Sustaining vast resources, including water, food and fertile delta land, has served as an important force in the world. The many great ancient civilizations and present-day cities that have prospered by their close proximity to deltas testify to this landform’s inherent ecological and economic vitality. However, due to the strains of a modern industrialized age, many of the world’s deltas face threats of erosion.
Sustaining vast resources, including water, food and fertile delta land, has served as an important force in the world. The many great ancient civilizations and present-day cities that have prospered by their close proximity to deltas testify to this landform’s inherent ecological and economic vitality. However, due to the strains of a modern industrialized age, many of the world’s deltas face threats of erosion.
Tomorrow from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Shattuck Hall Annex, Portland State professor of environmental sciences Alan Yeakley and a panel of PSU doctorate students will share their collaborative approach to counteract this downward trend.
Presented by PSU’s School of the Environment, the Institute of Sustainable Solutions and The Solutions Journal, this seminar is part of the Ecosystems Services Seminar Series at PSU. Yeakley and the panel will look at ways to solve problems presented by the urbanization of delta regions, focusing on the work of a student-based international think tank at Radboud Honours Academy in Nijmegen, Netherlands, which includes five PSU graduate students.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the five PSU graduate students chosen to take part in the project come from various departments including engineering, urban affairs, and arts and sciences. The think tank carries a strong international component, partnering with universities in Sweden, Germany and Indonesia, as well as the Netherlands and the United States.
Yeakley explained that the larger implication of their interdisciplinary and international approach is that PSU students and Portland community members “would be most interested in this work as an example of how students and professionals can work together across disciplines and across countries to try to solve real-world problems that go beyond any one discipline or country.”
Described on the project’s website as an “international task force,” the group addresses the ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainability that prevail in the increasingly urbanized world today. The website also clarifies that the think tank’s goal is to combat the detrimental effects of urbanization that come in the form of climate change, competing land-use claims and water-related diseases.
A delta forms where a river meets a large body of water, such as an ocean or reservoir, and it is able to sustain a rich array of environmental resources. In addition to water, food and fertile land, deltas provide oil, gas, wood, waterways and transportation. For example, a delta’s reserves of sand and gravel provide the valuable sediments which are required to produce the concrete used in construction of sidewalks, highways and buildings.
In relation to the interdisciplinary and international nature of the think tank, PSU graduate engineering management student, think tank member and panelist Kelly Cowan said: “From my perspective in engineering management, I initially expected to be solving problems primarily related to technology. It turned out there was a much greater need to consider how to integrate various theoretical frameworks for managing sustainable development.”
Cowen applied the importance of integrating frameworks to the think tank’s dealings with the diverse stakeholders, who have the power to change the present day situation. “The interdisciplinary process pushed all of us to learn and think creatively. No single person’s background alone would have been sufficient for this project,” Cowen said. “We really had to draw upon each other’s expertise, and we continue to do so.”
She added that one of the most valuable skills learned was “a willingness to try to understand differences in culture, language and perspective.”
These interdisciplinary and intercultural distinctions can be especially valuable in this age of globalization when even the most well-known delta, the Nile River, has its fertile future threatened by the stifling grip of urbanization.
