Sustainability Research Inventory
The Office of Sustainability's most up-to-date inventory of all sustainability research at the University of Saskatchewan can be found on its dedicated page.
Signature Research Areas
The University of Saskatchewan's 9 Signature Research Areas impact sustainability from multiple perspectives. These areas are:
- Agriculture
- Communities & Sustainability
- Energy & Mineral Resources for a Sustainable Future
- Health & Wellness
- Indigenous Peoples
- One Health
- Quantum Innovation
- Synchrotron Sciences
- Water
School of Environment and Sustainability
The School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) seeks to bridge multiple disciplines across the natural, physical, social sciences, as well as the humanities and engineering to address the most challenging environmental and sustainability issues we face. Having been established in 2007 with over 100 alumni, our students benefit from innovative, forward-thinking mentorship of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners as they are guided through exploratory exercises that emphasize critical thinking and alternative ways of knowing.
Interdisciplinary research at the School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) seeks to integrate different disciplines when approaching, investigating and/or identifying potential solutions to the challenging environmental and sustainability problems we face. The premise is that problems emerge from a variety of causes, and we need to embrace that complexity with the relevant disciplines to address them.
| MJ Barrett | Affiliations: | Educational Foundations, International Centre for Northern Governance and Development |
| Research Interests: | environmental education, human-nature relations, intuitive interspecies communications, ways of knowing, indigenous and decolonizing methodologies, discourse, ecopsychology, threshold concepts, animism, transformative sustainability learning | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Love for Okawimawaskiy (Mother Earth): A Collaborative Study in Human-Animal Communication | |
| Helen Baulch | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | water quality, aquatic ecology, global change, biogeochemical cycles, greenhouse gas emissions, eutrophication, algal blooms, climate change | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Understanding lake metabolism and algal blooms: New tools for the management of potable water sources. (with John Giesy, Peter Leavitt, Paul Jones, Karsten Liber, Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt) | |
| Douglas Clark | Affiliations: | Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS), Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative |
| Research Interests: | indigenous co-management of ecosystems and resources, polar bear-human conflicts, wildlife and protected area management, environmental governance and policy processes | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Chu äyì ätlʼet (The Water In Me): collaboratively developing a water strategy for the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations' Traditional Territory, Yukon | |
| Markus Hecker | Research Interests: | biological effects of environmental stressors, environmental risk assessment, aquatic ecology, fish biology, bioanalytical techniques to assess environmental pollution |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Fisheries and Oceans Canada: “Assessing the Adverse Effects of Emerging Chemical Contaminants on Fishes of Commercial, Aboriginal and Recreational Value to Canadians (AECCO)” | |
| Andrew Ireson | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS), Civil and Geological Engineering |
| Research Interests: | modelling flow and transport in the hydrological cycle, collection, analsysis and interpretation methods of integrated hydrological data, hydrological change in northern latitudes, groundwater resource management, groundwater quality and sustainable development of natural resources, integrated hydrological-epidemiological research | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Ireson, A.M., Barr, A.G., Johnstone, J.F., Mamet, S.D., van der Kamp, G., Whitfield, C.J., Michel, N.L., North, R.L., Westbrook, C.J., DeBeer, C., Chun, K.P., Nazemi, A. and Sagin, J. 2015. The changing water cycle: the Boreal Plains ecozone of Western Canada. Wires Water. 10.1002/wat2.1098 | |
| Tim Jardine | Research Interests: | river deltas as complex social-ecological systems, contaminant biomagnification in aquatic ecosystems, land-water and river-ocean connectivity, tropical floodplain ecology and hydrology, freshwater food webs, stable isotope analysis in ecology |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Jardine, T.D., Baulch, H.M., Hobson, K.A., and Janz, D.M. 2013-2016. Identifying flood- and food-related limits to fish and wildlife production in the Saskatchewan River delta. NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grant. | |
| Paul Jones | Research Interests: | analytical and environmental toxicology and chemistry, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic and wildlife toxicology, ecological risk assessment, human impacts on northern ecosystems and subsistence food resources |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | 2014-2016 Canadian Water Network. SWEEP: The Slave Watershed Environmental Effects Program. | |
| Vladimir Kricsfalusy | Affiliations: | Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage |
| Research Interests: | conservation biology, population biology and ecology, community ecology, restoration ecology, taxonomy, education for sustainable development, experiential education, service-learning, community engagement | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: |
Kricsfalusy V., George C., Reed M. G. 2016. Integrating problem- and project based opportunities: assessing outcomes of a field course in environment and sustainability. Environmental Education Research |
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| Yanping Li | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | regional climate modelling, mesoscale dynamics, boundary layer meteorology, air-sea interaction | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Yanping Li, R. E. Carbone, 2015: Offshore propagation of coastal precipitation. Journal of Atmospheric Science. | |
| Karsten Liber | Affiliations: | Toxicology Centre, Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | metal bioavailability and toxicity in aquatic ecosystems, mining impacts on aquatic ecosystems, water quality assessments, pesticide ecotoxicology | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | 2011-2014 - A paleolimnological assessment of Lake Diefenbaker sediment: A reconstruction of historical contaminant trends. Province of Saskatchewan via the U of S Global Institute for Water Security. | |
| Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | surface water quality modelling, river ice processes, climate change and river morphology, flood and flood risk management | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Northwest Territories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program: “Geospatial models and isotope tracers to identify key fish and animal habitats along the Slave River.” | |
| Philip Loring | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | food systems and security, fisheries, local food movements, environmental justice, climatic and environmental change, indigenous cultures | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | 2015-17. “Human Dimensions of Sustainability in Haida Gwaii.” Parks Canada / UC Santa Barbara. PI w/ P. Levin, M. Poe. | |
| Jeffrey McDonnell | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | watershed hydrology, runoff processes and modelling, isotope hydrology, hydrological theory | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Burt, T., N. Howden, J.J. McDonnell, J Jones and G. Hancock, 2015. Seeing the climate through the trees: observing climate and forestry impacts on streamflow using a 60-year record. Hydrological Processes, 29: 473-480. | |
| Greg Poelzer | Affiliations: | International Centre for Northern Governance and Development, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School for Public Policy (JSGS) |
| Research Interests: | comparative politics and policy of northern circumpolar regions and Aboriginal-state relations, sustainable development in the north, renewable energy | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Community Engagement in Environmental Assessment for Resource Development: Benefits, Enduring Concerns, Opportunities for Improvement | |
| Saman Razavi | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | hydrologic models development and calibration, environmental and water resources systems planning and management, climate change and impacts on hydrology and water resources, reconstruction of paleo-hydrology, single and multi-objective optimization, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Razavi, S., M. Asadzadeh, B. A. Tolson, D. Fay, S. Moin, J. Bruxer, Y. Fan (2013), Evaluation of new control structures for regulating the Great Lakes system: a multi-scenario, multi-reservoir optimization approach, Journal of Water Resources Planning Management, 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000375. | |
| Maureen Reed | Affiliations: | Sustainability Education Research Institute (SERI), Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | environmental governance, sustainability science, practices of conservation, sustainability of rural communities, feminist and gender-based analysis, social dimensions of climate change adaptation and resilience, model forests, biosphere reserves, national parks, practices of governance for resilience, enviromental and social sustainability (PROGRESS Lab) | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Reed, M.G., 2016. Conservation (In) Action: Renewing the Relevance of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Conservation Letters. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12275/full | |
| Toddi Steelman | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | environmental and natural resource governance, public and community decision-making, interface between science, policy and decision-making, climate change adaptation, disaster-resilient communities, risk and crisis communication, wildfire preparedness | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Delta Dialogue Network. SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. Steelman, Toddi, Jennifer Fresque-Baxter, Stéphane McLachlan, Lalita Bharadwaj, Lori Bradford, Tim Jardine, Paul Jones, Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt, Greg Poelzer, Maureen Reed, and Graham Strickert. 2014-2016. | |
| Graham Strickert | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) |
| Research Interests: | human dimensions of water security | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Strickert, G.E.H., Bradford, L.E.A. (2015) Of research pings and ping-pong balls: The use of forum theatre for engaged water security research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 14(5), 1-14 | |
| Howard Wheater | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS), Civil and Geological Engineering |
| Research Interests: | hydrological processes and modelling, management of flood risk, water resources, water quality, wastes and climate change adapation, socio-hydrology | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Changing Cold Regions Network; MacKenzie and Saskatchewan River Basins - Regional Hydroclimate Project, Tobacco Creek Model Watershed | |
| Colin Whitfield | Affiliations: | Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS), Geography & Planning, Centre for Hydrology |
| Research Interests: | atmospheric pollution, hydrochemistry, catchment modelling, hydrology, biogeochemistry, climate change and landscape disturbance | |
| Example of Sustainability-Related Work: | Global Institute for Water Security BERMS group, biogeochemical-vegetation model to understand response of forest ecosystem response to climate and atmospheric deposition; biogenic greenhouse gas exchange in Buffalo Pound Lake |
Sustainability Education Research Institute
The Sustainability Education Research Institute (SERI) is a collaborative, innovative, and internationally-linked institute that houses faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, staff, and other partners conducting research on environment and sustainability in relation to education. One of SERI’s major projects is the Sustainability Education and Policy Network (SEPN), an international research-based partnership focusing on the gap between sustainability policy and practice in education.