We live in an era of unprecedented environmental transformation including rapid change in global climate and land cover; increasing pollution and biodiversity loss; and widespread environmental degradation.
While some environmental variability is natural, human activities are causing additional physical, chemical and biological changes, often at scales and speeds never before encountered. The scale of this impact is so great that the modern era听can be thought of as听a new,听humanly-created geological epoch 鈥� the 鈥楢nthropocene鈥�. International organisations such as the听听and the听听highlight the听severity of threats to human society from environmental change and biodiversity loss.
The Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions (IMSET) addresses one of the most significant global challenges facing humanity today: how we manage and respond to environmental change. It does this by exploring how past societies were affected by environmental change, how they responded to these challenges and, therefore, what are the most sustainable options available to present-day societies under similar pressures. This will be听achieved through the application of bespoke statistical and numerical modelling to archaeological, anthropological and past environmental data.
Learning from the past
We know that many past societies faced environmental change. While some were able to successfully respond and adapt, others were not. While modern societies possess many distinctive features, associated particularly with rapid technological development, they share many characteristics with societies of the past. For example, around two billion people currently survive as 'smallholder' farmers.听IMSET will use听archaeological, anthropological and past environmental data to understand how societies were affected by environmental change and how they responded to it. By using these techniques, the team will be able to answer questions such as听what kinds of land use practices, technological developments, or societal organisation were associated with resilience under scenarios of environmental stress, and which proved less successful.听
By understanding how human societies responded to climate change in the past, IMSET's research will provide insights into how modern societies can adapt to the challenges facing them.
The Institute is directed by听of the听Department of Archaeology & Anthropology and co-directed by听听(Department of Archaeology & Anthropology) and听听(Department of Life & Environmental Science).
