Sustainable water, energy and spatial governance (SUS+)

Sustainable water, energy and spatial governance (SUS+) studies management and governance of the environment and natural resources for sustainable development. The challenge is taken to integrate different approaches of policy instruments, implementation of networks and information systems into new modes of governance. This challenge has been translated into a mission for the program: expanding the knowledge base for designing and implementing governance strategies for sustainable development, in particular strategies pursuing sustainable innovations. The program takes a generic view of sustainable innovation with three specific research lines: water, energy & climate, and spatial planning.

We expect a midterm revision / adjustment of this program medio-2012.

Contact

Programme coordinator: prof.dr. Jon C. Lovett

E-mail: j.lovett@utwente.nl

Chairs

Policy Studies & Environmental Policy – prof.dr. J.Th.A. Bressers

Sustainable Development in a North-South Perspective – prof.dr. J.C. Lovett

Marine and Fluvial System – prof.dr. S.J.M.H. Hulscher

Water Management – prof.dr. A.Y. Hoekstra

Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)

Expertise Centres

Centre for Studies in Technology and Sustainable Development (CSTM)

Twente Water Centre (UT theme centre)

Full text

Sustainable water, energy and spatial governance (SUS+) studies management and governance of the environment and natural resources for sustainable development. The SRO addresses a range of questions around this theme. How do societies interfere in natural processes? How do changes in natural systems in turn influence human development? How do societies respond and adapt to new problems and risks? What is, or could be, the role of multi-level and multi-actor governance in relation to behavioural and engineering solutions? Strong research lines also exist on policy instruments, implementation networks, and information systems. The focus is on water, energy and spatial issues at local and global scales. The SRO combines two earlier SROs of IGS: Sustainable Innovation, and the Twente Water Center. Research on sustainability is often focused on separate approaches to business responsibilities and initiatives, government policies, instruments and implementation networks, including multiple actors, cultural value orientations, and technological inventions and advances. But, since the early 1990s, the scientific study of the challenge of sustainability has made it clear that all these changes are mutually dependent. The challenge of sustainable development can therefore only be met by their productive co-evolution. This program seeks to investigate how such co-evolution can be supported by governance approaches based on a deeper understanding of how and when sustainable innovations occur and the effective use of geo-information for sustainability governance.

The concept of sustainable development has now been widely applied for almost a quarter of a century. It is apparent that if the challenges of sustaining socio-economic development, including key agendas such as poverty alleviation, and safeguarding present and future natural resources are to be met, then we have to renew the scientific knowledge base on environmentally oriented problems. Moreover, the scientific challenge is that integrated approaches are needed for sustainable innovations, which in turn require new modes of governance. This challenge has been translated into a mission for the program: expanding the knowledge base for designing and implementing governance strategies for sustainable development, in particular strategies pursuing sustainable innovations.

The program takes a generic view of sustainable innovation with three specific research lines: water, energy and climate, and spatial planning. The overall approach addresses new modes of governance to support sustainable production, consumption and innovation at both local and global scales. Special attention is given to strategies that enable the co-evolution and collaboration of factors and actors for this purpose.

The research line “Water” searches for innovations in water governance and water policy, in particular dealing with the complexities and opportunities of multi-purpose and multi-actor water projects; and transboundary and international aspects of water governance. This research line involves the Twente Water Center, the umbrella institute for water research at the University of Twente.

The research line “Energy & Climate” studies governance aspects of the diffusion of renewable energy technologies and energy saving strategies, the consequences of energy sector reform, and the requirements and opportunities of the Kyoto protocol, both for developed and developing countries. There are links to water research through work on the impacts and implications of climate change on water systems and governance. Water-energy sector interactions are also studied by analyzing the carbon footprint of water and the water footprint of energy and the trade-offs between water and energy in developing policies for sustainable development.

The third research line “Spatial Planning” studies sustainability issues at the local, urban and regional level, both as a dependent and explanatory variable. As in the other research lines, all three pillars of sustainable development – economic development (e.g. poverty alleviation, human capital resources, innovation capacity), social cohesion (e.g. equity and gender issues) and environmental issues (including spatial quality issues, land use and sustainable tourism) – are studied from the perspective of their mutual dependencies.