Course Overview

Course Title: Ecosystem Restoration and Sustainable Development

Relevant SDGs: SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, SDG 14, SDG 15

Credit(s): 2 credits

Course Description:

Given the current speed of habitat and species loss caused by human development, the restoration of degraded ecosystems is one of the greatest challenges humankind is facing. For this reason, the United Nations declared the current decade (2021-2030) as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This global effort will require experts on ecosystem science, management and design. This holistic approach will allow for a deeper understanding of how ecosystems recover from human disturbance and how we can use this knowledge to increase the currently limited performance of restoration practice. This course is particularly suited for students with interests in nature conservation, the natural component of landscape architecture, or ecosystem management in a broad sense. This course will allow students to exchange their knowledge in a multidirectional learning environment where we all will address real world restoration cases. Through research, we will learn how forests and other ecosystems have changed during this time to apply that knowledge to a real restoration project that students will develop. We will increase our understanding of what nature is for humans and the Earth system, we will increase study our connection to it. This course will arm you with one of the most important tools to work with and for nature in the coming decades.

Students are encouraged to play a leading role in this course. After an introduction of relevant theories and case studies on ecological restoration and sustainable development, students would be required to form different groups and choose a topic or a specific case study area, each group design a sustainable development approach for the selected area. Students will required to present their cases to the whole group, the teachers are also happy to push the work forward and develop that into reports, books or research papers. The aim of this work could contribute to the UN decades on ecological restoration, and other international bodies such as UNCCD and others. 

Academic Team

PI:

• Ruishan Chen, professor, School of Design, rschen@sjtu.edu.cn

Collaborators:

• Chuan Liao, Associate Professor, Cornell University, cl824@cornell.edu 
• Eugene Chigbu, Professor, Namibia University of Science and Technology, echigbu@nust.na 
• Annah Zhu, Associate Professor, wageningen university, annah.zhu@wur.nl

What skills will students get?

1. Intercultural communication competence enhancement;
2. Basic knowledge of environment and development and how ecosystem restoration can contribute to SDGs;
3. To do assessment on ecosystem degradation/restoration and change of ecosystem services;
4. To do assessment on changing of sustainable development goals;
5. To design ecological restoration scenarios and sustainable development pathways. 

Mode of Teaching

Lecture, tutorial, and seminar

Grading

1. Attendance & in-class discussion: 30%
2. Group presentation: 60%
3. Final program summary: 10%

Course-specific Restrictions

None.

Class Schedule

Instructors

Dr. Ruishan Chen

Dr. Ruishan Chen is professor in the School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is a geographer and a professor of human-environmental interaction. He has been involved in the Global land degradation and restoration assessment of the International Platform on Bioversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Over the past 14 years, he has been working on land-use change, urban disaster risk reduction, climate change, and coastal land reclamation. He is working as a shepherd for UCCRN's climate change, covid-19, and cities, and a lead author for nature-based solutions in cities.

Eugene Chigbu

Professor of Land Administration at the Namibia University of Science and Technology in Namibia. His research is on Land Management and Land Tenure. He is a co-chair of the International Research Cluster of the Global Land Tool Network (UN-Habitat) and the Associate Editor of the Journal Land Use Policy.

Chuan Liao

Dr. Chuan Liao is associate professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. As an interdisciplinary sustainability and environmental social scientist, Chuan’s research interest lies at the intersection of environment, development, and justice.

Annah Zhu

Annah Zhu is an associate professor studying globalization and the environment from an ethnographic perspective. She received her PhD in Society and Environment from the University of California, Berkeley and her masters in environmental management from Duke University. Her dissertation research analyzed the trade in endangered timber between Madagascar and China, with fieldwork conducted in both countries. Her current research focuses on the role of China in the processes of environmental globalization and the impacts of "global China" on the environment.

Course Contact

Dr. Ruishan Chen: rschen@sjtu.edu.cn