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

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