Andrea

Downing

PhD

Researcher

andrea.downing@su.se

+46 70 218 44 94

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  • Resilience thinking
  • Socio-ecological systems
  • Sustainable development goals
  • Lake Victoria
  • Complex adaptive systems
  • Global sustainability science

Andrea Downing's research focuses on how sustainable development in diverse local contexts combines to shape global resilience and sustainability

Downing's main research theme is to relate global perspectives on resilience thinking and social ecological systems to sustainable development needs at sub-global scales. Building on her work on the planetary boundaries concept, her research focuses on the often undifferentiated and unspecified human dimensions of global sustainability and on understanding how heterogeneously overlapping sub-global processes combine to shape dynamics at a global scale.

Downing has a background in ecology. For her PhD research she investigated the different roles of fishing and eutrophication on Lake Victoria (Africa)’s ecosystem from a purely ecological perspective and from a social-ecological system’s view, using multiple different modeling approaches.

Downing holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University (Netherlands), and carried out her Master’s studies at James Cook University in Australia. Her interests include socio-ecological systems, cross-scale dynamics, complex systems, theoretical ecology, time series analysis and ecological modelling.

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Publications by Downing, Andrea

Learning from generations of sustainability concepts

Journal / article | 2020

Downing, A., S., Chang, M., Kuiper, J.,J., Campenni, M., Häyhä, T., Cornell, S., Svedin, U., Mooji, W. 2020. Learning from generations of sustainability concepts. Environmental Research Letters, Accepted Manuscript

Background: For decades, scientists have attempted to provide a sustainable development framework that integrates goals of environmental protection and human development. The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) – a framework to guide sustainable development – juxtaposes a 'safe operating space for humanity' and 'planetary boundaries', to achieve a goal that decades of research have yet to meet. We here investigate if PBc is suf...

Local lens for SDG implementation: lessons from bottom-up approaches in Africa

Journal / article | 2019

Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Peterson, G.D., Norström, A.V., Wong, G.Y., Downing, A.S. 2019. Local lens for SDG implementation: lessons from bottom-up approaches in Africa. Sustainability Science

The Anthropocene presents a set of interlinked sustainability challenges for humanity. The United Nations 2030 Agenda has identified 17 specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a way to confront these challenges. However, local initiatives have long been addressing issues connected to these goals in a myriad of diverse and innovative ways. We present a new approach to assess how local initiatives contribute to achievi...

Hidden treasures: Human-made aquatic ecosystems harbour unexplored opportunities

Journal / article | 2019

Koschorreck, M., Downing, A.S., Hejzlar, J., Marcé, R. et.al. 2019. Hidden treasures: Human-made aquatic ecosystems harbour unexplored opportunities. Ambio (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01199-6

Artificial water bodies like ditches, fish ponds, weirs, reservoirs, fish ladders, and irrigation channels are usually constructed and managed to optimize their intended purposes. However, human-made aquatic systems also have unintended consequences on ecosystem services and biogeochemical cycles. Knowledge about their functioning and possible additional ecosystem services is poor, especially compared to natural ecosystems. A...

Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science

Journal / article | 2019

Downing, A., Bhowmik, A., Collste, D. Cornell, S.E., Donges, J., et.al. 2019. Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science. Environ. Res. Lett. 14 073005. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab22c9

Background : The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance. We use the fact that it is widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how it has been used and...