Research
ICIS’ research interest is best described as scientific research on sustainable development. This implies that within ICIS integrative studies are carried out on complex societal problems that involve economic, socio-cultural, environmental and institutional issues.
Integrated Assessment
A central aim of ICIS is to improve existing methodology and to develop new methods and tools for Integrated Assessment. Within ICIS projects are set up to improve, to develop, and to test methods, tools and procedures in view of the aims of Integrated Assessment. Current Integrated Assessment approaches at ICIS include: participatory methods, scenarios, transitions, indicator-analysis and modelling techniques.
Participatory methods
Integrated Assessment has an explicit participatory dimension, both through participation by scientists from various disciplines as well as through participation of stakeholders and societal actors in the assessment process. ‘Participatory methods’ is an umbrella term for describing interactive approaches that actively involve a range of stakeholders, varying from decision-makers to lay people.
Scenarios
Topics within this methodological trajectory are among others: participatory techniques for scenario development, multi-scale scenarios, surprises, use of historical analogies in scenarios and internal consistency of scenarios.
Transitions and transition-management
A transition can be described as a gradual continuous process of change where the structural character of society (or a complex sub-system of society) transforms. The transition concept seems to be useful to describe broad, long-term and structural societal changes and to explain their mutual connection. The perspective of transition-management can be used as a new approach to the management of complex policy problems.
Modelling techniques
Integrated models are frameworks to organise and display knowledge from a variety of disciplines, varying from conceptual models to computer simulation models. Integrated models are no truth machines, but just heuristic tools that amplify our insights into the present and future driving forces behind the complex structures in our society. The ultimate ambition of models is to serve as tools in integrative planning. ICIS aims to lead in the field of IA modelling through participation in innovative modelling projects.
Topics
This selection of topics is informed by the priorities and research agendas of national and international research programmes, and is furthermore based on the particular expertise and interests of the scholars participating in ICIS. Current themes are, amongst others, human health, water, tourism, mobility, globalisation, climate change, oceans, and regional development.
Human health
Global changes and the processes of globalisation pose risks to human health. A striking example is that changes in global climate may alter the distribution of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria. An Integrated approach enables to synthesise the environmental, societal and human dimensions of such health issues and to explore the long-term potential health impacts associated with globalisations.
Water
Water lends itself to an integrated approach because it includes a multitude of related problems playing at different scale levels (water scarcity, water quality, water floods, water demand and supply and sea level rise). An integrated water assessment considers water in the context of socio-economic, cultural, institutional and environmental developments.
Tourism
Because tourism spreads its tentacles across a range of sectors and unmistakably influences both economic, social-cultural, ecological and institutional facets of society, accurate and balanced assessments of this phenomenon have to be integrative by nature. This includes a comprehensive analysis of the driving forces, state changes and impacts of the expanding tourist industry and of possible response strategies. Current casestudy areas include Antarctica and European coustal zones.
Mobility
Mobility is one of the backbones of our society and business activities in the economy. The current transport system suffers from a series of serious, persistent problems: congestion, pollution, traffic accidents leading to casualties, noise and fragmentation of landscapes in rural areas and loss of space in urban areas. In addition, transport is a major energy consumer and contributor to anthropogenic climate change. ICIS aims to contribute to the current literature that describes and explains the dynamics of change in a socio-technical change process, such as those in the mobility system. It also examines the role and possibilities of policy.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is a precious stock of renewable natural resource capital. As human activity has an ever-increasing impact on the natural environment at large, this imperilled resource of crucial importance for the resilience of ecosystems, some of which directly support many economic sectors such as forestry, agriculture and fisheries, pharmacy and eco-tourism, constitutes a pressing ecological constraint on economic activity. ICIS aims to further the concept of valuing ecosystem services in order to allow an integrated assessment of biodiversity.
