Research/Areas of Interest
Adaptation to climate change, water resources engineering, planning and management, integrated water resources management
Biography
Paul Kirshen is Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University and Research Professor in the School for the Environment of the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has more than 45 years of experience serving as Principal Investigator of complex, interdisciplinary, participatory research related to water resources, coastal zone, and infrastructure management, and adaptation to climate variability and change. He was a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (water resources of North America) and the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (Coastal Zone). He works at scales ranging from local to international and has received both academic and civic research awards. Recent research includes culturally appropriate management of the Gay Head Cliffs on Martha's Vineyard, use of nature-based approaches for coastal flood management in Boston Harbor through the Stone Living Lab (he was founding director in 2020), multi-criteria flood management of the Kosi River, Bihar, India, and management of groundwater and surface water systems to minimize embankment failure on Cape Cod Massachusetts. In 2018, he led the research team that determined the most robust strategy to manage present and increased coastal flooding in Boston Harbor was with shore-based adaptation, not a large, offshore harbor-wide barrier. While a Research Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts from 1996-2009, he was the founding director of the Water: Systems, Science, and Society (WSSS) Program. His research on the impacts of climate change has been cited by the US Supreme Court. In addition, he teaches Climate Change Adaptation Planning. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous technical reports. He received his ScB in Engineering from Brown University and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.