. and Evans J. (2010). Carbon claims and energy landscapes: Exploring the political ecology of Biomass. Landscape Research  35(2), 173 – 193.

Van der Horst D. and Vermeylen S. (2010). Wind theft, spatial planning and international relations. Review of Energy Law and Policy 1, 17-24.

Van der Horst D. and Toke D. (2010) Exploring the landscape of wind farm developments; local area characteristics and planning process outcomes in rural England. Land Use Policy 27, 214–221.

Van der Horst D. (2008). Social enterprise and renewable energy: emerging initiatives and communities of practice. Social Enterprise Journal 4(3), 171-185.

Van der Horst D. (2007). Assessing the efficiency gains of improved spatial targeting of policy interventions; the example of an agri-environmental scheme. Journal of Environmental Management 85, 1076-1087.

Van der Horst D. (2007). NIMBY or not? Exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies. Energy Policy, 35, 2705-2714.

Van der Horst D. (2006) Spatial cost-benefit thinking in multi-functional forestry; towards a framework for spatial targeting of policy interventions. Ecological Economics 59, 171-180.

Van der Horst D. (2005). UK biomass energy since 1990; the mismatch between project types and policy objectives. Energy Policy 33(5), 705-716