Presentation of the cross-disciplinary project

Our group cultivates transdisciplinary interest in wetlands – natural and restored, freshwater and coastal. Located at the interface between dryland and aquatic ecosystems, wetlands are at once vital ecosystems and subject to intensive anthropogenic changes, In recent decades, peoples’ engagements with wetlands in many parts of the world have been increasingly paradoxical, fluctuating between practices of reclamation and extraction with the aims of growth and development, and restoration, with the aims of sustainability, protection and conservation.

What roles, our group asks, are wetlands presumed and managed to take in various future visions? With a commitment to wetland wellbeing in its broadest senses, we are focsed on understanding barriers to their flourishing, including how efforts to implement and manage wetland restoration projects frequently encounter complex social dynamics, such as conflicts with landowners, abstracted governance, and narrowly focused agendas.

In response, our team seeks to explore how methodological diversity and interdisciplinarity can establish a more robust foundation for protecting and re-establishing wetlands. Via this thematic focus, we also aim for this group to be an “incubator” for new practices of thinking comparatively about environmental issues via place-based case study methods. We propose that an emphais on comparisons across regional and global scales can foster and inspire new approaches to wetlands challenges through the careful attention to their differences, as well as their similaritites.