Transdisciplinary Research Project
"Future Dryland"
- Project Leader: Prof. Atsushi Tsunekawa, Arid Land Research Center
※Additional members will be recruited from the interdisciplinary projects.
Envisioning the linkage of science and society, IPDRE started a transdisciplinary-approach project called “Future Dryland” project which comprises our ongoing five interdisciplinary research projects back in 2016. The project is linked up with the international framework “Future Earth” (a comprehensive program consisting of multiple earth environmental researches promoted by the International Council for Science [“ICSU”]). This program emphasises the engagement of various types of stakeholders (e.g. domestic and/or foreign governmental agencies, local municipalities, drylands communities, and NGOs etc.) into the process of research planning through co-design and co-production utilizing the academic knowledge and research outputs to ultimately achieve the social implementation of these.
Based on the outputs of our past research projects in Mongolia, Tottori University is now working closely with Mongolian stakeholders to explore the future of Mongolia with an emphasis on development of a sustainable nature-society system of rangeland ecosystems.
Conducting five interdisciplinary research projects here at IPDRE, we are now taking a step further to the "transdisciplinary research" approach to explore the conceivable problems which may interfere with the sustainable use of Mongolian grasslands through the dialogues with wide range of local stakeholders such as researchers, government agencies, policy makers, industries and nomadic communities.
For thousands of years, Mongolian herders have been sticking to their nomadic lifestyle with their livestock animals in grasslands. Now this lifestyle is facing a transformation in the whirl of rapid societal and environmental changes. Therefore, our project is carrying out research (translational research) on the following three issues to explore the optimal form of the nature-society system for sustainable use of the precious Earth's assets - grassland ecosystems, and its social implementation.
- (1) Restoration of desertified lands and grassland ecosystems
- (2) Sustainable pastoral systems
- (3) Impacts of climate and societal changes on grassland ecosystems
Mongolian rangeland ecosystem and portable dwelling (ger)
Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppe
