Professor Lee Chapman PhD FRMetS FHEA

Professor Lee Chapman

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Climate Resilience
Deputy Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer (College of Life and Environmental Sciences)

Contact details

Telephone
0121 414 7435
Fax
+44 (0)121 414 5528
Email
l.chapman@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Lee Chapman - Research in 60 seconds videoProfessor Lee Chapman’s research interests are at the interface of climatology and engineering investigating the impact of weather and climate on the built environment; an important research area given the ever-increasing concentration (and vulnerability) of the population and critical infrastructure in urban areas. This covers a range of topics and sub-disciplines including infrastructure meteorology, urban climatology and climate change adaptation.  Knowledge transfer and business engagement are at the heart of this research agenda and he continues to work extensively with industry to ensure maximum impact from ongoing research activities. 

Qualifications

  • BSc Geography (University of Sheffield, 1998)
  • PhD Geography (University of Birmingham, 2002)
  • PG Cert in Learning & Teaching (University of Birmingham, 2009)

Teaching

Professor Lee Chapman is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a significant teaching profile which spans several programmes of study.

His teaching methods and assessment strategies were informed by studying for a PGCert in Learning and Teaching which Professor Chapman completed in 2009. He was nominated for a prize in Level 1 of the course and won a prize for Level 2 where he had his teaching project published:

Chapman, L. (2010) Dealing with maths anxiety: How do you teach mathematics in a geography department? Journal of Geography in Higher Education 34:205-213.

Postgraduate supervision

Lee Chapman’s research interests can be best described under the heading ‘the impact of weather and climate on the built environment'. This covers a range of topics from the development of ‘dose-response’ models under the baseline climate to assessing the future impact of climate change on hard infrastructure. Areas of particular interest are urban and transport meteorology. Dr Chapman currently holds funding for three major projects:

HiTemp (NERC):This project aims to provide a demonstration sensor network designed to measure air temperature across the Birmingham conurbation.
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (E-ON Central Networks): This partnership is evaluating the impact of urban heat islands and climate change on the ageing rate of transformers in Birmingham.
Future Resilient Transport Networks (EPSRC/ESRC): This project aims to assess the future resilience of the UK transport network, taking into account the likely technology and infrastructure changes, as well as changes in climate and extreme weather events.

Research

Infrastructure Meteorology, Urban Climatology, Geomatics

Other activities

  • Secretary of the Standing International Road Weather Commission
  • Head of Climate and Atmospheric Research Sub-Group
  • Associate editor of Transport Behaviour and Society
  • Member of the NERC Peer Review College and EPSRC Peer Review College
  • Member of the NERC Advisory Network

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Feng, J, Cai, X & Chapman, L 2019, 'Impact of atmospheric conditions and levels of urbanisation on the relationship between nocturnal surface and urban canopy heat islands', Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3619

Duy, P, Chapman, L & Tight, M 2019, 'Resilient transport systems to reduce urban vulnerability to floods in emerging-coastal cities: A case study of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam', Travel Behaviour and Society, vol. 15, pp. 28-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2018.11.001

Bassett, R, Cai, X, Chapman, L, Heaviside, C & Thornes, J 2018, 'Semi‐idealized urban heat advection simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting mesoscale model', International Journal of Climatology. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5885

Kirby, J, Chapman, L & Chapman, V 2018, 'Assessing the Raspberry Pi as a low-cost alternative for acquisition of near infrared hemispherical digital imagery', Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, vol. 259, pp. 232-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2018.05.004

Chapman, L & Bell, S 2018, 'High-resolution monitoring of weather impacts on infrastructure networks using the internet of things', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, pp. 1147-1154. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0214.1

Dawson, R, Thompson, D, Johns, D, Wood, R, Darch, G, Chapman, L, Hughes, P, Watson, G, Paulson, K, Bell, S, Gosling, S, Powrie, W & Hall, J 2018, 'A systems framework for national assessment of climate risks to infrastructure', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0298

Roberts, H, Resch, B, Sadler, J, Chapman, L, Petutschnig, A & Zimmer, S 2018, 'Investigating the Emotional Responses of Individuals to Urban Green Space Using Twitter Data: A Critical Comparison of Three Different Methods of Sentiment Analysis', Urban Planning, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 21-33. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v3i1.1231

Duy, P, Chapman, L, Tight, M, Thoung, L & Linh, P 2018, 'Urban Resilience to Floods in Coastal Cities: Challenges and Opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City and other Emerging Cities in Southeast Asia', Journal of the Urban Planning and Development Division, ASCE, vol. 144, no. 1, 05017018. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000419

Thomas, R, Mackenzie, A, Reynolds, S, Sadler, J, Cropley, F, Bell, S, Dugdale, S, Chapman, L, Quinn, A & Cai, X 2018, 'Avian Sensor Packages for Meteorological Measurements', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 99, no. 3, pp. 499-511. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0181.1

Roberts, H, Sadler, J & Chapman, L 2018, 'The value of Twitter data for determining the emotional responses of people to urban green spaces: A case study and critical evaluation', Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017748544

Budnitz, H, Chapman, L & Tranos, E 2017, 'Better by Bus? Insights into public transport travel behaviour during Storm Doris in Reading, UK', Weather. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.3058

Roberts, H, Sadler, J & Chapman, L 2017, 'Using Twitter to investigate seasonal variation in physical activity in urban green space', Geo: Geography and Environment, vol. 4, no. 2, e00041. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.41

Bassett, R, Cai, X, Chapman, L, Heaviside, C & Thornes, J 2017, 'The effects of heat advection on UK weather and climate observations in the vicinity of small urbanized areas', Boundary-Layer Meteorology, vol. 165, no. 1, pp. 181–196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-017-0263-0

Sakamoto Ferranti, E, Chapman, L, Quinn, A, Lee, S & Jaroszweski, D 2017, 'The hottest July day on the railway network; insights and thoughts for the future', Meteorological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.1681

Conference contribution

Thomas, R, Cropley, F, MacKenzie, AR, Reynolds, J, Sadler, J, Chapman, L, Quinn, A, Zhong, J & Cai, X 2018, From the shed to the skies: a journey of sensor development and deployment involving bicycles, drones and eagles. in Geophysical Research Abstracts. vol. 20, 16720, European Geosciences Union, European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018, Vienna, Austria, 8/04/18.

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