International Human Dimensions Programme

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, generally known as IHDP, was an international research programme devoted to understanding how societies influence, experience, and respond to global environmental change. Rather than treating climate change, land degradation, water stress, biodiversity loss, and related pressures solely as physical or ecological processes, IHDP placed people, institutions, economies, governance systems, and social vulnerability at the center of global-change research. The programme began in 1990 as the Human Dimensions Programme, an initiative of the International Social Science Council. In 1996, the International Social Science Council and the International Council for Science formally established it under the name International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. The United Nations University became an institutional sponsor in 2006, joining the two founding bodies. Its secretariat was hosted by the United Nations University at the United Nations Campus in Bonn, Germany. IHDP operated as a coordinating and agenda-setting framework rather than as a conventional commercial organization. It brought together researchers from multiple social-science disciplines and connected them with natural scientists working on Earth-system processes. The programme sought to identify important research themes, encourage multinational and multidisciplinary collaboration, build shared conceptual approaches, and promote the use of research findings in public policy and environmental governance. Its work was particularly concerned with coupled human-environment systems: situations in which social decisions alter environmental conditions and environmental changes in turn affect communities, institutions, and economies. Its research portfolio comprised a group of core and joint projects. Core areas included human security, urbanization, industrial transformation, integrated risk governance, Earth-system governance, and the interaction of land and coastal systems. IHDP also participated in joint projects concerning the global carbon cycle, water systems, human health, and food systems. Several projects were conducted in cooperation with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the other programmes of the Earth System Science Partnership, including the World Climate Research Programme and DIVERSITAS. The programme’s work helped strengthen the role of social science in international global-change research. Its themes addressed questions such as how cities respond to environmental pressures, how industrial systems can be transformed, how governance can manage complex risks, how environmental change affects human security, and how land-use decisions connect local livelihoods with global ecological processes. The Earth System Governance Project was among the initiatives associated with IHDP and continued as a major research network after the programme itself ended. IHDP closed its doors in July 2014. Although the programme is defunct, parts of its research agenda and institutional legacy continued through successor or related international research networks, particularly the Earth System Governance Project. It is therefore best understood as a former scientific coordination programme and research brand, not as a consumer-facing company or product manufacturer.

The International Human Dimensions Programme developed from the growing recognition that global environmental change could not be understood through natural science alone. Climate change, land-use change, industrialization, urban expansion, water stress, and related pressures are shaped by human decisions and institutions, while their consequences are distributed through societies in unequal ways. The programme was created to provide an international framework for studying these social dimensions. The initiative began in 1990 as the Human Dimensions Programme under the International Social Science Council. Its purpose was to bring social-science perspectives into the emerging international global-change research agenda. In 1996, the International Social Science Council and the International Council for Science established the programme under its longer formal name, the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. The shorter name IHDP became the normal public reference. IHDP functioned as a scientific coordination and agenda-setting programme. It did not operate as a commercial enterprise, and its principal outputs were research collaboration, conceptual frameworks, networks, scientific meetings, and findings intended to inform policy and environmental governance. The programme promoted multidisciplinary and multinational work, linking social scientists with researchers studying physical, biological, and Earth-system processes. Its perspective treated societies as active participants in global change rather than as passive recipients of environmental impacts. The programme organized its research through a portfolio of focused projects. These included work on global environmental change and human security, urbanization, industrial transformation, integrated risk governance, Earth-system governance, and land-ocean interactions in coastal zones. Other projects addressed global land systems and the connections between human activity and the carbon cycle, water systems, health, and food. Some projects were shared with or coordinated alongside the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, while the wider portfolio operated within the Earth System Science Partnership. That partnership also included the World Climate Research Programme and DIVERSITAS. The United Nations University joined the International Social Science Council and the International Council for Science as an institutional sponsor in 2006. The IHDP Secretariat was based at the United Nations Campus in Bonn, Germany, and was hosted by the United Nations University. This arrangement gave the programme an institutional base within the international research and policy community while preserving its collaborative, network-based character. IHDP’s intellectual contribution was to help normalize the study of governance, institutions, vulnerability, security, urban systems, industrial change, and human behavior within global environmental research. Its projects examined how environmental risks are produced and managed, how cities and communities adapt, how economic systems can be transformed, and how decision-making across scales affects coupled human-environment systems. The programme also encouraged the use of social-science evidence in discussions that had previously been dominated by physical climate and ecological analysis. IHDP ceased operations in July 2014. Its closure marked the end of the programme as an institution, but not the end of its research themes. The Earth System Governance Project and other associated research networks continued substantial parts of the agenda developed under IHDP. The programme’s legacy therefore lies in the international research communities, projects, and approaches it helped establish rather than in an ongoing corporate organization.

• 2014

  Programme closes

  [1]International Human Dimensions Programmeen.wikipedia.org

  IHDP ended its operations in July, while parts of its research agenda continued through related global-change and Earth-system governance networks.

• 2006

  United Nations University becomes institutional sponsor

  [1]International Human Dimensions Programmeen.wikipedia.org

  The United Nations University joined the programme’s two existing institutional sponsors. The secretariat was hosted at the United Nations Campus in Bonn.

• 1996

  IHDP formally established under its full name

  [1]International Human Dimensions Programmeen.wikipedia.org

  The International Social Science Council and International Council for Science established the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change.

• 1990

  Human Dimensions Programme initiated

  [1]International Human Dimensions Programmeen.wikipedia.org

  The International Social Science Council initiated the Human Dimensions Programme to coordinate research on the social dimensions of global environmental change.

A global scientific coordination programme that integrated social-science perspectives into research on environmental and Earth-system change.

• Research project

  Global Environmental Change and Human Security

  A core IHDP project examining the relationship between environmental change and human security. It treated security broadly, considering how ecological pressures can affect communities, livelihoods, stability, and the capacity of institutions to respond.

• Research project

  Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project

  A core project focused on the interaction between urban growth and global environmental change. Its subject included the ways cities drive environmental pressures and the ways urban populations and infrastructure experience environmental risks.

• Research project

  Industrial Transformation

  A core research area concerned with the transformation of industrial systems in response to global environmental pressures. It placed technological, economic, institutional, and social change within the wider global-change agenda.

• Research project

  Integrated Risk Governance Project

  A project addressing the governance of complex and interconnected environmental risks. It emphasized coordination among institutions and the need to manage risks that cross administrative, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries.

• Research project

  Earth System Governance Project

  A major IHDP-associated project studying the institutions, rules, organizations, and decision-making arrangements through which societies govern global environmental change. The project continued as an important research network after IHDP closed.

• Joint research project

  Global Land Project

  A joint global-change project examining land systems and the interactions between human land use and environmental processes. It was conducted in cooperation with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

• Joint research project

  Global Carbon Project

  A joint project addressing the global carbon cycle and its relationship to human activity and environmental change. It connected social and human dimensions with broader Earth-system research.

• Joint research project

  Global Water Systems Project

  A joint research project focused on water systems and the interactions between human societies, institutions, and global water processes.

• Joint research project

  Global Environmental Change and Human Health

  A joint project studying links between environmental change and human health, including the societal conditions that shape exposure, vulnerability, and responses.

• Joint research project

  Global Environmental Change and Food Systems

  A joint project examining global environmental change in relation to food systems, including the human and institutional dimensions of food production, access, and vulnerability.

1. 1International Human Dimensions Programmeen.wikipedia.org