Faculty of Environment
Research project description
Often referred to as ‘canaries in the climate change coal mine’ due to their sensitivity to climate change risks, small islands are facing increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, and threats from future sea-level rise. These events, such as tropical cyclones, often cause significant infrastructure damage, disrupting critical food, water, and energy supplies. Due to their size and tight socioeconomic and environmental coupling, small islands can quickly reach tipping points, making recovery from climatic shocks prolonged or limited. Even minor natural or anthropogenic events can lead to cascading impacts, causing systems to shift to different operational states characterized by instability and detrimental effects on island residents and ecosystems.
Can a small island be sustainable? Using the analogy that islands function like living organisms, the analyzes how island economies utilize (or metabolize) materials, energy, water, and infrastructure for societal needs and wellbeing. MOI seeks transformative pathways for island economies by modifying their resource-use patterns (or island metabolism) to transition to a more sustainable, equitable, and circular resource-use model, thereby bolstering the overall resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Fields of research
- Social and human ecology
- Ecological economics
- Industrial Ecology
- Resource-use and efficiency
- Climate adaptation
- Island sustainability
- Socio-metabolic research (SMR)
Qualifications and ideal student profile
Prospective graduate student researchers must meet or exceed the minimum admission requirements for the programs connected to this opportunity. Visit the program pages using the links on this page to learn more about minimum admission requirements. In addition to minimum requirements, the research supervisor is looking for the following qualifications and student profile.
- Background in climate adaptation science, risk, resilience, and vulnerability
- Possess skills / knowledge of tools that can tackle at least one or more topics such as circular economy, climate finance, economic valuation of ecosystem services, water security/hydrological modelling, material and energy stock and flow analysis, risks and/or systems dynamic modelling, and nature-based solutions.
Faculty researcher and supervisor
- Simron Singh
Professor & University Research Chair, School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED)
View faculty profile →
Graduate programs connected to this project
Important dates
The Metabolism of Islands is an open and ongoing research opportunity. Expressions of interest can be submitted for any term.