LSUE > About Leuven-SUE

About Leuven-SUE

Rationale

The Earth is a unique planetary system that made the development of complex life and human development possible. Its geological history has proven that the Earth is a robust system, capable of surviving important disruptions of its normal functioning. However, the combination of exponential population growth and an ever increasing economic development over the last decades have tremendously increased human pressure on the Earth System and have fundamentally changed its nature through a variety of processes. These processes and the change they incur are generally indicated as “Global Change”.  The present-day Earth System can be seen as part of the larger Earth-Society system, whereby society (or mankind) relies on various services of the Earth System to organize and drive societal systems. These systems require stability and integrity of ecosystems, geosystems and climate, making the complex Earth-Society system vulnerable.

It is obvious that the impact of human activities is now so large that the future provision of key ecosystem services is no longer self-evident: a human population of 9 billion people (as projected for 2050) can only live on Earth in acceptable conditions provided that innovative strategies are developed reconciling economic development with a sound management of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources. Such technological developments are only possible when their development is based on a sound understanding of the functioning of various aspects of the Earth System as well as of the human impact on the Earth System.  These new technologies need to be assessed thoroughly, not only with respect to their gross economic performance but also with respect to their whole environmental and societal impact so that choices that are profitable on a long-term basis. Societal issues are of key importance as the development of our societies will more and more be guided by sustainability considerations that require that understanding of the societal impacts of technological change are well understood and the development of strategies to facilitate the necessary societal transformations.

Solving the challenges of sustainability of the Earth-Society system requires an integrated approach. Correct scientific understanding of environmental and societal issues needs to go hand in hand with the development of sound technology and the study of the interactions between society, environment and technological deployment. Often, such an integrated approach is lacking. On the one hand, the impact of technological development on environmental and societal processes has long been neglected. On the other hand, environmental scientists have often taken a relatively conservative stance, perhaps overstressing the negative impacts of new technology or societal developments. The complex nature of the problem requires that they are tackled through a process of continuous interdisciplinary interaction.  The current debate on the effects of biofuels on food provision perfectly illustrates how the implementation of a technology that originally was perceived as fully beneficial may have unexpected adverse effects when its implications for other aspects are not accounted for. Through a cascade of processes, growing biofuels may affect not only food prices, but also have important implications for biodiversity, soil degradation and water management.

The establishment of a Sustainable Earth research center at K.U.Leuven will be an important step in assuring that research at K.U.Leuven can contribute to these important issues, providing a research platform that is intended to stimulate a true effort towards integration. Developing knowledge and technology for a sustainable management of the Earth System using integrated approaches wherever possible to unravel the complex interrelationships between the various processes shaping the Earth System, technological development and societal processes is the key objective of this research center.

Scientific challenges

The scientific challenges with respect to the future evolution of our planet, technology and human development are large and diverse. In this document, we will first attempt to describe these issues from a generic point of view using examples to make our point. In a second stage, we will specifically describe where the Sustainable Earth Research Center may contribute and which strategic research lines we would like to develop.

At a general level, the following research issues are key:
  1. Global change encompasses all changes in the global environment (including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems) that may alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life. Global change affects all systems on Earth at different spatial and temporal levels. An overall question is therefore how Global Change affects and interacts with geo-, eco- and social systems at various temporal and spatial scales.  Although the question is a valid scientific question it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to answer. However, by asking the question in this way we force ourselves to consider the whole of the changes rather than to focus on a single, particular impact.
  2. There is a big need for a better knowledge and understanding of geo- and ecosystems. Understanding the fundamental processes that regulate geo- and ecosystems is a prerequisite to assess the impact of human activities on these systems. Our knowledge on many of these issues is still remarkably limited because of their intrinsic complexity. For example, our knowledge of the Earth’s biodiversity is largely incomplete at best and our knowledge of key biogeochemical cycles (N, P, C, Si) is characterised by large uncertainties.
  3. A thorough understanding of how ‘natural’ geo- and ecosystems and human activities interact is necessary. Basically, this requires answering the following question: to what extent are processes and fluxes within the Earth System affected by human activities and on what spatial and temporal scale are such changes taking place? Evidently, a lot of research has already been carried out with respect to this issue, but many answers remain partial and have a high degree of uncertainty. This is especially true for the less visible, but very important components of geo- and ecosystems such as organic matter and biodiversity in soils. It is also important that various temporal scales are considered: archaeological research has clearly demonstrated that tendencies that are at first sight insignificant may have a determining impact on societal development on the longer run.
  4. We need to develop sustainable technologies that allow for a sustainable management of geo- and ecosystems. The fundamental question here is what strategies and technologies can be developed in order to allow satisfying societal needs in a sustainable way for developing as well as developed nations. Sustainable agricultural production and the provision of energy, as basic necessities for development, are key issues here. Providing quality of life improving products and services to a growing world population requires design methods, production processes and end-of-life treatment methods that are optimised from a life cycle engineering perspective. Transport solutions and housing facilities form important product categories in this context. Agriculture requires special attention because of two main reasons: (i) agriculture produces commodities that satisfy some of our most basic needs (food and fibre), (ii) at the same time agricultural production has a large impact on the Earth System: it requires large amounts of resources (water, fertilizers, energy) and has a dramatic effect on the major biogeochemical cycles. Agricultural production is therefore one of the priorities in the context of this research centre. At the same time, economic development is tightly related to energy production and supply. Developing solutions for both energy production and supply that can meet future global demands is a prerequisite for any sustainable development. Although sustainable agricultural production and energy production and supply require special attention due to their far-reaching impacts, development of  sustainable technology is necessary within all domains of industrial and service activity as the impact of human activities on the Earth is largely dependent on the technologies used. Choosing the best technology possible and developing new technologies keeping the sustainability of their application explicitly in mind may largely reduce our environmental footprint. The scope of this technological focus covers important impact generating economic activities such as building construction, transportation and distribution, consumer product manufacturing and the underlying industrial processes
  5. The fifth important issue concerns the interaction between societal systems and the environment, defined in its broadest sense. The strategies used by a society in managing natural resources and technology is to a large extent controlled by societal processes (distribution of power, availability of information, ownership structure…). Conversely, societal processes are affected by environmental issues and changes: the changing public perception of environmental issues will affect how society will function in the future. A clear example of this is the reaction of the Australian government to the current drought: this is probably one of the first times where a developed nation needs to make fundamental choices with respect to its future development in order to avoid its sustainability to be threatened.