Climate security
Compound risks, vulnerability, conflict-sensitive adaptation, displacement pressures, and institutional preparedness.
Research Program 03
Climate Resilience, Environment, and Water
Integrated research on climate risk, natural-resource governance, environmental change, and the institutions responsible for adaptation.
Program purpose
Climate variability and environmental degradation reshape livelihoods, mobility, food systems, public finance, political relations, and competition over land and water. The consequences depend on infrastructure, institutional capacity, social protection, access to information, and the distribution of political and economic resources.
The program integrates environmental science with policy research and institutional analysis. Its purpose is to improve anticipation, strengthen resource governance, and identify adaptation strategies that reflect regional conditions and community knowledge.
Research priorities
Water governance
Surface and groundwater systems, shared resources, allocation choices, infrastructure, and cooperative governance.
Drought and food systems
Monitoring, early warning, pastoral and agricultural adaptation, land management, preparedness, and recovery.
Environmental sustainability
Watersheds, ecosystems, biodiversity, urban environmental pressure, and the water-energy-food relationship.
Adaptation institutions
Public capability, climate finance, local governance, program implementation, and accountability for resilience investments.
Climate data and decisions
Remote sensing, hydrological information, risk indicators, scenario analysis, and communication under uncertainty.
Policy contribution
The program develops climate-risk assessments, vulnerability analysis, water-resource scenarios, early-warning frameworks, adaptation strategies, and institutional recommendations. Foresight Lab supports the work through geospatial analysis, remote sensing, hydrological modeling, forecasting, simulation, and integrated data systems.
Questions guiding the program
Building resilience before shocks become emergencies.
- Which communities and systems face the greatest risk?
- How can early warning produce earlier action?
- Which institutions can govern shared water equitably?
- How should adaptation address conflict and displacement?
- What investments strengthen long-term resilience?
- How can local knowledge improve climate decisions?