Current Research Highlights
Central topics in the research of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences are the sustainable development of the human habitat and the monitoring of the Earth system in global, regional and local scales. The research at the faculty primarily serves the profile line "Energy, Mobility and Environment" of the TU Dresden.
Topics such as adaptation to climate change, renewable energy systems, environmental monitoring and geoinformation technologies, forestry, hydrology, limnophysics, risk and water resource management, are in focus.
© Christophe Gateau/DPA
Forest-water dynamics in climate change
The effects of climate change, particularly on forest ecosystems and water dynamics in forests, are a central core research area of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, which is also funded as part of TU Dresden's University of Excellence. Forests play a central role in maintaining the health of humans and the environment - they regulate the climate, produce wood and are important for biodiversity, fertile soils and clean water. Droughts and heat stress are putting increasing pressure on our forests. This threatens the survival of traditional forest tree species and thus the domestic forestry industry - and alters a large number of natural processes, with effects on water quality and the water and carbon cycle. Forests are extremely sensitive to the rapidly changing climate, making their adaptation to climate change an urgent priority for research and practice. With our research, we aim to achieve a comprehensive understanding of forest-water interactions at local to global scales (leaf to globe) in order to develop effective science-based adaptation strategies for climate-resilient forests and water security of the future.