Welcome to the Institute for Sustainable Development
We live in an era of rapid change. Scientific advance and technological innovation, demographic transitions, the relocation of the world’s centres of manufacturing and commerce, the emergence of new industrial powers, surging demand for resources, shifting patterns of environmental impact, the threat of climate change and increases in disaster risk are rapidly transforming the world.
These changes present both opportunities and existential challenges for Caribbean SIDS, which have to adjust to the loss of preferential terms of trade and increasing competition from emerging economies, adapt to climate change and growing resource shortages, while simultaneously contending with organized crime, rising homicide rates, and trafficking in illegal narcotics and firearms.
UWI established the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) in 2006 to assist Caribbean nations address these challenges. The ISD comprises the Centre for Policy Studies in Sustainable Development led by the Alcan Chair in Sustainable Development, the Environmental Management Unit, led by the James Moss-Solomon Snr. Chair in Environmental Management, the Disaster Risk Reduction Centre and the Unit in Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality. These entities have near-complete autonomy under the ISD umbrella. ISD also hosts the International Secretariat of the UCSIS, the University Consortium for Small Island States, and the Violence Prevention Alliance. The Coordinator of ISD facilitates collaborative research, teaching and outreach activities among the entities within the ISD. The ISD supports or is affiliated to several regional and international institutions, including the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, the Pan American Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.
The ISD supports advanced and postgraduate study through its component units; students read for M.Sc., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees. The ISD has strong collaborative links with a number of other universities and research institutes, and the UCSIS is working with its member universities to develop a joint international degree in Sustainable Development.
Research projects at the ISD has included:
- Risk mapping strategies for national development, innovation and trade,
- Mapping Disaster Risk from natural hazards
- Waste Management and recycling
- Economic valuation of natural resources
- Ecosystems and risk reduction
- Policing strategies, and the impact and cost of crime
- Scenario planning, foresighting and technology roadmapping
- Climate change adaptation strategies
- Planning and regulation
- Urban planning and housing policy
- Integrated Assessment and Integrated Policy Development
Last update: 14th May, 2012