In the contemporary era of climate change, resource depletion and population growth, ‘resources’ have taken on a powerful social and political significance. New resources are emerging, whilst anxieties over the ethics and practicalities of resource use are prompting publics around the world to engage with resources in increasingly self-conscious ways. Research in engineering and natural sciences within the Resource Dynamics theme at the University of Cambridge focuses on analysing material flows and their associated emissions, developing tools for forecasting and visualising future flows and anticipating resource stresses, and developing technologies and economic models to facilitate change to a more resource efficient future. Researchers in social sciences are looking at global resources – be they genetics, water, or personnel – and exploring how local understandings intersect with national trajectories and issues of planetary concern, as well as teasing out how this larger level links to local understandings of bodies, environments and livelihoods under threat.
Focus Areas:
- Low Carbon and Materials Processing: identifying and pursuing opportunities where engineering can contribute to a low carbon future, particularly through reduced energy demand in industry
- Climate Change Mitigation Research: developing and using integrated models of economic, environmental and energy systems to design and assess policies and instruments for climate change mitigation and adaptation
- The multidisciplinary, cross-institutional FORESEER project examines the dynamics of global energy, land and water use and aims to create an online tool to visualise the influence of future demand and policy choices on the physical requirements for energy, water and land resources.
- Resources and human nature: examining questions of environmental change and resource depletion from an anthropological standpoint.
Please visit individual faculty profiles to learn more about their research in the Resource Dynamics theme.