The Chair

The Chair of Environmental Development and Risk Management at Technische Universität Dresden engages in the holistic and spatiotemporal analysis of human-environment interrelations and interventions through management und governance. Both anthropogenic impacts on the environment and environmental threats to the society are considered. Land, cities and regions with their interdepencies of natural and societal processes play a particular role. Management and governance in addition to actors, networks and institutions also involve the science-policy interface.

Research and education address theoretical and methodological basics of environmental development and risk management. Inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge on biophysical cause-effect interrelations of human-environmental systems as well as their integratability in management and governance on the local and regional level are in the centre. Theoretical considerations regard to concepts from systems theories, integrated resource management, risk management (including vulnerability, resilience, adaptation etc.) and environmental governance. The methodological approaches range from GIS and multi-model-based simulations (including HPC, BigData) to foresight (scenarios, ensembles) and integrated assessment, mono and multi-criteria evaluation and decision support to measures, instruments and strategies of management and governance with institutions and actors. Accordingly, explicit reference to relevant natural and social science disciplines is provided.

Thematic focus are sustainable environmental development of regions and cities as well as risks due to natural hazards (e.g. floods, droughts) and climate change with an in-depth expertise related to water. Research and education are nationally and internationally oriented with cooperation partners in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.