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Research Unit

Water and Land Use

Water and land are crucial resources for food security, economic development, social stability and ecological integrity. These resources are closely interlinked as a nexus and influence each other.

Climate change, competing interests regarding the use of these resources, and demographic and economic developments are increasing the complexity of these interactions. They also intensify uncertainties around the availability and quality of water and land resources. This is a problematic situation because the established forms of management are geared towards continuity and are overburdened by dynamic change processes such as land degradation and water pollution or extreme events such as droughts and floods.

Our research focuses on two research strands:

Extremes and tipping points

Extreme events such as droughts and floods result from the interaction of hydrological processes and land-use decisions, intensified by climate change and human environmental changes. We investigate the causes of these events in the water-land nexus to understand future developments and risks as well as impacts on ecosystems and society. We also investigate tipping points that arise from extreme events and gradual changes, and we deal with the question of how ecological disasters such as forest dieback and fish kills can be avoided. 

Conflicts and governance

Competing interests between the population, agriculture and industry lead to conflicts that are intensified by extremes such as droughts. However, such conflicts also offer opportunities to develop sustainable resource governance. In our research, we examine the causes, dynamics and potentials of these conflicts, as well as the values and practices of the actors involved. The aim is to develop transformative governance strategies in the water-land nexus together with partners from the field.

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