GENV_Ecol_Ing-Ecological engineering for tropical ecosystems_2024-25

Ecological engineering is understood here as the application of principles and knowledge about the functioning and structure of ecosystems, including their capacity for self-organisation, to the creation of systems, or to the management or restoration of ecosystems, in order to sustainably provide ecosystem services in the broad sense (from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment). Its current development is justified by the need to manage ecosystems in a truly sustainable way, with financial and physical resources that are becoming increasingly scarce, and that are being facilitated more and more by advances in ecology. The application envisaged here focuses on the ecosystem scale and tropical environments, although the principles of ecological engineering are largely generic. Although the courses focus primarily on the ecological dimension of projects, the module aims to understand and handle the integrated design of an ecological engineering project. Students will be required to combine theoretical and applied knowledge.