A long-term perspective is indispensable for understanding today's sustainability challenges. Many of the current environmental problems are the result of long-term processes in the past. In addition, efforts at sustainable development need to consider the long-term effects and potential unintended side-effects of today's decisions.

In the thematic area long-term socio-ecological research and environmental history, we investigate the changing interrelations of society and nature in a long-term perspective. Guided by a co-evolutionary understanding, we argue that societal practices shape the environment, affecting the availability of resources and the type and degree of pollution. On the other hand, the social and economic organization of societies are both cause and consequence of the respective societal metabolism and colonization efforts. One of our research foci is the investigation of sustainability challenges in the course of industrialization. We view the shift from local, solar- and biomass-based energy provision to the use of fossil energy carriers as a transition of socio-ecological regimes. This transition entails qualitative and quantitative changes in sustainability challenges. We investigate this process by critically using historical sources and data sets to apply methods like material and energy flow analyses for historical time periods.

We also work on the transformation of socio-natural sites. This concept describes the nexus of socio-natural arrangements and practices, aiming at overcoming the dichotomy of society and nature. We qualitatively and quantitatively employ the notion of socio-natural sites to various environmental history case studies, e.g. the changes in Vienna and its waterscape since the middle ages, or the opening of alpine landscapes to tourism. The relationship of societies to nature has both biophysical and symbolic features. We also study symbolic aspects of societal relations to nature focusing on changing perceptions and risk.

Research coordinator: Martin Schmid

The Centre for Environmental History (ZUG) was founded in 2003. Today it is located at the Institute of Social Ecology. The centre provides a communication platform to promote networking among national and international scholars in the field of environmental history. ZUG curates an international lecture series (ZUG-Minisymposia), coordinates academic teaching in the field in and around Vienna and publishes the series of "ZUG materials".

Contact: Martin Schmid

Current Projects

Industrialized Riverine Landscapes IRL - How extremes, infrastructure and resource demand transform socio-ecohydrological systems - TOPIC 10

Project Leader: Martin Schmid
Duration: 01.09.2024 - 31.10.2028
BOKU research Units: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)


Fights over power plants: the environmental movement and the energy system in Austria's long 1970s

Project Leader: Martin Schmid
Duration: 01.10.2024 - 30.09.2027
BOKU research Units: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Funded by: Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)


The Industrialization of Austrian Forests 1766-1914

Project Leader: Simone Gingrich
Duration: 01.03.2024 - 31.12.2027
BOKU research Units: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)


Climate-adapted forests: Insights based on historical tree distributions Project Leader: Severin Hohensinner
Duration: 01.10.2022 - 31.010.2025
BOKU Research Units: Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG), Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), Institute of Wood Technology and Renewable Materials
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism

Finished Projects

Phasing in:  Understanding the emergence of Vienna’s natural gas dependence, 1969-1978

Project Leader: Simone Gingrich
Duration: 01.10.2023 - 31.012.2024
BOKU research Units: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Funded by: Austrian Academy of Sciences


MAT_STOCKS - Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society

Project Leader: Helmut Haberl
Duration: 01.03.2018 - 31.08.2024
BOKU Research Units: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Funded by: European Commission
matstocks.boku.ac.at


HEFT - Hidden Emissions of Forest Transitions: GHG effects of socio-metabolic processes reducing pressures on forests

Project Leader: Simone Gingrich
Duration: 01.04.2018 - 31.03.2024
Funded by: Commission of the European Communities
heft.boku.ac.at


Illas - Integrating Land use Legacies in Landslide Risk Assessment to support Spatial Planning

Project Leader: Simone Gingrich
Duration: 01.03.2017 - 30.09.2019
Funded by: Klima- und Energiefonds


Water-City-Vienna. A changing metropolis (Wasser-Stadt-Wien)

Project Leader: Gertrud Haidvogl 
BOKU Research Units: Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management
Duration: 01.11.2017 - 31.12.2018
Funded by: City of Vienna, Austria 


LTSER Konzept II - Konzeption und inhaltliche Schwerpunktsetzung der LTSER Plattform Eisenwurzen

Project Leader: Simone Gingrich
Duration: 01.01.2016 - 31.12.2018
Funded by: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften


Umweltgeschichte der Wiener Gewässerlandschaft 1683-1918 (URBWATER) 

Keyword: Umweltgeschichte, Donau, Wien, interdisziplinäre Studien
Project Leader: Verena Winiwarter
Duration: 01.10.2013 - 30.09.2015
Funded by: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)

 

Water and Transition - Flußlandschaften und Wassernutzung am Übergang zur Urban-Industriellen Gesellschaft: Eine Umweltgeschichte des Einzugsgebietes des Po von 1860-2000

Keyword: Industrialisierung, sozialökologische Langzeitforschung, Fluss Geschichte
Project Leader: Fridolin Krausmann
Duration: 16.08.2013 - 15.08.2016
Funded by: European Commission, FP7, Marie Curie

 

ALISEN (Analyzing LInkages of SocioEcological Nitrogen flows) - Ernährungssystem und Stickstoffflüsse: Ein integriertes sozialökologisches Modell für das Ennstal, Oberösterreich, 1830-2030

Keyword: LTSER, Stickstoffflüsse, integrierte Modellierung, Ernährungssystem
Project Leader: Veronika Gaube
Duration: 01.05.2012 - 30.04.2020
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)


Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture

Keyword: Nachhaltigkeit
Project Leader: Fridolin Krausmann
Duration: 01.03.2012 - 28.02.2017
Funded by: Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)


Umweltgeschichte Skitourismus: Alpine Skiläufer und die Umgestaltung alpiner Täler im 20. Jahrhundert

Keyword: Winterskitourismus, Regionalgeschichte, LTSER, Vorarlberg, Umweltgeschichte
Project Leader: Verena Winiwarter
Duration: 01.03.2012 - 28.02.2015
Funded by: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)

 

ENVIEDAN - Umweltgeschichte der Wiener Donau 1500-1890. Eine Analyse der langfristigen Dynamik, Strukturen und Nebenwirkungen der Kolonisierung von Flüßen

Project Leader: Verena Winiwarter
Duration: 15.05.2010 - 30.09.2013
Funded by: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)