CESP - Research

RESEARCH AT CESP

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Ongoing Research

Completed Research

The Center for Environmental Science and Policy (CESP) mobilizes a network of scholars, policymakers, and leaders to understand and help solve international environmental problems through science and policy research.

The work of the center is characterized by strong scientific research and modeling, extensive field work to confirm models and theories, a concern with key policy issues, and student involvement on both the undergraduate and graduate level. A significant portion of the research focuses on Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States, and all projects involve intellectual partnerships with institutions within the countries under study.

The center also works with other FSI groups on topics related to security, regional development, energy, health, and pre-collegiate education.

CESP Programs

	Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE)
	FSE aims to generate innovative solutions to the persistent problems of global hunger and environmental damage from agricultural practices worldwide through a focused research portfolio and an interdisciplinary team of scholars.

CESP Projects

	Deadly Connections
	Explores the links between hunger, poverty, disease, and civil conflict.

	Experience with Independent Power Projects in Developing Countries
	This study, which grew out of an earlier effort funded by the Bechtel Initiative for Global Growth and Change (BIGCC), is exploring the factors that explain the patterns in IPP investment, and the legal and institutional mechanisms that could make the IPP mode of investment more sustainable.

	From Bangalore to the Bay Area: Comparative Urban Growth Patterns Across the Pacific Rim
	Developing nations are moving toward Western-style ways of living, resulting in land- and resource intensive development. What does the globalization of the American suburb mean for the global environment? This project addresses the question through quantitative and qualitative analysis of case studies from China, India and the U.S.

	Global Climate Change
	The causes and effects of global climate change is a theme that permeates much of the research conducted at CESP. Stephen Schneider, co-director of CESP and a prominent climate-change scientist, along with senior fellow Terry Root, is leading a series of research projects in three areas of climate change and climate policy.

	Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in India
	Assessment of opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the Indian energy sector.

	Harnessing Science and Technology for Sustainability
	This research aims to answer questions about cross-scale interactions under three closely related themes: adaptive capacity, vulnerability and resilience; institutional interplay; and the politics of scale. The boundaries between these themes are not distinct and we expect our research activities to address all three in an integrated way.

	Integrated Studies of Sustainability; Land-Water Systems of the Yaqui Basin
	A project to bring together the specialists needed to both develop fundamental understanding and explore management and policy alternatives that could increase human welfare and minimize resource and environmental risks in the Yaqui Basin.

Mitigating Future Arsenic Catastrophes in Asia: An Integrative Study of the Processes Controlling Arsenic Release Induced by Land-use Practices

Arsenic is having a devastating impact on human health in Asia. This interdisciplinary study focuses on how land use alters the solid-water partitioning of arsenic in Cambodia and Vietnam. It blends an integrative scientific investigation of chemical, biological, hydrologic factors controlling arsenic partitioning with an evaluation of the relationship between agricultural policies and farming practices on these pro...

Rural Education Action Project (REAP)

The Rural Education Action Project is a collection of longitudinal, experiment-based research projects. The studies focus on the challenges, financial and otherwise, that poor, rural, students and their families must confront in order to make real the opportunity of education in China today. The goals of the project are to: 1. Transform the lives of poor, rural high school students and their families...

Urban Land-Use Change in Asia

Economic liberalization policies in China and Vietnam have spurred unprecedented rates of economic growth. In both cases, one of the most evident effects of policy reform has been the acceleration of land-use change, in particular the urbanization of agricultural land in both countries and the expansion of shrimp aquaculture in Vietnam. The Pearl River Delta, located in southern China, and the Red River Delta, in n...