Doracie has a background in teaching Human Ecology and Geography and research related to the management of natural environments under high level development pressures and the impact of such on societies in the Philippines and Vietnam. In particular, she has examined the impacts of rice paddy conversion for suburban spaces under the Philippine's agrarian reform process and has investigated the implications of disaster scenarios associated with the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and the subsequent socio-economic and environmental conditions of communities in Central Luzon. Her PhD focused on the historical geography of flooding in Metro Manila and she has further researched forced migrations and flooding scenarios affecting agricultural and fishing communities in Central Vietnam. She currently teaches into a master's course on natural hazards in the Centre of Natural Hazards, Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU.

Research interests/expertise

Vulnerability of cities to hazards, socio-economic and environmental scenarios associated with Southeast Asia's changing agrarian practices, intersecting geographies of migrations, development policies, and vulnerability to climate extremes.

Key publications

• (with M.S. Martinez, and L.A. Ocampo) Environmental Management and Urban Planning in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Regional Development Dialogue 29(1): 72–88, 2008.
  » view publication [PDF, 1561KB]
• Flooding in Central Vietnam. Documentary film produced by the Asian Research Fellowship in Vietnam. Bangkok: Asian Scholarship Foundation, 2007.
• Flashback: Ulack, R. 1983. Geography in the Philippines. Philippine Geographical Journal 27(3/4): 143–54. Philippine Geographical Journal 49(1/4): 151–63, 2005.
  » view publication [PDF, 191KB]
• Development-induced Displacement, Resettlement Experiences, Impoverishment and Marginalization in Pagbilao, Quezon and San Manuel, Pangasinan, Philippines. Public Policy Journal July-Dec: 53-142. Quezon City: University of the Philippines-Centre for Integrative and Development Studies, 2004.
  » view publication [PDF, 14153KB]
• Differential Impacts of Flood Hazards among the Street Children, the Urban Poor and Residents of Wealthy Neighborhood in Metro Manila, Philippines. Journal of Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 7(3): 239-266, 2002.
  » view publication [PDF, 432KB]
• Vulnerabilities and coping strategies to flood hazards amongst the urban poor in Metro Manila, the Philippines. In D. Parker (ed) Flood hazards and Flood disasters, Manchester: Routledge Inc, pp. 69–88. 2000.
  » view publication [PDF, 1098KB]

Career highlights

• Professorial Chair, Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) (2009)
• Research Collaborator, The Challenges of Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia (CHATSEA) (2005–10)
• Asia Research Fellow, Vietnam (2006)
• Visiting Professor, Philippine Studies, St. Norbert College, Wisconsin (2005)
• Chair, Department of Geography, University of the Philippines (2002–05)

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