James D.A. Millington PhD

Environmental Geographer & Landscape Ecologist
Research on socio-ecological landscape dynamics, with focus on land use/cover change & landscape fire.

Data Scientist & Computational Modeller
Technical expertise in spatial data analysis, plus development & use of computational simulation models.

Research Funding & Dissemination
Record of winning grants from RCUK & other sources, with strong publications (50+ articles & chapters).

Teaching Experience
Innovating & leading learning across university levels in Geography & Natural Resources depts. (UK & US).

Fieldwork Teaching & Research
Planning & leading data collection & learning in international locations (Malawi, Michigan, Morocco, Spain).

Reader in Landscape Ecology
Department of Geography, King’s College London, Oct. 2021–Present.
World-leading research and publishing plus research-led teaching and administrative leadership

Senior Lecturer in Geography
Department of Geography, King's College London, Sept. 2017-Sept. 2021
Undergraduate and postgraduate research-led teaching plus research, publishing and administrative leadership.

Lecturer in Physical & Quantitative Geography
Department of Geography, King's College London, Sept. 2013-Aug. 2017.
Undergraduate and postgraduate research-led teaching plus research, publishing and administrative roles.

Research Fellow
Department of Geography, King's College London, Jan. 2011-Aug. 2013.
Innovative research on interdisciplinary uses of agent-based modelling and simulation.

Visiting Research Associate
Center for Systems Integration & Sustainability, Michigan State University, USA, May 2007-Nov. 2010.
Fieldwork and analysis for development of a forest simulation model of analysis of resource use trade-offs.

Adjunct Instructor
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, USA, Aug. 2008-Dec. 2008.
Taught postgraduate (800-level) class on Systems Modelling and Simulation for Fisheries and Wildlife students.

Undergraduate Personal Tutor
Department of Geography, King's College London, Sept. 2005-June 2006.
Tutor to first and second year undergraduate students.

Teaching Assistant
Department of Geography, King's College London, Sept. 2003-June 2006.
Contributed to laboratory learning & marking assessments across Physical Geography (including fieldwork).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Vigna, I., Millington J.D.A., Ascoli, D., Comino E., Pezzoli A. and Besana A. (2024) A picit jeu: Agent-based modelling with serious gaming for a fire-resilient landscape. Journal of Environmental Management, 370, 122529. [link]

Muthiuru, A. C., Crego, R. D., Simbauni, J. A., Muruthi, P. M., Waiguchu, G., Lala, F., Millington, J.D.A. and Kairu, E. W. (2024). Human footprint and rainfall shape Masai giraffe's habitat suitability and connectivity in a multiple‐use landscape. Ecosphere, 15(7), e4933. [link]

Perkins, O., Kasoar, M., Voulgarakis, A., Smith, C., Mistry, J., and Millington, J.D.A. (2024). A global behavioural model of human fire use and management: WHAM! v1.0. Geoscientific Model Development, 17(9), 3993-4016. [link]

Smith, C. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2024) How policy interventions influence burning to meet cultural and small-scale livelihood objectives. Ecology and Society 29(1), 35. [link]

Perkins, O., Alexander, P., Arneth, A., Brown, C., Millington, J.D.A. and Rounsevell, M. (2023) Toward quantification of the feasible potential of land-based carbon dioxide removal. One Earth 6(12), 1638–1651. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Millington, J.D.A., Viña, A., Dou, Y., Moran, E., Batistella, M., Lapola, D.M. and Liu, J. (2023). Balancing food production with climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in the Brazilian Amazon. Science of The Total Environment 904, 166681. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Moran, E., Millington, J.D.A., Viña, A. and Liu, J. (2023) Complex relationships between soybean trade destination and tropical deforestation. Scientific Reports 13, 11254. [link]

Brown, C., Millington, J.D.A., and Rounsevell, M. (2023) Assessing the quality of land system models: moving from valibration to evaludation, Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling 5, 18434-18434. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Moran, E., Viña, A., Millington, J.D.A., Duo, Y., Viera, S.A., Lopez, M.C. and Liu, J. (2023) Toward a forest transition across the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 6 [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Victora, D.C., Nossack, F.A., Viña, A., Millington, J.D.A., Viera, S.A., Batistella, M., Moran, E. and Liu, J. (2023) Slow-down of deforestation following a Brazilian forest policy was less effective on private lands than in all conservation areas, Communications Earth & Environment 4:111. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Perkins, O. and Smith, C. (2022) Human Fire Use and Management: A Global Database of Anthropogenic Fire Impacts for Modelling. Fire 5(4):87. [link]

Perkins, O., Matej, S., Erb, K. and Millington, J.D.A. (2022) Towards a global behavioural model of anthropogenic fire: The spatiotemporal distribution of land-fire systems, Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling 4:18130. [link]

Ford, A.E.S., Harrison, S.P., Kountouris, Y., Millington, J.D.A., et al. (2021) Modelling Human-Fire Interactions: Combining Alternative Perspectives and Approaches, Frontiers in Environmental Science 9:649835. [link]

Herrick, C., Okpako, O. and Millington, J.D.A. (2021) Unequal ecosystems of global health authorial expertise: Decolonising noncommunicable disease. Health and Place 71 102670. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Katerinchuk, V., Silva, R.F.B., Victora, D.C. and Batistella, M. (2021) Modelling drivers of Brazilian agricultural change in a telecoupled world, Environmental Modelling & Software 105024. [link]

Victora, D.C., Silva, R.F.B., Millington, J.D.A., Katerinchuk, V. and Batistella, M. (2021) Transport cost to port though Brazilian federal roads network: Dataset for years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2017, Data in Brief 107070. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Millington, J.D.A. Moran, E.F., Batistella, M. and Liu J. (2020) Three decades of land-use and land-cover change in mountain regions of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Landscape and Urban Planning 204 10394. [link]

Perkins, O. and Millington, J.D.A. (2020) The importance of agricultural yield elasticity for indirect land use change: a Bayesian network analysis for robust uncertainty quantification, Journal of Land Use Science 15(4) 509–531. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Batistella, M., Millington, J.D.A., Moran, E., Martinelli, L.A., Dou, Y. and Liu, J. (2020) Three Decades of Changes in Brazilian Municipalities and Their Food Production Systems, Land 9(11) 422. [link]

Muller, B. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2020) Modelling food security: Bridging the gap between the micro and the macro scale, Global Environmental Change 63 102085. [link]

Taylor, F.E., Millington, J.D.A., Jacob, E., Malamud, B.D. and Pelling. M. (2020) Messy maps: Qualitative GIS representations of resilience, Landscape and Urban Planning 198 103771. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Batistella, M., Moran, E.F., Celidonio, O. and Millington, J.D.A. (2020) The Soybean Trap: Challenges and Risks for Brazilian Producers, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4 12. [link]

Heasley, E.L., Millington, J.D.A., Clifford, N.J., Chadwick, M.A. (2020) A waterbody typology derived from catchment controls using self-organising maps, Water 12(1) 78. [link]

Young, C., Bellamy, C., Burton, V., Griffiths, G., Metzger, M.J., Neumann, J., Porter, J. and Millington, J.D.A. (2020) UK Landscape Ecology: Trends and perspectives from the first 25 Years of ialeUK, Landscape Ecology 35 11–22. [link]

Dou, Y., Millington, J.D.A., Silva, R.F.B., Batistella, M., Liu, J. et al. (2019) Land-use changes across distant places: design of a telecoupled agent-based model, Journal of Land Use Science 14(3) 191–209. [link]

Francis, R.A., Millington, J.D.A. and Cederlof, G. (2019) Undergraduate student perceptions of assessment and feedback practice: fostering agency and dialogue, Journal of Geography in Higher Education 43(4) 468–485. [link]

Borie, M., Ziervogel, G. Taylor, F.E., Millington, J.D.A., Sitas, R. and Pelling, M. (2019) Mapping (for) resilience across city scales: An opportunity to open-up conversations for more inclusive resilience policy? Environmental Science & Policy 99 1–9. [link]

Silva, R.F.B., Batistella, M., Palmieri, R., Dou, Y. and Millington, J.D.A. (2019) Eco-certification protocols as mechanisms to foster sustainable environmental practices in telecoupled systems, Forest Policy and Economics 105 52–63. [link]

Heasley, E., Clifford, N.J. and Millington, J.D.A. (2019) Integrating network topology metrics into studies of catchment-level effects on river characteristics, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 23 2305–2319. [link]

Huber, R. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2018) Representation of decision-making in European agricultural agent-based models, Agricultural Systems 167 143–160. [link]

Liu et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2018) Spillover systems in a telecoupled Anthropocene: typology, methods, and governance for global sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 33 58-69. [link]

Xiong, H., Millington, J.D.A., and Xu, X. (2018) Trade in the telecoupling framework: evidence from the metals industry. Ecology and Society, 23(1):11. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Xiong, H., Peterson, S. and Woods, J. (2017) Integrating modelling approaches for understanding telecoupling: global food trade and local land use. Land, 6(3) 56. [link]

Bush, A. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2017) Connecting Earth observation to high-throughput biodiversity data. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1 0176. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. and Wainwright, J. (2017) Mixed qualitative-simulation methods: Understanding geography through thick and thin. Progress in Human Geography, 41(1) 68-88. [link]

Seijo, F., Millington, J.D.A., Gray, R.W. et al. (2017) Divergent fire regimes in two unevenly developed Mediterranean Chestnut forest landscapes. Human Ecology, 45(2) 205-219. [link]

Sun, Z., Lorscheid, I., Millington, J.D.A. et al. (2016) Simple or complicated agent-based models? A complicated issue. Environmental Modelling and Software, 86 56-67. [link]

Fischer, A.P. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2016) Wildfire risk as a socioecological pathology. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, 14(5) 276-284. [link]

Seijo, F., Millington, J.D.A. et al. (2015) Forgetting fire: Traditional fire knowledge in two chestnut forest ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula and its implications for European fire management policy. Land Use Policy, 47 130-144. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Butler, T. and Hamnett, C. (2014) Aspiration, Attainment and Success: An agent-based model of distance-based school allocation. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 17(1) 10. [link]

Müller, B. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2014) Standardised and transparent model descriptions for agent-based models: Current status and prospects. Environmental Modelling & Software, 55 156-163. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Walters, M.B., Matonis, M.S. and Liu, J. (2013) Filling the gap: A compositional gap regeneration model for managed northern hardwood forests. Ecological Modelling, 253 17-27. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Walters, M.B., Matonis, M.S. and Liu, J. (2013) Modelling for forest management synergies and trade-offs: Northern hardwood tree regeneration, timber and deer. Ecological Modelling, 248 103-112. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., O'Sullivan, D. and Perry, G.L.W. (2012) Narrative explanation in generative simulation modelling. Geoforum, 43(6) 1025-1034. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Demeritt, D. and Romero-Calcerrada, R. (2011) Participatory evaluation of agent-based land use models. Journal of Land Use Science, 6(2) 195-210. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Walters, M.B., Laurent, E.J. et al. (2011) Combined long-term effects of variable tree regeneration and timber management on forest songbirds and timber production. Forest Ecology and Management, 262 718-729. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. and Perry, G.L.W. (2011) Multi-model inference in biogeography. Geography Compass, 5(7) 448-530. [link]

Matonis, M.S., Walters, M.B. and Millington, J.D.A. (2011) Gap-, stand-, and landscape-scale factors contribute to poor sugar maple regeneration after timber harvest. Forest Ecology and Management, 262 286-298. [link]

Wainwright, J. and Millington, J.D.A. (2010) Mind, the Gap in Landscape-Evolution Modelling. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 35(7) 842-855. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Walters, M.B., Matonis, M.S. and Liu, J. (2010) Effects of local and regional landscape characteristics on wildlife distribution across managed forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 259 1102-1110. [link]

Romero-Calcerrada, R., Barrio-Parra, F., Millington, J.D.A. and Novillo, C.J. (2010) Spatial modelling of socioeconomic data to understand patterns of human-caused wildfire ignition risk in the SW of Madrid (central Spain). Ecological Modelling, 221(1) 34-45. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Wainwright, J., Perry, G.L.W. et al. (2009) Modelling Mediterranean landscape succession-disturbance dynamics: A landscape fire-succession model.Environmental Modelling and Software, 24 1196-1208. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Romero-Calcerrada, R., Wainwright, J. and Perry, G.L.W. (2008) An agent-based model of Mediterranean agricultural land-use/cover change for examining wildfire risk. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 11(4) 4. [link]

Romero-Calcerrada, R., Camacho, C.J., Millington, J.D.A. and Gomez-Jimenez, I. (2008) GIS analysis of spatial patterns of human-caused wildfire ignition risk in the SW of Madrid (Central Spain). Landscape Ecology, 23 34-54. [link]

Perry, G.L.W. and Millington, J.D.A. (2008) Spatial modelling of succession-disturbance dynamics in terrestrial ecological systems. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 9(3-4) 191-210. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Perry, G.L.W. and Romero-Calcerrada, R. (2007) Regression techniques for examining land use/cover change: A case study of a Mediterranean landscape.Ecosystems, 10(4) 562-578. [link]

Malamud, B.D., Millington, J.D.A. and Perry, G.L.W. (2005) Characterizing wildfire regimes in the USA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 102(13) 4694-4699. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2005) Wildfire risk mapping: considering environmental change in space and time. Journal of Mediterranean Ecology, 6(1) 33-42. [link]

Other Articles

Silva, R.F.B. and Millington, J.D.A.(2024) Harvesting dilemmas: Soybean telecouplings spillover between Brazilian biomes. One Earth 7(7) 1134. [link]

Kasoar, M., Perkins, O., Millington, J.D.A., Mistry, J., & Smith, C. (2024). Model fires, not ignitions: Capturing the human dimension of global fire regimes. Cell Reports Sustainability, 1(6). [link]

Millington, J.D.A and Wainwright, J. (2016) Comparative Approaches for Innovation in Agent-Based Modelling of Landscape Change. Land, 5(2) 13. [link]

Roos, C.I., et al. incl. The Fire and Mankind Discussion Group (2016) Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar, and varied cultural lessons, prospects, and challenges. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - B, 371 20150469 [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2012) Using social psychology theory for modelling farmer decision-making In: Seppelt, R. et al. (Eds.) Proceedings of iEMSs 2012 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software. Germany, 2485-2492. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., O'Sullivan, D. and Perry, G.L.W. (2012) Narrative explanation of agent decision-making In: Seppelt, R. et al. (Eds.) Proceedings of iEMSs 2012 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software. Germany, 2660-2665. [link]

McConnell, W.J., Millington, J.D.A. et al. (2011) Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Approach, Challenges, and Strategies. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 92 218-228. [link]

Edited Books

Francis, R.A., Millington, J.D.A. , Perry, G.L.W and Minor, E.S. (Eds.) (2022) The Routledge Handbook of Landscape Ecology. Abingdon: Routledge. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. and Wainwright, J. (Eds.) (2016) Agent-Based Modelling and Landscape Change. Basel: MDPI. [link]

Francis, R.A., Millington, J.D.A. and Chadwick, M.A. (Eds.) (2016) Urban Landscape Ecology: Science, Policy and Practice.London: Routledge. [link]

Book Chapters

Millington, J.D.A. (2023) Simulation and reduced complexity models In: Clifford et al. (Eds.) Key Methods in Geography. (4 th ed.) London: SAGE, 445–469.

Millington, J.D.A. (2022) Scale and hierarchy in landscape ecology In: Francis et al. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Landscape Ecology. Abingdon: Routledge, 49-66. [pdf]

Millington, J.D.A., Debus, A. and Fouilloux, A. (2022) Exploring Land Cover Data (Impact Observatory) The Environmental Data Science Book. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2016) Simulation and reduced complexity models In: Clifford et al. (Eds.) Key Methods in Geography. (3rd ed.) London: SAGE, 400-422. [link]

Francis, R.A., Millington, J.D.A. and Chadwick, M.A. (2016) An overview of landscape ecology in cities In: Francis, R.A., Millington, J.D.A. and Chadwick, M.A. (Eds.) Urban Landscape Ecology: Science, Policy and Practice. London: Routledge, 1-18. [link]

Hochstrasser, T., Millington, J.D.A. et al. (2014) The study of land degradation in drylands: State of the art In: Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. and Turnbull, L. (Eds.) Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands. Springer, 13-54. [link]

Jeltsch, F. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2014) Resilience, self-organization, complexity and pattern formation In: Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. and Turnbull, L. (Eds.) Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands. Springer, 55-84. [link]

Mueller, E.N. et al. incl. Millington, J.D.A. (2014) Land degradation in drylands: Reëvaluating pattern-process interrelationships and the role of ecogeomorphology In: Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. and Turnbull, L. (Eds.) Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands. Springer, 367-383. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Wainwright, J. and Mulligan, M. (2013) Representing human activity in environmental modelling In: Wainwright, J. and Mulligan, M. (Eds.) Environmental Modelling: Finding Simplicity in Complexity. (2nd ed.) Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 291-307. [link]

O'Sullivan, D., Millington, J.D.A., Perry, G.L.W. and Wainwright, J. (2012) Agent-based models - because they're worth it? In: Heppenstall, A.J., Crooks, A.T., See, L.M. and Batty, M. (Eds.) Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems. Springer, 109-123. [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Perry, G.L.W. and Malamud, B.D. (2006) Models, data and mechanisms: quantifying wildfire regimes In: Cello, G., Malamud, B. D., and Davey, P. (Eds.) Fractal Analysis for Natural Hazards. Geological Society, London, 155-167. [link]

Code

Vigna I. and Millington J.D.A. (2024) A Picit Jeu: an Agent-Based Model for role-playing game (Version 1.0.0). CoMSES Computational Model Library. [link]

Millington, J.D.A. Exploring Land Cover Data (Impact Observatory) (Jupyter Notebook) ROHub [link]

Millington, J.D.A., Okpako, O. and Herrick, C. (2021) Analysis of non-communicable disease reports contributing to UN high-level meeting process (2000-2020) (Version v1.0.0). [link]

Lane, A. and Millington, J.D.A. (2021) Maestro Solo (Version v1.0.1) [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2020a) CRAFTY-Brazil Inputs (Version v1.0.0). [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2020b) Brazil Agri Analysis (Version v1.0.0). [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2020c) CRAFTY-Brazil (Version v1.0.1). [link]

Millington, J.D.A. (2019) CRAFTY-Brazil Input Maps (Version v.1.0.0). [link]

Ferretti, M., Reades, J. and Millington, J.D.A. (2019) Code Camp (Version v1.0) [link]

Data

Perkins, O. and Millington, J.D.A. (2021) DAFI: A Global Database of Anthropogenic Fire. figshare. Collection. [link]

Okpako, O., Herrick, C. and Millington, J.D.A. (2021) Database of non-communicable disease reports contributing to UN high-level meeting process (2000-2020) (1.0.0). Zenodo. Dataset. [link]

Victoria, D.C., Silva, R.F.B, Millington, J.D.A., Katerinchuk, V. and Batistella, M. (2020) Transport Cost to Ports through Brazilian Federal Roads Networks: Dataset for years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2017. Mendeley Data. [link]

Perkins, O. and Millington, J.D.A. (2020): Supporting files for The importance of agricultural yield elasticity for indirect land use change: A Bayesian network analysis for robust uncertainty quantification. figshare. Collection. [link]

Millington J.D.A., Bellamy C., Burton V., Griffiths G., Metzger M.J., Neumann J., Porter J. and Young C. (2019) Quantitative summary of abstracts from ialeUK conferences 1992-2017. figshare. Dataset. [link]

PhD Research (King's College London)

• Supervisor: Amos Chege Muthiuru, Wildfire and human-wildlife interactions in protected areas
• Supervisor: Oliver Perkins, Agent-based modelling of global anthropogenic fire
• Supervisor: Viera Ukropcova, Trading in fire and deforestation - a telecoupling agent-based model
• Supervisor: Mattia Mancini, Modelling complexity in coupled human and natural systems
• Supervisor: Eleanore Heasley, Characterising the catchment effect on physical habitats in UK rivers
• Supervisor: Andrew Lane, Spatio-temporal dynamics of interacting social and natural drivers of terrestrial ecological disturbance regimes
• Co-Supervisor: Bernard Majani, Understanding multi-hazards in urban Africa

Postgraduate Taught

• Methods for Environmental Research, MSc module, King's College London
• Systems Modelling and Simulation MSc module, Michigan State University
• Dissertation Supervision

Undergraduate (King's College London)

• Foundations of Spatial Data Science, BSc module
• Applications of Spatial Data Science, BSc module
• Geocomputation, BSc module
• Fieldwork in Physical Geography (Morocco), BSc module
• Geography Concepts Skills and Methods, BA/BSc module
• Principles of Geographical Inquiry, BA/BSc module
• Landscapes: Ecology, Biogeography and Management, BA/BSc module
• Biogeography and Ecology, BSc module
• Geography Tutorials: Critical thinking and techniques, BA/BSc module
• Dissertation Supervision

Research

• Chair, Physical and Environmental Geography Research Group [link]
• Chair, Geocomputation Research Domain [link]
• Member, Dept. of Geography Research Executive
• Chair, Search Committee, Research Associate
• Member, Search Committee, numerous Lecturers, Readers, Research Associates

Postgraduate Research

• Member, CANES ESPRC CDT Recruitment Panel
• Member, College CASE Studentship Review Panel
• Deputy PhD Admissions Tutor, Dept. of Geography
• Member, Dept. of Geography Postgraduate Research Committee

Postgraduate Taught

• Deputy Chair, Dept. of Geography Sub-Board of Examinations
• Chair, Dept. of Geography Sub-Board of Examinations
• Member, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy Board of Examinations
• Member, Dept. of Geography PGT Board of Studies
• Programme Director and Admissions Tutor, MSc Environmental Monitoring, Modelling & Management
• Programme Director and Admissions Tutor, MSc Geography
• Careers and Employability Officer

Undergraduate

• Admissions Tutor, Dept. of Geography
• Chair, Dept. of Geography Undergraduate Board of Studies
• Careers and Employability Officer, Dept. of Geography
• Member, Search Committee and Interview Panel, Teaching Fellows