Major Research Areas

Ecological Systems

This research area investigates ecological and geophysical patterns of spatial and temporal distribution at different scales of study, using descriptive and experimental approaches. Ecological studies include different approaches, from populations, to communities, ecosystems, and landscapes, developing applied approaches for themes such as sustainability, biodiversity, functional diversity, assembly rules, ecosystem functioning, ecological restoration and ecosystem services. Geosciences include all aspects of geological studies, including geomorphology, environmental geology, landscape dynamics, soil development cartography, water, climatology, and others. The development and analysis of new technologies and instrumentation, such as remote sensing at different spatial scales, allow integration among all studied themes, including environmental monitoring studies, landscape development, and land use changes by human activities.

Landscape Management and Geoscience

Qualified intervention by the ordering, planning, and management of territorial units that include districts, watersheds, conservation units, natural or cultural landscapes, based on an integrated landscape concept that embraces all components of the system to be managed, related to ecological, cultural, and socio economic sustainability. Landscape management is based on a perspective of multifunctionality and sustainability. Research directed to understand the landscape as a dynamic and complex system with multiple interdependent components that vary at different spatial and temporal scales, and incorporate relevant regulating instruments to design interventions that consider the diverse and simultaneous uses and functions for the local communities. It analyzes the various functions of space beyond production, to evaluate how these diverse functions are articulated, strengthened, or lead to conflicts, and to propose new ways of pacifying these issues in both rural and urban planning.

Environment and Society

This research area deals with the human and social approaches of the problems related to quality of life and nature conservation, considering how social and biophysical systems are influenced by human activities, regarding different strategies of development and conservation. Themes related to sustainability emerge here, including the relationships of local communities and the territories where they are inserted; the interactions between ecosystem services and human welfare from the perspective of the socio-communities; environmental education integrating knowledge dialogues and different cultures; environmental awareness of different social groups in relation to the environment, to environmental management, and to the rupture of local processes through environmental impacts; sustainability of production systems in different types of units, from small farms to large industrial plants; systems and instruments of environmental management; environmental public policies, governance, environmental economy, sustainability indicators, sustainable technologies.