Michael Drescher

Background

About Michael Drescher

RESEARCH AGENDA The agenda for my research is grounded in the field of sustainability science. This field is wide-ranging, bridges theory and practice, crosses scales, and links a multitude of disciplines. Cooperation from all relevant societal sectors, i.e, academic, civic, governmental and industrial, is required to find solutions. My research agenda is directed by the following large-scale question: How can the sustainability of people’s use of the environment and of natural resources be promoted? This question is increasingly important in the field of planning, because the growing pressures of land use change, urbanization, economic growth and climate change are transforming and depleting the environment and natural resources at constantly increasing rates, calling the sustainability of current planning and management regimes into doubt. However, sustainability is a complex problem and there can be no single answer to the sustainability promotion question. Instead a multipronged approach is desirable that points toward at least three requirements: 1) the need to further increase our understanding of ecological and social processes in human-natural systems, 2) the need to enhance people’s appreciation of the importance of the environment and of natural resources, and 3) the need to develop and implement approaches that mitigate people’s use of the environment and of natural resources. I prefer using forests as the model systems that help me find answers to the question of sustainability promotion. However, I also make use of other model systems and facilitate my students’ use of these other models, under the condition that their specific research questions fall within the scope of the overarching sustainability promotion theme. SKILLS Social-ecological systems analysis, quantitative and qualitative methods, social and ecological fieldwork, statistics, programming (R, FORTRAN) Fluent: German, English, Dutch; working knowledge: Spanish, French