Research interests

• Socio-ecological systems
• Environmental change and human mobility
• Livelihood risks and vulnerabilities
• Land and natural resource use
  

Publications

Hermans, K., Berger, E., Biber-Freudenberger, L., Bossenbroek, L., Ebeler, L., Groth, J., Hack, J., Hanspach, J., Hintz, K.S., Kimengsi, J.N., Kwong, Y.M.C., Oakes, R., Pagogna, R., Plieninger, T., Sterly, H., van der Geest, K., van Vliet, J., Wiederkehr, C., (2021) Crisis-induced disruptions in place-based social-ecological research - an opportunity for redirection, GAIA - Ecol. Perspect. Sci. Soc, 30, 72–76. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.30.2.3

Groth, J., Hermans, K., Wiederkehr, C., Kassa, E., Thober, J. (2021) Investigating environment-related migration processes in Ethiopia – A participatory Bayesian network, Ecosystems and People, 17:1, 128-147. DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2021.1895888

Groth, J., Ide, T., Sakdapolrak, P., Kassa, E., Hermans, K. (2020): ‘Deciphering interwoven drivers of environment-related migration – A multisite case study from the Ethiopian highlands’, Global Environmental Change, 63(102094). doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102094.

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2017 PhD candidate at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department Computational Landscape Ecology (CLE), MigSoko junior research group

• Doctoral thesis (in progress): ‘The linkages between human migration and environmental change in Ethiopia - Empirical evidence from rural sending and receiving areas’ supervised by Dr. Kathleen Hermans and Prof. Ralf Seppelt
• Methods: regression models, Bayesian networks, stakeholder workshops, qualitative comparative analysis, household surveys, expert interviews, group discussions

2015 – 2017 Research assistant at United Nations University – Institute for Enironmental and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany

• GlaSCA project: ’Water Availability in Central Asia – Vulnerability to Changing Glacier and Snowmelt Runoff Contributions to Central Asian Rivers’
• Risk and vulnerability assessment towards water availability in Northern Kyrgyzstan
• Collection and quantitative analysis of empirical and geospatial data

2013 Trainee at AlpS – Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Technologies, Innsbruck, Austria

• Quantitative and qualitative analysis of expert interviews on climate change and it´s impacts on ecosystem services in the Alps

2011 – 2015 M.Sc. ’Geography: Global change – Regional sustainability’ at Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria

• foci: natural hazards and risk, ecosystem services, people-environment linkages
• Thesis: ’Quantification of ecosystem services in the Alps and the Tian Shan – Using the example of freshwater in river catchments with special consideration of indicators and data availability supervised by Assoz. Univ-Prof Dr. Clemens Geitner (grade 1,0)

2011 Internship at Leibniz Institute of Ecological and Regional Development (IÖR), Dresden, Germany

• GIS-based analysis of land use dynamics in the region Sächsische Schweiz

2009 Internship at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany

2007 – 2011 B.Sc. in ’Geography’ at Technical University of Dresden, Germany

• foci: soil geography, geomorphology, meteorology
• Thesis: ’Numeric modelling and laboratory experiments of orientation patterns of laterally transported objects’ supervised by Prof. Arno Kleber and Michael Dietze (grade 1,3)

Workshop and talks (selection)

Organized workshops and webinars

• MigSoKo Webinar: "Migration and environment: The risk of a vicious cycle?". Input talk "Why smallholders stop engaging in forest activities - The role of migration in livelihood transitions in forested landscapes in southwestern Ethiopia"
• MigSoKo online Workshop: "Place-based socio-ecological research in times of covid-19". UFZ Leipzig, 29 October 2020
• The effect of environmental change on rural livelihoods and migration in South Wollo.
  Stakeholder Workshop, 18-19 Mar 2019, Dessie (Ethiopia)
• Identification and mapping of water related risks in Chui Oblast. Expert Workshop, May 2016,
  Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)
• Developing indicators to assess societal vulnerability to changes in water availability in the Chui
  Oblast. Stakeholder Workshop, 17 Nov 2015, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)

Invited presentations and workshops

• Influence of immigration on forest resources in rural receiving areas in the southwestern montane rainforests in Ethiopia. Colloquium at the University of Vienna, 28 Jan 2020
• Programme on Ecosystems and Society (PECS) Special Issue Meeting for authors at Leuphana University, Workshop, 3-5 Dec 2019, Lüneburg
• Research on climate change and migration – State of the art and future directions. Workshop of United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and the German Development Institute (DIE), 11 Jun 2019, Bonn
• Why farmers choose to migrate under changing environmental conditions – A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Ethiopian farming households. Colloquium at the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), 4 Sep 2018, Bonn
  

Summer schools and conferences

• At What Point Managed Retreat? Resilience, Relocation and Climate Justice online conference at Columbia University, Columbia Climate School, The Earth Institute, New York City, 22-15 June 2021
  
• Land Use and Ecosystem Change Summer School at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 20-27 Aug 2019, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
• Environment-related migration within farming households in the Ethiopian Highlands. Environmental Non-migration: Framework, Methods and Cases Conference at Technical University Dresden (TUD), 19-21 June 2019 , Dresden
• Why farmers choose to migrate under changing environmental conditions – A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Ethiopian farming households. Adadption in motion – Linking Climate Change, Migration and Resilience. TransRe Closing Conference, 5-7 Sept 2018, Bonn
• Climate change and its unequal migration responses in the Ethiopian highlands. Migration, Environment and Climate: What risk inequalities? Conference , 22-23 October 2018, Paris