Steve Cinderby

Steve Cinderby has over 30 years of professional experience working in low-middle income country and European research projects focused on community resilience, co-benefits of sustainable development initiatives and participatory development. He has specialised in the use of geographic information systems (GIS), creative participatory methods and behaviour change initiatives.

He co-leads the SEI Initiative on City Health & Wellbeing investigating the impacts of secondary cities urban form on human and environmental health. This cross-centre initiative has case study cities in Kenya and Thailand where activities include physiological and environmental monitoring, participatory GIS and wellbeing surveys to assess how city environments are affecting mental health alongside in situ physiological measurements to quantify the impact of different urban environments.

He leads work investigating the potential of creative methods to co-design novel development solutions. In East African and Indonesian cities these projects have focused upon mobility & road safety, and air pollution and health. In the UK these methods have been used to look at pro-environmental behaviour change and food waste reduction.

His Participatory GIS methods have been applied in developing countries assessing natural resource use and agriculture water management; urban travel behaviour and road-safety issues; and in the UK investigating environmental concerns including air quality, flood management, rural inequalities and urban redevelopment.

Steve has contributed to assessments of the research gaps around urban development for Sida and the interactions of urban SDGs for the Swedish Government. He has participated in consultations on the development of Strategic Urban Health guidance for the World Health Organisation.

He has extensive experience of project management and has provided training and capacity building institutes in diverse locations including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Thailand, the Netherlands, South Africa, China, Ivory Coast, Indonesia and India.

Steve has supervised a number of PhD students focused on development challenges including the impacts of REDD+ schemes; novel air pollution monitoring approaches; and the potential of adaptive flood management in developing countries. His current students are looking at urbanisation, health and wellbeing and community resilience issues in Kenya, China and Kuwait.

He has written over 30 academic papers and book chapters over the past ten years and served as Deputy Director of the York centre between 1999 and 2014.