Research

The development of a sustainable society is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The Department of Environmental Sciences has defined five thematic areas that will become increasingly important for society and will stand at the center of its scientific activity.

Ecosystem services: The interplay between the use of environmental resources and the state of ecosystems and their long-term functioning are a focus of D-USYS research.

Resource scarcity: Research directed towards ensuring more efficient and sustainable use of increasingly scarce natural resources and the pressure on ecosystems. This requires close collaboration between systems-oriented technicians and economic scholars and scientists.

Climate change: Rising CO2 emissions and climate change require process-oriented research, improved future scenarios and the modeling of the climate system together with environmental, technological and socio-economic approaches. Research on climate change impacts and how they can be met plays an important role for the supply of food and water.

Food security:The increase in food production requires the development of new integrated and robust production and distribution systems. In the concept of the world food system, this challenge is taken into account.

Environment and health: The health of humans, animals and plants requires integrative approaches in areas including pollution and infectious diseases, with advances in molecular biology, genetics and immunology, building on new concepts in evolutionary ecology, epidemiology and population biology.