Sustainable communities
Our community of researchers work across disciplines and sectors, engaging with stakeholders and communities, on a wide range of topics relating to sustainable communities.
Overview
Sustainable Communities is one of the Earth Institute's seven thematic research areas. Academic members of the water theme are drawn from across UCD and represent a wide range of disciplines and approaches.
The Institute works to support new connections and collaborations across disciplines and sectors and to enhance the impact and profile of research in this area.
Get in touch with our Sustainable Communities theme leads to find out more about our work in this area.
Sustainable Communities research in UCD
Sustainable Communities researchers in UCD are tackling global, national and local challenges - how can we make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable? Can social cohesion and citizen involvement help to advance change and improve the way we make decisions? How does the environment impact on issues of well-being and happiness, poverty and inequality? How can we stimulate development in the Global South and marginalised communities? What can we learn from historical and prehistorical precedents of how communities organised themselves?
Water research in UCD is carried out in a range of schools and colleges, centres, institutes and groups including:
Recent talks
Watch a selection of recent sustainable communities-themed talks, seminars and coffee morning presentations on topics including flood risk mitigation approaches for Dublin communities, the use of data integration to tackle vacancy in Irish towns and education and sustainable well-being.
Member spotlight
Jennifer Keating from the UCD School of History discusses the intersections of landscape, environmental change and empire in our Earth Talks interview series.
Research with impact
At UCD, our research makes a difference. We aim to collaborate and co-design research with the communities most impacted by our work, improving the lives of people throughout the world and working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The case studies below highlight some of the positive impact that research by Earth Institute members has had on Ireland and the world.
Case study: Empowering community-led green urban development
The (opens in a new window)Mapping Green Dublin research project led by researchers in the UCD School of Geography has brought together a range of stakeholders – including academics, artists, local residents, and place-based community organisations – to ensure that strategies for developing urban environments meet the needs of local communities.
Working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals
