Jana is a geographer with an interdisciplinary background. After having studied geography, psychology and landscape development, she did her PhD in climate impact research including a social scientific perspective. She has always focused on the interrelation of humans and their environment especially regarding increasing risk.
Her diploma thesis emphasized the risk perception of coastal residence along the German Baltic Coast. A crucial issue in her work was the fact that the probability of a storm surge at the Baltic Coast is decreasing while the vulnerability at particular coastal units is increasing. Her dissertation focused on proactive climate adaptation behavior of coastal inhabitants in Argentina, Greece, Denmark and Germany as well as reasons and intentions for adaption behavior. A model from health psychology was included in her work. In her postdoctoral qualification, she is currently investigating how to develop climate services so that they contribute to the decision making process of climate adaptation means on a local scale.
Her methodological emphasis is on quantitative empirical social research. Additionally, she is interested in integrated climate adaptation management including risk and uncertainty. She has a longstanding teaching experience as she taught topics of the modules: Climate Change and Society, Social Research Methods and Physical Geography.
