Debra Roberts

11.4k citations

66 papers · 4.0k indexed · 4 hit papers · h-index 27

Impact in

Global and Planetary Change top 1%
- Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Flood Risk Assessment and Management
Urban Studies top 0.5%
- Urban and Rural Development Challenges

Papers in

Urban Studies 12
- Urban and Rural Development Challenges 9
Global and Planetary Change 29
- Sustainability and Climate Change Governance 15
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services 11

Co-authors: Isabelle Anguelovski Ronald D. Taylor Eric Chu David Dodman JoAnn Carmin Sean O’Donoghue Xuemei Bai Hunter Lovins
Journals: Environment and Urbanization (10 papers)Nature Climate Change (5 papers)Climate and Development (3 papers)Nature (3 papers)Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (3 papers)
Partner nations: South Africa United Kingdom United States

In The Last Decade

Debra Roberts

63 papers receiving 3.8k citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories log scale

Understanding human vulnerability to climate change: A global perspective on index validation for adaptation planning 2021 · 183 citations

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if any of the following hold:

it has ≥500 total citations;
it reaches ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (the threshold is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it);
it reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment
2018 Nature
2016 Nature Climate Change
2014 Nature

Peers

Countries citing papers authored by Debra Roberts

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Debra Roberts's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Debra Roberts with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Debra Roberts more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Debra Roberts

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Debra Roberts. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Debra Roberts. The network helps show where Debra Roberts may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network

The 25 scholars most cited alongside Debra Roberts, linked wherever they have co-authored with each other. Click a name or a connecting line to browse the papers they share.

Border = papers with Debra Roberts Line = papers co-authored together Debra Roberts links everyone, so they are left out of the graph.

All Works

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20 of 20 papers shown

#	Work
1	Most Africans place primary responsibility for climate action on their own government Communications Earth & Environment ·Talbot M. Andrews, Nicholas P. Simpson, Matthias Krönke, Andreas L. S. Meyer, Christopher H. Trisos, Debra Roberts	2025	1
2	Policy relevance of IPCC reports for the Sustainable Development Goals and beyond Resources Environment and Sustainability ·Prajal Pradhan, Sunil S. Joshi, F Martinez, مامون مؤدن, Gerd Brinkhus, S. R. Manik, Caiza Briones, Laxmi Prasad Pant, Shobhakar Dhakal, Klaus Hubacek, Maheswar Rupakheti, Debra Roberts, Bart van den Hurk	2025	8
3	Pathways for urgent action towards climate resilient development Nature Climate Change ·Siri Eriksen, Nicholas P. Simpson, Bruce Glavovic, I. Cibulka, Edward R. Carr, 栄富岡, Bronwyn Hayward, Michael D. Morecroft, Minal Pathak, Joy Jacqueline Pereira, Hans‐Otto Pörtner, Debra Roberts, Alex C. Ruane, Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, E. Lisa F. Schipper, William Solecki, Lindsay C. Stringer, Edmond Totin, Linda Pagli, G. D. T.	2024	13
4	The Evolution of Open Space Planning within a Developing, Biodiverse City (Durban, South Africa) Sustainability ·唐昌科, Debra Roberts, Rob Slotow	2024	4
5	Decolonizing climate change–heritage research Nature Climate Change ·Nicholas P. Simpson, Joanne Clarke, Scott Allan Orr, Wang Simi, Ben Orlove, Sandra Fatorić, Guo-xu Zhao, María Teresa Vallejo-Ortega, Marcy Rockman, Patrícia Pinho, Shobha Maharaj, Jenspeter Rau, Nick Shepherd, S. S. Teuber, Robert G. Dimit, Debra Roberts, Christopher H. Trisos	2022	29
6	Understanding human vulnerability to climate change: A global perspective on index validation for adaptation planning The Science of The Total Environment ·Joern Birkmann, Ali Jamshed, Joanna M. McMillan, Daniel Feldmeyer, Edmond Totin, William Solecki, Zelina Zaiton Ibrahim, Debra Roberts, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Hans‐Otto Poertner, Mark Pelling, Riyanti Djalante, Matthias Garschagen, Walter Leal Filho, Debarati Guha‐Sapir, Andrés Alegría Hit paper breakdown →	2021	183
7	Regional clusters of vulnerability show the need for transboundary cooperation Environmental Research Letters ·Joern Birkmann, Daniel Feldmeyer, Joanna M. McMillan, William Solecki, Edmond Totin, Debra Roberts, Christopher H. Trisos, Ali Jamshed, Emily Boyd, David Wrathall	2021	24
8	Networking urban science, policy and practice for sustainability Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability ·Xuemei Bai, M’Lisa Colbert, Timon McPhearson, Debra Roberts, José Siri, Brenna Walsh, 三和子松山	2019	18
9	Spatial analyses of threats to ecosystem service hotspots in Greater Durban, South Africa PeerJ ·淳馬場, Mathieu Rouget, Richard Boon, Debra Roberts	2018	8
10	Six research priorities for cities and climate change Nature ·Xuemei Bai, Richard Dawson, Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, Gian Carlo Delgado Ramos, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Shobhakar Dhakal, David Dodman, 伸彦魚嶋, Valérie Masson‐Delmotte, Debra Roberts, Seth Schultz Hit paper breakdown →	2018	439
11	Urban climate adaptation in the global South Journal of Planning Education and Research ·Eric Chu, Isabelle Anguelovski, Debra Roberts	2017	4
12	Identifying ecosystem service hotspots for environmental management in Durban, South Africa Bothalia ·淳馬場, Mathieu Rouget, Richard Boon, Debra Roberts	2016	25
13	Durban, South Africa Debra Roberts, Amanda Maria Dantas de Jesus Peixoto, Sean O’Donoghue, ادريس خليل ابراهيم مضحى, 尹飞 Yin Fei, Kailyn Valido	2016	5
14	Re-imagining Inclusive Urban Futures for Transformation Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability ·Richard Friend, 詩瑞夫濱田, Ajaya Dixit, 余文富, T. Jayaraman, J. Allister McGregor, JU Jingjie, Marcus Moench, Mark Pelling, Debra Roberts	2016	12
15	Economics of climate change adaptation at the local scale under conditions of uncertainty and resource constraints: the case of Durban, South Africa Environment and Urbanization ·Anton Cartwright, James Blignaut, Martin de Wit, 徹柏原, Myles Mander, Sean O’Donoghue, Debra Roberts	2013	35
16	Urban environmental challenges and climate change action in Durban, South Africa Environment and Urbanization ·Debra Roberts, Sean O’Donoghue	2013	84
17	Urban Climate Adaptation in the Global South Journal of Planning Education and Research ·JoAnn Carmin, Isabelle Anguelovski, Debra Roberts	2012	213
18	Thinking globally, acting locally — institutionalizing climate change at the local government level in Durban, South Africa Environment and Urbanization ·Debra Roberts	2008	186
19	Kinship Support and Maternal and Adolescent Well-Being in Economically Disadvantaged African-American Families Child Development ·Ronald D. Taylor, Debra Roberts	1995	77
20	The vegetation ecology of municipal Durban, Natal. Floristic classification Bothalia ·Debra Roberts	1993	14

About Debra Roberts

Debra Roberts is a scholar working on Urban Studies, Global and Planetary Change, Transportation, Management of Technology and Innovation and Sociology and Political Science, having authored 66 papers that have together received 4.0k indexed citations. Recurring topics across this work include Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (15 papers), Land Use and Ecosystem Services (11 papers), Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (10 papers), Urban and Rural Development Challenges (9 papers), Disaster Management and Resilience (6 papers), Climate change impacts on agriculture (6 papers), Urban Green Space and Health (6 papers) and Climate Change Policy and Economics (5 papers). The work is most often cited by research in Global and Planetary Change (1.8k citations), Urban Studies (348 citations), Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis (651 citations), Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law (552 citations) and Transportation (227 citations). Debra Roberts has collaborated with scholars based in South Africa, United Kingdom and United States. Frequent co-authors include Isabelle Anguelovski, Ronald D. Taylor, Eric Chu, David Dodman, JoAnn Carmin, Sean O’Donoghue, Xuemei Bai, Hunter Lovins, Jacqueline McGlade and Ida Kubiszewski. Their work appears in journals such as Environment and Urbanization, Nature Climate Change, Climate and Development, Nature and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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