It is becoming abundantly clear that the key challenge to our societies in the 21st century is from the interplay of a variety of sources that range from rapid urbanisation, consumption of natural resources, waste and sanitation, and, above all, global warming and pollution. The coronavirus pandemic has reemphasised a range of anthropogenic threats, the most obvious of which is the climate crisis.
In keeping with our interdisciplinary perspective at Ahmedabad University towards finding answers to many complex questions of our times and studying phenomena that help us understand their impact on our society and on the generations to come, we have created two University-wide Programmes around Sustainable Systems and Living. These Programmes are meant to spur interdisciplinary inquiry through research, development of new courses and teaching material, new interdisciplinary laboratory experiments, art and related activities that involve the University community, workshops, field visits for students and faculty, development of a Minor and more.
In a nutshell, anything that is intellectually rigorous and that advances our knowledge of issues around the themes and the interaction of the domains therein, besides translating research into answers and solutions which the society could use for the betterment of lives today and in the future, qualifies as an activity within the Programme.
This Programme is in line with the University’s intention to advance our understanding of issues at the intersection of cities, health, and climate change through interdisciplinary research, development of teaching material like case studies or simulations, an engagement for the University community (and maybe the larger society) around the theme, or startups by students and faculty. It involves studies enhancing cross-sectoral collaborations and considerations of health co-benefits in designing future cities, policies that safeguard public health from the effects of climate change, and climate action plans tailored for cities to promote better health.
This Programme is designed to create better understanding and relations between ecology and humans through active monitoring, intervention, teaching, research, and advocacy. It provides a common ground where life sciences (ecology and evolution) can interact with social sciences (issues of livelihoods, cultures, environmental economics, policy etc.), data sciences and mathematics (through population modelling, climate modelling, theoretical ecology, modelling disease dynamics, machine learning etc.), public health (through the study of disease vectors, epidemiology, toxicology, biodiversity remediation etc), engineering (through bio-acoustics, remote sensing, telemetry, ecological design, bio-sensors etc) and many other disciplines.