The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of
global change.
IHDP aimed to frame, develop and integrate social science research on global change, and promote the application of its key findings. It strived to develop research approaches that put societies at the center of the debate, looking at then-current global environmental problems as social and societal challenges.
IHDP’s work brought together groups of multi-disciplinary and multi-national researchers to work on long-term collaborative science. Its former role within the scientific field provided leadership in the selection and development of themes for focused research and in stimulating scientific communities to coordinate their efforts on these themes within the framework of its projects.
IHDP research was conducted through ten projects. Its six core projects, focused on how humans affect and are affected by
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
, with specific topics including
human security,
urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...
,
industrial transformation and
environmental governance as they relate to
global change. Two of its six core projects were also core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and focused specifically on
coupled human-environment systems such as
land use
Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...
, and
coastal zones. It also had four joint projects on the Earth's
carbon cycle
The carbon cycle is a part of the biogeochemical cycle where carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth. Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycl ...
,
water systems,
human health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...
and
food systems
The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: grow ...
with the other three global change research programmes (ESSP).
History
IHDP was initiated as the Human Dimensions Programme (HDP) in 1990 by the
International Social Science Council (ISSC). It was established under its closing name ''International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change'' by ISSC and
International Council for Science (ICSU) in 1996. In 2006, the
United Nations University joined ISSC and ICSU as an institutional sponsor of IHDP. The organization closed its doors in July 2014.
A large part of the research agenda of the former International Human Dimensions Programme has been carried forward by the
Earth System Governance Project.
Secretariat
The IHDP Secretariat was located at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
Campus in Bonn, Germany, and was hosted by the United Nations University.
Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP)
IHDP was a partner of the
Earth System Science Partnership along with the
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the
World Climate Research Programme, and
DIVERSITAS an international programme for biodiversity research.
Projects
* Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS)
*
Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project (UGEC)
* Industrial Transformation (IHDP-IT)
* Integrated Risk Governance Project (IRG-P)
*
Earth System Governance Project (ESG)
*
Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ)
*
Global Land Project (GLP)
*
Global Carbon Project (GCP)
* Global Water Systems Projects (GWSP)
* Global Environmental Change and Human Health (GECHH)
* Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS)
References
{{Authority control
International climate change organizations
Organizations established in 1990
Organizations disestablished in 2014