NRW Forschungskolleg 'One Health and Urban Transformation'
Project Description
The Forschungskolleg “One Health and Urban Transformation – identifying risks, developing sustainable solutions” was launched in July 2016 and will investigate the various dimensions and transformations of the urban systems and their impact on human, animal and environmental health. The historical development and current challenges of North Rhine-Westphalia with a particular focus on the RuhrMetropolis, will be contrasted with three urban metropolitan areas: São Paulo (Brazil), Accra (Ghana) and Ahmedabad (India).
The ‘One Health’ concept adopts an integrative perspective of health, recognizing the intrinsic interconnections between human, animal and environmental health. Consequently, the environmental, social and economic systems interact with and shape One Health. Investigating these interactions in the context of urban transformation forms the basis for developing sustainable solutions that maximize synergetic effects, minimize trade-offs and mitigate health risks.
The holistic perspective of ‘One Health’ requires a transdisciplinary research approach in order to capture the complexities of the various systems involved and enable integrative analysis. The research concept is based upon four interconnected dimensions:
- Holistic One Health (integrative approaches to sustainable development)
- Urban Transformations (comparison of the Ruhr Valley with three urban metropolitan areas)
- Cross-Cutting Topics (food security, water, hygiene, public health, health systems, society)
- Integrated Work Packages (recognition, analysis and coping mechanisms of societal urban challenges)
The NRW Forschungskolleg “One Health” is jointly operated by the Center for Development Research (ZEF), the International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE) at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS) and the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) Bonn, in collaboration with the Department of Geography (University Bonn), the Medical Faculty (University Bonn) and the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health. Additionally, the Forschungskolleg collaborates with research and implementation oriented partners in each of the four research areas: Ruhr Valley, São Paulo, Accra and Ahmedabad. Find out more about our partners here.
About the funding programme “Forschungskolleg NRW”
“Forschungskolleg NRW” is a programme of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State government of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW) to stimulate and facilitate inter-, and transdisciplinary research to develop solutions for the complex societal, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st Century. Find out more.