AGS Urban Futures seminar at ETH

Understanding the Dimensions of Urban Futures Research: Tackling Complex Reality

All the presenters are researching in the universities (ETH, EPFL) and research institutes (WSL, PSI, Empa and Eawag) of the ETH Domain, and they all welcome questions and comments from the other AGS universities (see their biographies and contact details).

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Peter Edwards heads the plant ecology group at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich, and is also AGS Faculty Coordinator at the ETH.    email web

Adrienne Grêt-Régamey heads the research group Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS) in the Institute of Landscape Planning at ETH Zurich.  email web

Christoph Lüthi leads the Group Strategic Environmental Sanitation Planning at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).   email web

Silvia Tobias heads the research focus 'Land Resources Management in Peri-Urban Environments' at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL).     email web

Darren Robinson is group leader of sustainable urban development with the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory at EPF Lausanne.   email web

Christian Pohl is head of the transdisciplinarity net of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, and senior lecturer and researcher in the chair of Environmental Philosophy at ETH Zurich.   email web

New approaches to understanding urban complexity

Introduction to the AGS Urban Futures initiative and an ecologists view of urban systems - Peter Edwards

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Science of Cities = Big Science - Adrienne Grêt-Régamey

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Case studies of interdisciplinary research projects on urban futures: process and lessons learned

Case study: Research in Water and Sanitation for Developing Countries - Christoph Luethi

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Case study: Developing Strategies to Maintain Landscape Qualities with Urban Growth: a Case Study from Switzerland - Silvia Tobias

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Case study: Complexity, Sustainability, and the City-Computable? - Darren Robinson

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Towards a new research agenda: the AGS workshop Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Urban Futures

Tools from Transdisciplinary Research - Christian Pohl

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Working group: Migrants and the city - presented by Luca Pattaroni

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Working group: Basic human needs - presented by Margrit Hugentobler

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Working group: Utopian (sustainable) city - presented by Darren Robinson

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Working group: Landscape protection - presented by Silvia Tobias

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In October 2008 the AGS at the ETH held a workshop to assess and initiate interdisciplinary research within the context of urban sustainability. Experts from various disciplines, such as architecture, economics, social sciences, engineering, and ecology, were invited to participate in an exercise in interdisciplinary problem framing with the focal topic of sustainable urban development. At the workshop, participants brainstormed, mapped, and framed a selection of problems facing sustainable urban development. Prepared case studies and questions were used to “catalyse” the discussion. Four working groups came together based on these questions, and deepened their analysis using methods and tools from transdisciplinary research. The workshop was facilitated by Christian Pohl, an expert in transdisciplinary research.