Science and innovation for a sustainable future

Sustainability science provides a framework which integrates the natural and social sciences and the humanities, in order to better understand and develop solutions to global challenges.

This talk will present some insights from the post-disaster reconstruction process in the Tohoku region, Japan, an area devastated by the 2011 great East Japan earthquake.

Through sustainability science we seek to establish sustainable societies through optimization of energy, resources and ecosystems, cutting across sectors by building partnerships with industry, policymakers and civil society. Sustainability science places a strong emphasis on reducing vulnerability and building the resilience of social and ecological systems. 

About Kazuhiko Takeuchi
Kazuhiko Takeuchi is Director and Professor of the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S) at the University of Tokyo and Senior Vice-Rector of United Nations University. He has served, inter alia, as a member of the Science Council of Japan and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sustainability Science (Springer).

Educated and trained as a geographer and landscape ecologist at the University of Tokyo, he engages in research and education on creating eco-friendly environments for a harmonious coexistence of people and nature. He leads the Satoyama Initiative as well as climate/ecosystem change research in Asia and Africa.