Research overview
Scientific project
The scientific project of the Image, City, Environment Laboratory goes beyond the strict urban systems. We also tackle environmental challenges, as well as urban planning issues in considering particularly the environmental, spatial and societal aspects.
Our research consists of a deepening of the ecological perspective on the dynamics of socio-environmental systems and the understanding of the mechanisms of the human-environment interactions.
Our research objects are considered such as systems, in their temporal evolution as well as in their spatial aspects. Interactions between the human and environmental components are in the heart of our research questions; but it also implies the use of systemic tools, including quantitative methods, modelling and visualisation.
Main aims of the project:
- studies on urban dynamics from which various issues emerge: mobility, risks and vulnerabilities, accessibility and morphodynamics;
- interdisciplinary studies on landscape dynamics - fluvial and coastal geomorphology, pedology, biogeography, soil and sediment micromorphology, geoarchaeology - and whose objective is to understand past landscape dynamics to study present and future land management;
- studies concerning the analysis of the dynamics of socio-environmental systems in the short and medium term through the prism of imagery: multi-sensor observation of land occupation and use modes, their quantitative characterisation, modelling and representation;
- interdisciplinary studies on hydrosystems from an operational perspective;
- studies on energy, air pollution and climate with the aim to develop methodologies to assess the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the atmosphere and to create new integrated tools to define effective and coherent actions to reduce energy needs and impacts of air pollution.
Our project is very much involve in the society in linking fundamental researches to applied sciences through the following chain: "understanding - explaining - challenging - be challenged".
Our primary task is to explore the geographical space and its dynamics and to make it explicit, but we integrate in these fundamental aspects a particular responsibility towards society: this responsibility can lead us to alert society in case of danger (challenging), or to assist it with an expertise (be challenged). Our primary collaborations are within the academic world but also with socio-economic actors, students and citizens: the whole of society is concerned by our research.
Our laboratory is part of the two national institutes of ecology and environment (INEE) and human and social sciences (INSHS) of the CNRS, as well as to the RÉseau Alsace de Laboratoires en Ingénierie et Sciences pour l'Environnement (RÉALISE). We are also involved in the masters programmes of the Faculty of Geography and Urban Planning of Strasbourg (Environmental Geography, Earth Observation and Geomatics, and Urban Planning and Development), as well as in the Doctoral School of Earth, Universal and Environmental Sciences of the University of Strasbourg.
Contacts: Dominique Badariotti
Recherche groups
Our researches are structured into five research groups: