NMBU Sustainability Arena: Towards sustainable cities and communities

"Towards sustainable cities and communities" will be exploring local transformations in the face of global challenges. The project is also known as "TOWARDS".

prosjekt

About/Aims

Background

This project is a part of NMBUs Sustainability Arenas 2021- 2024.

TOWARDS supports the transformation of cities and communities towards socially just and sustainable futures. Complex global challenges like climate change, COVID-19 and rapid urbanisation bring into stark relief the deeper health and well-being dimensions of sustainable development, including social belonging, everyday interactions, and the environmental quality of local surroundings.

However, rising polarization, crises of legitimacy and social inequalities highlight the ethical and equity dilemmas inherent in any practical solutions aimed at sustainability transformations.

Illustrasjon

Foto

Illustrasjon

Objective

TOWARDS fosters interdisciplinary co-learning regarding transformations towards sustainable development in cities and settlements, through:

Piloting experiments with green technologies and nature based solutions in people’s lived environments
Examining equity and ethical dilemmas in best practices for promoting health, well-being and environmental qualities of local communities
Exploring new modes of policy and planning required to govern sustainability transformations

Through these experiments and analyses, we bring into dialogue the development contradictions and dilemmas inherent in sustainability transformations. Innovating to support local transformations also requires transforming how we conduct research and teach, including a closer integration between research, education and public engagement. For this purpose, TOWARDS serves as a thinktank that opens up space for deliberation between researchers, students, civil society and public and private sectors actors. Activities are empirically grounded in 5 illustrative cases provided by existing research and education projects. These develop interdisciplinary research questions in the interface between locally lived experiences and global complex challenges. Experimentation with blue-green infrastructure (redesign and management of outdoor areas) is carried out by the Landscape Lab at the NMBU campus site and extended to a site in Viken fylkeskommune; in addition, comparative and global perspectives are provided by an arctic site (Nikel, Russia), an Asia site (Kathmandu, Nepal), and an Africa site (Kitui, Kenya). Field visits and meetings centered on the illustrative cases form a knowledge base and dialog platform for innovating interdisciplinary research and education.

More about the project

Key outputs include:

Research:

Enhanced interdisciplinary research and cross-faculty collaboration, leading to journal articles (e.g. a special issue of Lancet Planetary Health)
Methodological framework for analysing key contradictions and dilemmas in practices to support sustainability transformations
Piloted technological, nature-based and planning innovations
Vibrant national and international science-policy network including academic, public, private and civil society actors, enhancing capacity on sustainability transformations in cities and communities
Enhanced research infrastructure, extending the Landscape Lab experiments and integrating the Lab more closely with research environments across NMBU
Minimum one larger research application (EU, CAS) by the end of the project and 1-2 NFR research applications per year

Education:

An interdisciplinary cross-faculty forum for PhD education and postdocs
Enhanced student engagement in research through education-based research and student presentations at arena meetings
20-25 MSc thesis projects clustered around the illustrative cases
Redesigned curriculum of MSc level & PhD level courses, development of PhD course on climate resilient development
Development of a SEVU course on blue-green infrastructure

Dissemination and external profiling:

Annual sustainability conferences and regular arena seminars
8-10 policy briefs describing key themes, methods, piloted experiments
Web page for communication and policy statements; blogs and tweets
Presentations in relevant policy forums, e.g. the WHO Regions for Health Network and KS Sustainability Network
Enhanced participation by groups that are often excluded (e.g. persons with disabilities) in research, education and in public deliberations regarding sustainable development
Integration of public health into local sustainable development and climate change planning
Provision of policy advice to support government authorities in achieving SDG targets
Contribution to international science-policy processes such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

News/Findings

Reviews

Researchers

Participating NMBU researchers