Dr Arnald Puy PhD

Dr Arnald Puy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Associate Professor in Social and Environmental Uncertainties

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Arnald Puy focuses on understanding and appraising uncertainties in contentious phenomena, especially those related with agriculture, climate and water resources. His research aims at providing insights for sustainability and makes use of mathematical models, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, post-normal science and ethics of quantification.

Postgraduate supervision

Arnald Puy’s research cuts across the Humanities and the Sciences and welcomes enquiries from students interested in developing interdisciplinary profiles. He is willing to supervise and mentor students in the following fields:

- Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of mathematical models.
- Appraisal of uncertainties in global climate / water models.
- Traditional / indigenous knowledge on irrigation.
- The use of numbers in climate / water research or in any pressing and controversial issue.
- The use of science for policy-making.

He is also open to suggestions for supervision / mentoring in any other field involving deep uncertainties.

Research

Arnald Puy focuses on understanding and appraising uncertainties in contentious phenomena, especially those related with agriculture, climate and water resources. His research aims at providing insights for sustainability and makes use of mathematical models, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, post-normal science and ethics of quantification.

He is the PI of the 5-year project "DAWN: Illuminating Deep Uncertainties in the Estimation of Irrigation Withdrawals", a £1.7 M Frontier Research Grant funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (EP/Y02463X/1). DAWN combines philosophy, modelling, hydrology and anthropology to study the uncertainties ingrained in the calculation of global irrigation water needs. See DAWN's webpage for further details here.

Other activities

Reviewer for Science, Nature Sustainability, Journal of Statistical Software, Geophysical Research Letters, Water Resources Research, Environmental Modeling & Software, Reliability Systems and Engineering Safety, Catena, Land Degradation and Development, among others. 

Arnald Puy has also reviewed for the European Research Council, the National Geographical Society and the Israel Science Foundation.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Tarantola, S, Ferretti, F, Piano, SL, Kozlova, M, Lachi, A, Rosati, R, Puy, A, Roy, P, Vannucci, G, Kuc-Czarnecka, M & Saltelli, A 2024, 'An annotated timeline of sensitivity analysis', Environmental Modelling and Software, vol. 174, 105977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.105977

Saltelli, A, Gigerenzer, G, Hulme, M, Katsikopoulos, KV, Melsen, LA, Peters, GP, Pielke, R, Robertson, S, Stirling, A, Tavoni, M & Puy, A 2024, 'Bring digital twins back to Earth', Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.915

Puy, A, Roy, PT & Saltelli, A 2024, 'Discrepancy Measures for Global Sensitivity Analysis', Technometrics, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00401706.2024.2304341

Saltelli, A, Puy, A & Di Fiore, M 2024, 'Mathematical models: a state of exception', International Review of Applied Economics. https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2024.2365727

Puy, A & Lankford, B 2024, 'The water crisis by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water: a totalising narrative built on shaky numbers', Water Alternatives, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 369-390. <https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol17/v17issue2/746-a17-2-4>

Saltelli, A, Kuc-Czarnecka, M, Lo Piano, S, János Lórincz, M, Olczyk, M, Puy, A, Reinert, E, Thor Smith, S & van der Sluijs, J 2023, 'Impact assessment culture in the European Union. Time for something new?', Environmental Science and Policy, vol. 142, pp. 99-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.02.005

Di Fiore, M, Kuc-Czarnecka, M, Lo Piano, S, Puy, A & Saltelli, A 2023, 'The Challenge of Quantification: An Interdisciplinary Reading', Minerva, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 53-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-022-09481-w

Lo Piano, S, Lőrincz, MJ, Puy, A, Pye, S, Saltelli, A, Smith, ST & van der Sluijs, J 2023, 'Unpacking the modeling process for energy policy making', Risk Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.14248

Saltelli, A & Puy, A 2023, 'What can mathematical modelling contribute to a sociology of quantification?', Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, vol. 10, no. 1, 213. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01704-z

Puy, A, Becker, W, Lo Piano, S & Saltelli, A 2022, 'A comprehensive comparison of total-order estimators for global sensitivity analysis', International Journal for Uncertainty Quantification, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1615/Int.J.UncertaintyQuantification.2021038133

Piano, SL, Borgonovo, E, Puy, A, Saltelli, A, Walsh, J, Vidoni, D & Savona, R (ed.) 2022, 'Improving the reliability of cohesion policy databases', PLOS One, vol. 17, no. 4, e0266823. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266823

Comment/debate

Puy, A, Massimi, M, Lankford, B & Saltelli, A 2023, 'Irrigation modelling needs better epistemology', Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00459-0

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Saltelli, A, Puy, A & Piano, SL 2023, Sensitivity Analysis. in E Padilla Rosa & J Ramos-Martín (eds), Elgar Encyclopedia of Ecological Economics . Elgar Encyclopedias in Economics and Finance series, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 460-466. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802200416.ch79

Saltelli, A, Piano, SL & Puy, A 2023, Sensitivity Auditing. in E Padilla-Rosa & J Ramos-Martín (eds), Elgar Encyclopedia of Ecological Economics . Elgar Encyclopedias in Economics and Finance series, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 467-471. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802200416.ch80

Letter

Puy, A, Lankford, B, Meier, J, Kooij, SVD & Saltelli, A 2022, 'Large variations in global irrigation withdrawals caused by uncertain irrigation efficiencies', Environmental Research Letters, vol. 17, no. 4, 044014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5768

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