Units

Centre for Economic and Social Studies on the Environment

Person in charge of the Unit : Oui

The CESSE was created following the first United Nations Conference on human environment, which was held in Stockholm in 1972. It is made up of a pluri-disciplinary research team which devotes its activities to the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of economic-societal-environmental interactions.   Research carried out concerns mainly the following areas: - costs of damage caused to the environment and to health (externalities) in relation to the behaviour of economic agents; - cost-benefit and cost-efficiency analyses;- economic tools (taxes, emissions trading market, flexible mechanisms); - life-cycle analyses and inventory; - sustainable development indicators.

Projetcs

Socio-economic and environmental analysis of the energy evolution issues - From European policies to local impacts

(more details : http://dev.ulb.ac.be/ceese/CEESE/fr)

The economico-environmental foresight as a tool for integrated coastal zone management

Methodological development for ecological economics assessment based on green Input-output analysis and drawing up environmental scenarios focused on heavy metal pollution in the Seine estuary (France)

TIMOTHY - Tracing and integrated modeling of natural and anthropogenic effects on hydrosystems - The Scheldt river basin and adjacent coastal North Sea (and related PhD)

 The complex interactions between the continental and the marine systems and the impact of various human pressures which superimpose on natural changes cannot be understood by simply correlating events. The combined use of various tracers (chemical elements, isotopes, pathogens...) and mathematical models based on physical, chemical and biological principles offer an integrated scientific methodology for addressing the challenges of: 1. understanding the functioning of complex hydrosystems; 2. describing the transfer, transformation and retention of nutrients and contaminants along the river-ocean continuum 3. predicting their evolution under natural and anthropogenic pressure, and 4. suggesting actions to prevent human health from being threatened by the pollutants and ensure the sustainable use of natural resources (water supply, biological assets, recreation...). (more details : http://dev.ulb.ac.be/ceese/CEESE/fr; PhD : http://dev.ulb.ac.be/ceese/CEESE/fr)