Department Environmental Social Sciences

Current Projects

Cirus - Environmental Innovation and Management in Infrastructure Sectors

We are identifying the challenges of modular infrastructure systems for the Swiss economy and society using the example of urban water management.
GLORIWA assesses path dependencies in urban water management by analyzing the global actor structures and institutional rationalities that stabilize the current dominant design
The BARRIERS project aims at improving our understanding of the institutional barriers for radical innovation in UWM. It analyzes ‘lighthouse cities’ that experiment with non-grid UWM systems
The Lighthouse Project focuses on visible examples of onsite and decentralised urban water management systems, which will play a key role in enabling sustainability transitions.
WaterReuseLab aims at analyzing how a new generation of decentralized water reuse systems could be developed in Bengaluru, India
Efficient Technical Cycles project analyses potential future transition of the construction sector towards more sustainable techniques, materials, methods and procedures

DA - Decision Analysis

We develop evaluation approaches for planning support systems to improve strategic planning of nature-based solutions in our cities.
We investigate stakeholders’ preferences, risk attitude, influence, and collaborations for finding consensus options in Swiss governance of plant protection products.

PEGO - Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance

We investigate the implementation of different policy instruments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, through a detailed analysis of international climate conferences.
This project disentangles the complexity of climate policy making by analyzing and comparing different climate networks in Switzerland and Germany
This project develops an interdisciplinary theory to explain countries’ motivation in a multilevel governance system to translate their international commitments regarding climate change mitigation into their domestic policies (i.e. policy objectives and instruments).
Social-ecological networks for biodiversity enrichment in Human dominated landscapes.
Sustainable transformation of the Swiss agriculture to internalized negative external effects of pesticide use.
The Political Economy of Meat System Transformation
Ausgetrocknete Emme unterhalb der Emme-Birne bei Aefligen in der Trockenperiode 2018
Conservation and restoration of biodiversity in water bodies to strengthen their resilience to climate change through integrated water body restoration
Social-ecological networks to enhance biodiversity in urban green areas
Efficient Technical Cycles project analyses potential future transition of the construction sector towards more sustainable techniques, materials, methods and procedures

EHP - Environmental Health Psychology

The REVALUE project aims at developing and testing a refined value typology and new measurement instruments.
The role of individual and collective psychological ownership for monitoring and maintenance of public and private handwashing infrastructure
Perceived distributive justice and acceptance of decentralised water and wastewater systems
Enhancing lay people’s understanding of biodiversity through participatory interventions: A key to successful river restoration

EnvEco - Environmental Economics

The research project focuses on watershed management in Swiss mountain areas, aiming at increasing the resilience of mountain ecosystems and meeting societal needs regarding natural resource use and protection.
The project investigates the public risk perception of micro- and nanoplastic pollution in Swiss water bodies based on a survey and a discrete-choice experiment.
The main aim of the project is to investigate the private provision of global public goods - carbon-neutral products and services - in the context of combating climate change
Preferences of Swiss households for renewable energy supply systems and demand-side flexibility options

ITD - Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research

The INTEGRATE project aims at strengthening inter- and transdisciplinary integration within and across the strategic research program Wings.
An inter- and transdisciplinary strategic research program that strives to develop novel non-gridconnected water and sani- tation systems that can function as comparable alternatives to network-based systems.

Completed projects

Cirus - Environmental Innovatin and Management in Infrastructure Sectors

The proposal analyzes possible transition pathways in basic services, focusing specifically on the case of Nairobi, Kenya.
The purpose of the strategic research alliance is to analyse the nature of the energy innovation systems in Denmark.
The project will analyze the indicators for sustainable transitions in China water treatment industry.
In this project, we work with organizations from around the globe to identify factors for managing water kiosks sucessfully
In this project, we collaborate with various organizations to study the role of business innovation in the scaling process of sanitation services.
In this project, we apply Business Model Thinking to create promising business models around innovative water and sanitation technologies
The project promotes the implementaion of RRR business models in Lima, Peru by improving the local institutional framework and technical capacities of interested entrepreneurs.

DA - Decision Analysis

Project aim is participative decision support for the long-term transition to innovative wastewater infrastructures.
Partnership building in information and communication technology (ICT) to provide operational flood forecasting and alerts in West Africa.
We aim at facilitating the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in urban water management practice.
We study how game implementation can support stakeholder involvement and preference modelling in MCDA.
We aim at improving the use of MCDA in complex environmental problems.
Goal is an improved planning procedure for sustainable water supply and wastewater infrastructure management that links into the existing Swiss governance structures.
Removal of pharmaceuticals from hospital wastewater is well accepted by stakeholders if trade-off between good performance of an option and its costs is reasonable.
MCDA allows integrating ecological assessments with the prediction of consequences of river rehabilitation, and the preferences of experts about trade-offs
The population has a high willingness to pay for reducing risks of wastewater flooding or combined sewer overflows
We study well-known fairness principles in the context of wastewater management.

PEGO - Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance

This project addresses the question of which factors explain governments’ choice of instrument selection, applied to micropollution regulation in the Rhine river basin.
Coalitions and actor strategies with respect to the issue of hydraulic fracturing in Switzerland and the UK.
Managing micropollutants in surface waters in a transboundary context: On the way to appropriate management Units
Identification and Integration of Fragmented Games in Swiss Water Politics
Viable future water supply structures in the canton Baselland.
Policy forums in water and environmental governance
Impact of distant socio-ecological systems (telecoupling) on land-use decision-making
What are the biggest obstacles to a better surface water protection during wet-weather?
Social-ecological networks allow for the joint modeling of ecological interdependencies and governance structure.
Digitalization is one of the most popular trends in public sector relying on information and communication technologies, internet of things, big data, sensor networks and artificial intelligence.

EHP - Environmental Health Psychology

This project aimed to investigate factors explaining the (regular) use of safe water kiosks in three Kenyan communities.
A handwashing promotion project in the Borena Zone of southern Ethiopia aimed to increase handwashing rates in communities through systematic behavior change strategies.
This project in post-earthquake Haiti aimed to evaluate the impact of public health promotions and cholera response on handwashing rates.

EHPsy - former group of Hans-Joachim Mosler

Monitoring and Evaluation of a Large Scale Hand-washing Campaign in India
A user-driven sanitation (UDS) project in Kampala’s urban slums aimed to increase shared toilet users’ cleaning behavior.
This project aimed at improving the effectiveness of an information intervention to promote the use of existing safe water options with theory-based and evidence-based behaviour change techniques.
The present study designed and evaluated several promotion strategies for solar water disinfection (SODIS), based on results from a baseline survey.
Altering subjective perceptions of facts like prices or walking distances can change behavior even without changing objective circumstances.
A handwashing promotion project in the Borena Zone of southern Ethiopia aimed to increase handwashing rates in communities through systematic behavior change strategies.
This project aimed to investigate factors explaining the (regular) use of safe water kiosks in three Kenyan communities.
This project in post-earthquake Haiti aimed to evaluate the impact of public health promotions and cholera response on handwashing rates.
The project’s overall goal is to improve the behavioral change strategies used to eliminate Open Defecation.
The goal of the project is to design, implement and evaluate Behaviour Change Campaigns on Hand Washing
The aim of this study is to develop and deliver effective behavior change strategies promoting hygiene practices towards the prevention of cholera and diarrheal diseases.
The objective of this study is to gain information about the current situation with regard to the population’s knowledge about Ebola to take action towards the promotion of prevention behaviors.
The global aim of the study is the identification of evidence based behavior change techniques concerning water consumption, sanitation and hygiene practices.
This study aims at developing and testing evidence-based behavior change strategies to alter purchasing and use of sanitation facilities as well as handwashing practices in two main suburbs of Dakar.
The objective of this study is to find out the relevant socio-psychological factors of behavior intentions related to the prevention of an Ebola outbreak and hand washing with soap in vulnerable areas
This project aims at developing and testing evidence-based behavior change strategies to alter unhealthy hygiene and drinking water practices, as well as sustainable use of adequate sanitation in Malawi.

EnvEco - Environmental Economics

The main objective of this research is to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of water quality improvement through upgrading of wastewater treatment plants in Switzerland.
The main objective is to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of a number of different measures for reducing chemical water pollution in the Mönchaltorfer Aa river basin in the Canton of Zurich.
The goal of this research is to assess the value of different environmental amenities, as well as structural house and neighbourhood characteristics.
This project aims at providing a better insight into the public preferences of the Swiss population for the suggested hydropower expansion.
The project responds to current research gaps on the integration of forest, eco-hydrology and economic sciences to improve decision-making process.
A principal objective of the project is to develop a novel theoretical framework that would explain the sources of preference uncertainty in stated choice experiments.

ITD - Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research

The National Research Programme "Sustainable Water Management" (NRP 61) developed scientific foundations and methods for sustainable management of Switzerland's water resources.

Sustainable Water Management (NRP 61)