Robert McLeman

Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies

Research / Areas of Expertise

environmental migration
climate change adaptation
citizen engagement in environmental science

McLeman, R., Greig. C., Heath, G., Robertson, R. "A machine learning analysis of drought and rural population change on the North American Great Plains since the 1970s". Population and Environment, 2022. Link to article
Cisse, G., McLeman, R. et al. "Health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities". In, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Working Group II Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Link to report
Ebi, K. and McLeman, R. Climate related migration and displacement. The BMJ 2022:379 Link to article
McLeman, R. et al. Conceptual framing to link climate risk assessments and climate-migration scholarship. Climatic Change 165(24), 2021 Link to article
McLeman, R. et al. Population responses to the 1976 South Dakota drought: Insights for wider drought migration research. Population, Space and Place, 2021. Link to article
Malik, K., McLeman, R. et al. Reconstruction of past backyard skating seasons in the Original Six NHL cities from citizen science data. The Canadian Geographer, 2020. Link to article
McLeman, R. “Migration and displacement risks due to mean sea-level rise”. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 74(3), 2018. Link to article
McLeman, R. International migration and climate adaptation in an era of hardening borders. Nature Climate Change 9:911-918, 2019. Link to article
Mapedza, E., Tsegai, D., Bruentrup, M., McLeman, R. Drought Challenges: Policy options for developing countries. Elsevier Academic Press, 2019. Link to book
McLeman, R. “Thresholds in climate migration”. Population and Environment, 39(4), 319-338, 2018. Link to article
McLeman, R., & Gemenne, F. (eds). The Routledge Handbook on Environmental Migration and Displacement. New York: Routledge, 2018. Link to book
McLeman, R., Schade, J. & Faist, T. (eds.) 2015. Environmental Migration and Social Inequality, Dordrecht: Springer. Link to book
McLeman, R. 2014. Climate and Human Migration: Past Experiences, Future Challenges, New York: Cambridge University Press. Link to book
Robertson, C., McLeman, R. & Lawrence, H. 2015. "Winters too warm to skate? Citizen-science reported variability in availability of outdoor skating in Canada." The Canadian Geographer, 59(4), pp.383–390. Link to article
McLeman, R. et al., 2013. "What we learned from the Dust Bowl: Lessons in science, policy, and adaptation." Population and Environment, 35(4), pp.417–440. Link to article
McLeman, R., 2013. "Developments in modelling of climate change-related migration." Climatic Change, 117(3), pp.599–611. Link to article
McLeman, R. & Ploeger, S.K. 2012. "Soil and its influence on rural drought migration: insights from Depression-era Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada." Population and Environment, 33(4), pp.304–332. Link to article
McLeman, R. 2011. "Settlement abandonment in the context of global environmental change." Global Environmental Change, 21(S1), pp.S108–S120. Link to article
McLeman, R. et al., 2010. "GIS-based modeling of drought and historical population change on the Canadian Prairies." Journal of Historical Geography, 36, pp.43–55. Link to article
McLeman, R., 2010. "Impacts of population change on vulnerability and the capacity to adapt to climate change and variability: a typology based on lessons from a hard country." Population and Environment, 31(5), pp.286–316. Link to article
McLeman, R. & Smit, B. 2006. "Migration as an adaptation to climate change." Climatic Change, 76(1–2), pp.31–53. Link to article

2022-2028, Co-applicant, SSHRC Partnership Grant. Complex migration flows & multiple drivers in comparative perspective.
2022-2025, Co-applicant, Canada-Inuit Nunangat-UK Arctic Research Grant. NUNA: Effective mitigation & adaptation to changing ground conditions for resilient futures.
2019-2021, Co-applicant, Irish Research Council grant. Irish droughts: environmental and cultural memories of a neglected hazard.
2016-2020, Principal investigator, SSHRC Insight Grant. Project title: Drought, community adaptation, and migration on the Great Plains.
2016, Principal investigator, World Bank study on Climate Change, Migration, and Securing Resilience.
2016, Principal investigator, UN Convention to Combat Desertification research paper "Land degradation and governance as a contributing factor to human migration" for the Global Land Outlook.
2015-2016, Principal investigator, US Embassy/Department of State grant, Establishment of North American environmental migration research network.
2013-2016, Principal investigator, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. Project title: NatureWatch 2.0: Reconnecting Canadians with nature in a digital age.
2011-2016, Principal investigator, SSHRC Standard Research Grant. Project title: Environment and International Migration to Canada.
2009-2013, Principal investigator, SSHRC Strategic Research Grant (Environment). Project title: Integrated assessment of population and critical resource vulnerabilities to climate risks, in support of community and regional adaptation policy-making and planning.
2007-2010, Principal investigator, SSHRC Standard Research Grant. Project title: Impacts of climate change on migration in Canada.
2010, Principal investigator, SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant on the Digital Economy. Project title: Adaptive capacity building and sustainable development in rural and remote communities: The role of Information and communication technology.
2010, Principal investigator, UK Government Office for Science, Foresight Project on Environmental Migration. Project title: Modern Settlement Abandonment.
2007-2008, Principal investigator, Natural Resources Canada Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program. Project title: Adaptation to climate change in seasonal-economy communities.