Professional experience and position
Since 2006 Professor in Coastal Geography, University of la Rochelle, La Rochelle, France
1999-2006 Assistant Professor in Coastal Geography, University of La Reunion (south-western Indian Ocean), France
Education
2005 Accreditation to supervise research (HDR in French) in Geography - Title: Geomorphology and management of coral beaches in south-western Indian Ocean Islands (in French), University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, France.
1996-1998 PhD in Geography – Title: Coral beaches and islands of the Seychelles Islands: from physical processes to beach and island management (Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and Desroches islands)
Fields of expertise
Thematic areas:
Coastal geomorphology: recent (since the 1950s) changes in the configuration of atoll reef islands and high mountainous islands’ beach-dune systems, including island and shoreline change assessment, impacts of and resilience to tropical cyclones (including marine inundation and flooding, impacts on shoreline position and on coastal vegetation), interference of human activities with natural processes, island-reef ecosystem interactions – See for example: Duvat et al., 2016; Testut, Duvat et al., 2016; Duvat and Pillet, 2017; Duvat et al., 2017a; Duvat et al., 2017b; Collin, Duvat et al., forthcoming.
Trajectories of Exposure and Vulnerability of Small Islands to climate-related events and climate change: assessment of (i) environmental change (i.e. shoreline change; change in the nature, dimensions and health of coastal and marine natural buffers), (ii) its drivers (climate-related, ecological and anthropogenic), and (iii) the contribution of environmental change to the exposure and vulnerability of small islands societies to climate-related risks – See for example: Duvat et al., 2016; Duvat et al., 2017c.
Chains of Impacts (or cascades of impacts) of climate-related events and environmental change in small islands: chains of impacts of tropical cyclones, distant-source wells, and ENSO phases; chains of impacts of climate change in various types of island environments (i.e. high mountainous and low-lying atoll reef islands; highly-modified vs. natural island environments) – See for example: Nurse et al., 2014; Duvat, 2015.
Implications of environmental change on adaptation pathways in small islands – See for example: Duvat, 2015; Le Cozannet, Duvat et al., forthcoming; Duvat et al., 2017a; Duvat et al., 2017b.
Study areas:
Indian Ocean islands: French overseas territories, including Reunion Island and the Scattered Islands; small island countries, including Mauritius, Rodrigues, the Seychelles Islands and the Maldives
Pacific Ocean islands: French overseas territories, including French Polynesia; small island countries, including Kiribati (and the Cook Islands in the future under the STORISK project)
Caribbean islands: French overseas territories, including in the Lesser Antilles Saint-Martin and the British Virgin Islands + French Atlantic islands (Oléron Island, Central Atlantic coast).
Current research programmes
2016-2020 STORISK (Small Islands addressing climate change: towards storylines of risk and adaptation) – Funding: ANR (National Research Agency), 950,000 € - Coordinator: V.K.E. Duvat (UMR LIENSs 7266) and A.K. Magnan; includes 10 research teams (from climate-ocean modelling to adaptation pathways) – Website: http://lienss.univ-larochelle.fr/storisk ; http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/?Projet=ANR-15-CE03-0003
2016-2020 INSeaPTION (Integrating SEA-level projections in climate services for coastal adaptaTION) Funding: Europe, under the European Research Area for Climate Services ERA4CS (Topic A), 1,500,000 € - Coordinator: G. Le Cozannet (BRGM-Orléans, France); includes 6 partners (French Geological Survey; Global Climate Forum, Germany; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht, the Netherlands; CREOCEAN Private services company, France; Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Balearic Islands, Spain; UMR LIENSs 7266, University of la Rochelle-CNRS, France); Coordinator or Work Package 3 (French Polynesia case study): V.K.E. Duvat – Website under construction.
Main scientific activities
Contribution to IPCC and French IPCC focal point activities:
- Lead Author of the Small Islands Chapter (Chap. 29), WGII, IPCC AR5
- 2012: Coordination of the French IPCC Focal Point Report on The French overseas territories in the face of climate change (report to the Prime Minister and Senate
Peer-reviewing: Journals (into brackets, the number of papers reviewed):
2017 Anthropocene (1), Global and Planetary Change (1), Marine Policy (1)
2016 Regional Environmental Change (1), Biogeosciences (1), VertigO (1)
2015 Sustainability Science (1), Anthropocene (1), Regional Environmental Change (1)
2014 Weather and Climate Extremes (1)
2013 Global and Planetary Change (1), Sustainability Science (1), Regional Environmental Change (1), VertigO
Consulting activities
2016 Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), Farquhar Atoll, Seychelles Islands, category 5 Tropical Cyclone Fantala (April 2016), World Ban-EU-UN – In charge of environmental impacts
2016 Impacts of the Climate Adaptation Programme in the Coastal Zone of Mauritius on future tourism, Global Adaptation Fund – Expertise conducted on behalf of the Club Med Company.
Recent awards
2015 National laureate of the Fondation de France for the research project VulneraRe (2011-2016), Reconstructing of trajectories of vulnerability of small islands, Coord. A. Magnan (Iddri) + National laureate of the National Forum of associations and fondations for the research project VulneraRe (2011-2016), Reconstructing of trajectories of vulnerability of small islands, Coord. A. Magnan (Iddri)
2014 Laureate for the Jean Rostand Price for the book Ces îles qui pourraient disparaître (Those islands that may disappear, ed. Le Pommier-Belin, Paris, 368 p.
2014 Nomination for the Price Prix du Livre Environnement (Veolia) for the book Des catastrophes…’naturelles”? (“Natural” disasters), 312 p.
Recent significant media activities (selected interviews and quotations)
2017 The economist (Sept.), France Culture (Sept.), Actu Environnement (Sept.), Le Monde (Sept.), Libération (Sept.)
2016 Outre-Mer 1ère (Sept.), France 2 (Nov.)
2015 The New Scientist (May), Métamorphoses Outre-Mer (June)
Thesis supervision/examination
2008-2017: supervision of 8 PhD candidates, examination of 18 PhD theses in France and Northern Ireland
Main publications
Selected peer-reviewed scientific papers
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A., 2017. Hurricanes: rescue natural Defences. Nature, vol. 550, 43, Oct. 5th (Correspondence).
Duvat V.K.E., Volto N., Salmon C., 2017. Impacts of category 5 tropical cyclone Fantala (April 2016) on Farquhar Atoll, Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean. Geomorphology, 298, 41-62. doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.09.022 (Research Article).
Duvat V.K.E., Salvat B, Salmon C., 2017. Drivers of shoreline change in atoll reef islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. Global and Planetary Change, 158, 134-154. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.09.016 (Research Article).
Duvat V.K.E., Pillet V., 2017. Shoreline changes in reef islands of the Central Pacific: Takapoto Atoll, Northern Tuamotu, French Polynesia. Geomorphology, 282, 96-118 (Research Article).
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A.K., Wise R.M., Hay J.E., Fazey I., Hinkel J., Stojanivic T.A., Yamano H., Ballu V., 2017. Trajectories of exposure and vulnerability of small islands to climate change. WIREs Climate Change (Focus Article).
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A., Etienne S., Salmon C., Pignon-Mussaud C., 2016. Assessing the impacts of and resilience to Tropical Cyclone Bejisa, Reunion Island (Indian Ocean), Natural Hazards, 83, 601-640 (Research Article).
Testut L.,Duvat V., Ballu V., Fernandes R., Pouget F., Salmon C., Dyment J., 2016. Shoreline changes in a rising sea level context: the example of Grande Glorieuse, Scattered Islands, Western Indian Ocean. Acta Oecologica, 72, 110-119 (Research Article).
Magnan A., Duvat V., 2015. Phosphate mining risks atoll culture. Nature, 522: 156, 11 June 2015(Correspondence).
Duvat V., 2015. Changement climatique et risques côtiers dans les îles tropicales. Annales de Géographie, n°705, pp. 541-566. doi: 10.3917/ag.705.0541 (Research Article).
Magnan A., Duvat V., 2015. La fabrique des catastrophes "naturelles", Natures Sciences Sociétés, doi: 10.11051/nss/201503, www.nss-journal.org(Research Article).
Duvat V., 2013. Coastal protection structures in Tarawa Atoll, Republic of Kiribati. Sustainability Science, 8(3), 363-379.doi: 10.1007/s11625-013-0205-9 (Research Article).
Duvat V., Magnan A., Pouget F., 2013. Exposure of atoll population to coastal erosion and flooding: a South Tarawa assessment, Kiribati. Sustainability Science, 8(3):423-440. doi:10.1007/s11625-013-0215-7
Selected books and book chapters
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A., accepted. Lessons learnt from coastal risks governance on Reunion Island, Indian Ocean, France. In: Facing hydro-meteorological extreme events in Europe: a governance issue (Eds. C. Larrue & I. La Jeunesse). Wiley.
Duvat V.K.E., 2017. Will atolls reef islands disappear under climate change? In: The ocean revealed (Eds A. Euzen, F. Gaill, D. Lacroix, Ph. Cury), CNRS editions. ISBN: 978-2-271-11907-0
Nurse L., McLean R., Agard J., Brigiglio L.P., Duvat-Magnan V., Pelesikoti N., Tompkins E., Webb A., 2014. Small Islands. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A., 2014. Des catastrophes… “naturelles”? Le Pommier-Belin, Paris, 311 p.ISBN: 978-2-7465-0679-4
Duvat V.,2013. Séismes et volcanisme à la Réunion et aux Antilles, pp. 66-67 ; Les cyclones dans les Outre-Mer français, pp. 68-69 ; Les impacts du changement climatique dans les îles tropicales françaises, pp. 72-73. In : Atlas des risques en France : prévenir les catastrophes naturelles et technologiques (Eds. Y. Veyret & R. Laganier). Autrement, Paris, 96 p., ISBN : 978-2-7467-3431-9
Duvat V. (coord.), 2012. Les Outre-Mer face au défi du changement climatique. Rapport au Premier Ministre et au Parlement publié par l’ONERC (Observatoire national des effets du réchauffement climatique), La Documentation Française, Paris, 216 p., ISBN: 978-2-11-009128-4
Duvat V.K.E., Magnan A., 2012. Ces îles qui pourraient disparaître, Le Pommier-Belin, Paris, 191 p.ISBN:
Selected oral presentations in scientific international and national conferences (invited or not)
Duvat V., Salvat B., 2016. Drivers of shoreline changes in the northern Tuamotu atolls, French Polynesia. 13th International Reef Symposium, Honolulu, Hawaii, 19-24 June 2016 (oral presentation).
Duvat V., 2015. Impacts des facteurs climatiques et anthropiques sur l’évolution récente des îles coralliennes des Tuamotu. Symposium PACT Protecting Atolls against Climate Threats, Papeete, Tahiti, 30 June-2nd July 2015 (invited oral presentation).
Duvat V., 2015. Copying with climate disasters: scientific challenges. Keynote speech, Plenary Session 1 The state of knowledge on climate change, International Conference Our common future under climate change, Paris, UNESCO, 7th July 2015 (invited oral presentation).
Duvat V., 2012. Integrated assessment of coastal quality in the context of global change. Workshop on Tourism and Climate Change in the Caribbean, 5-6 June 2012, Shoelcher, Martinique (invited oral presentation).
Duvat V., 2011. Vulnerability and barriers to adaptation in SIDS: the case study of Kiribati (Pacific Ocean). LOICZ OSC, Yantaï, China, 11-15 Sept. 2011 (oral presentation).
Magnan A., Duvat V., 2011. Is vulnerability to climate change measurable? LOICZ OSC, Yantaï, China, 11-15 Sept. 2011 (oral presentation).
Selected recent oral communications in policy conferences
Duvat V., 2016. Polynesian islands in the face of climate change. Conference of the Polynesian Leaders Group, Papeete, Tahiti, 28 June 2016.
Duvat V., 2015. Impacts du changement climatique sur les risques côtiers dans les atolls. Symposium PACT Protecting Atolls against Climate Threats, Papeete, Tahiti, 30 June-2nd July 2015.
Duvat V., 2014. Impacts of climate change on coastal risks in small islands. Carib Risk Cluster Conference, Martinique, 3-4 June 2014 (invited oral presentation).