Themes and topics for theses
- Agri-Food Business Management
- Environmental Governance and Adaptation to Climate Change
- Fisheries and applied ecology
- Horticulture
- Landscape Architecture (BSc: Environmental Planning and Landscape Design)
- Landscape Protection and Preservation
- Nature Tourism
- Production and Marketing of Agricultural Products
• Management of environmental flow supporting endangered ecosystems and species: political and economic interests vs. ecological concerns
Supervisor: Anton Shkaruba (Estonian University of Life Sciences)
Environmental flows describe the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well being that depend on these ecosystems. Environmental flow is highly dependent of climate variability as well as human impacts; both factors also may work together to a highly negative effect. A case study currently explored by Dr. Shkaruba and colleagues is Ulz-Hol (river of Ulz or also Ulza) in Mongolia. A politically motivated water reservoir project is potentially creating major discomfort to local nomad communities, but also threatens a transboundary UNECSO world heritage and Ramsar site situated in Mongolia and Russia. The problem has several dimensions, including land-use change and growing needs of local economy for water resources, compromised values and rights of nomad communities, governance dynamics in Mongolia driven (and sometimes overdriven) by economic sovereignty and development agendas, as well international relations.
The MSc student would be suggested to contribute to the research case of Ulz-Hol or to come up with another relevant case that could serve as a comparative study. The specific focus of the research would greatly depend of student’s interest and qualifications, and could include (also not be limited to) or combine the dimensions mentioned above – land-use and water consumption, nomad rights and values, national governance dynamics, and international relations. Funding for a field trip to Mongolia is potentially available