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 Global change in broad sense refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. It is most commonly use to encompass the variety of changes connected to the rapid increase in human activities which started around mid-20th century, i.e. the ...

. 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 In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, with specific topics including

human security Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather th ...

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from 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. It is predominantly th ...

, industrial transformation and

environmental governance Environmental governance (EG) consist of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices that dictate how the board members of an environment related regulatory body should manage and oversee the affairs of any environment related regu ...

as they relate to

. 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 involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...

, and

coastal zones The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. It also had four joint projects on the Earth's

carbon cycle The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major compon ...

water systems A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following: # A drainage basin (see water purification – sou ...

human health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

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: growi ...

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 The International Social Science Council (ISSC) was an international non-governmental organization promoting the social sciences, including the economic and behavioural sciences. It was founded in Paris, France between 6 and 9 October 1952, u ...

(ISSC). It was established under its closing name ''International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change'' by ISSC and

International Council for Science The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to multilateralism, international cooperation in the advancement of scie ...

(ICSU) in 1996. In 2006, the

United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thr ...

joined ISSC and ICSU as an institutional sponsor of IHDP. The organization closed its doors in July 2014.

Secretariat

The IHDP Secretariat was located at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

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 The Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) was a partnership under the auspices of the International Council for Science (ICSU) for the integrated study of the Earth system, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional ...

along with the

International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) was a research programme that ran from 1987 to 2015 dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change. Its primary focus was coordinating "international research on global-scale and regio ...

, the

World Climate Research Programme The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is an international programme that helps to coordinate global climate research. The WCRP was established in 1980, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Inter ...

, and DIVERSITAS an international programme for biodiversity research.

Projects

* Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) *

Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project (UGEC) is one of the core research projects of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). UGEC aims to understand the bi-directional interactions b ...

(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 The Global Carbon Project (GCP) is an organisation that seeks to quantify global greenhouse gas emissions and their causes. Established in 2001, its projects include global budgets for three dominant greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide (), methan ...

(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