Presentation

How to sustainably govern regions and cities - at the local and transnational level - integrating natural resources exploitation? 

Research on regions and cities raises key questions for the development of societies of the present and future. How can an urban area be developed sustainably, integrating the management of services that involve natural resources? How should citizen participation be taken into account, given that – for example – it has an important part to play in addressing the question of the place of nature in urban areas? Then again, how should regional information be produced and how should it be used in addressing questions of governance – whether these concern the Global North or South? Indeed, going beyond the management of regions and cities, research raises questions about global environmental governance, about the risks associated with it and about policies for adapting to environmental changes. Finally, there is the challenging issue of sustainable development in mountain or urban areas in the transnational and transboundary context.

At the University of Geneva, research is not only carried out at the local scale – the urban district – but also looks at large transnational regions such as river basins or great mountain ranges. A great deal of the Institute’s research has been commissioned by the European Union, the Swiss Confederation and various Swiss cantons, or even the United Nations.