Environmental Challenge — Resource Use

Plastic bottles

Management of natural resources is about water management, land use and nutrient flows, as well as sustainable energy production and consumption. In case studies around the world, we develop and improve analytical tools and frameworks for improved resource management.

Scarcity of water resources affects people throughout the world, in everything from the textile industry in India to agriculture in South Africa. And in Sweden, in order to achieve a more sustainable society, households must reduce their use of water and energy. There are several different projects which study strategies for sustainable water management, which must also be combined with poor people's access to livelihoods and corporate social responsibility.

Resource management is also a matter of land use. In case studies in Burkina Faso, we look at what happens when land is used to grow forests in order to reduce the impact of climate change. How are greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater levels and local agriculture affected? Another project looks at how agriculture in the Nordic countries can be better adapted to climate change. Here, various climate change scenarios are explored using aids such as visualisation.

Resource management has clear links to other challenges. One clear example of this is the link to the climate. As a warm climate has a direct impact on the hydrological cycle, water management issues must also be studied from a climate change adaptation perspective.

Research project

Researchers in the field