Universidad De La Salle
 

Environment and Sustainability

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Contribute to the generation, transfer, and expansion of knowledge about the complex human-environment relationship, to build proposals that guarantee the quality of life through the protection and rational use of natural resources 

Specific objectives

• Evaluate the environmental effects caused by anthropogenic activities. 

• Design models of productive reconversion in which efficiency in the management and use of natural resources is prioritized. 

• Propose alternatives for urban and rural planning that favor Comprehensive and Sustainable Human Development (DHIS). 

• Generate strategies for the prevention and mitigation of negative environmental impacts that arise from the human-environment relationship.

Subjects under study: 

• Modeling and evaluation of environmental impacts caused by industrial, urban and agricultural development on ecosystems. 

• Recovery of environments intervened by human beings. 

• Research and development of biotechnological products for the management of pests and diseases. 

• Development of products with industrial and agricultural applications with low environmental impact. 

• Ecosystem services. 

• Design of sustainable agricultural production systems. 

• Agricultural systemic management. 

• Environmental management in production systems.

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Biodiversity

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Generate scenarios for reflection on the problems of biodiversity in Colombia, attending to the understanding of the spectrum of biological diversity, its evolution and its preservation through research at all levels, from genes to ecosystems.

Specific objectives: 

•  Promote scientific research on aspects relevant to the knowledge, use, exploitation, protection and conservation of the biodiversity present in the Colombian territory. 

• Improve the understanding of Colombian ecosystems, from their tropical condition, to propose agricultural production systems that are sustainable and competitive, and that provide food security for the population, seeking to minimize possible environmental impacts. 

• Study the diversity of our fauna and flora working with components of maintenance, management and administration of this diversity, in order to understand the natural history of possible pathogenic organisms that could become emerging diseases. 

• Promote the inclusion of alternative production systems that enhance the diversity of our fauna and flora. 

 Subjects under study: 

• Patterns, processes and mechanisms that have given rise to the current distribution of the biological diversity of Colombia. 

• Impacts of human action on land use patterns, urban development and agriculture. 

• Causes of the loss of Colombian biodiversity. 

• Evaluation of the economic, medical, industrial, artisanal and agricultural potential of plants and other wild organisms of Colombia. 

• Recovery of intervened environments. 

• Diagnosis of goods and services derived from biodiversity. 

• Tropics and ecosystems. 

• Bioecology and biodiversity of parasites. 

• Helminths, arthropods and protozoa parasites of domestic and wild animals and man. 

• Biodiversity as a support for productive systems. 

• Human-animal-environment interaction. 

• Studies of diseases in wildlife. 

• Transgenic crops and genetically modified organisms and biodiversity. 

• Land use biodiversity and rural development.

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Rurality and Food Security

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Analyze the aspects related to the interaction of rural relations and public policies defined by the State regarding rural development and food security, to propose alternatives that contribute to the Comprehensive and Sustainable Human Development (DHIS) of the territories and their populations.
Specific objectives: 

• Study the different conceptions of rurality and food security. 

• Establish the new country-city relations and their impact on the territorial configuration from different dimensions and attributes. 

• Compare the ethics of markets and forms of rural economy. 

• Identify the relationships of equity and fair trade necessary to guarantee the development of sustainable agricultural practices. 

• Suggest relevant aspects for the formulation of public policies with a differential approach, through the integration of actors, new land uses and access to resources and technologies.

Subjects under study: 

• Planning and ordering of the urban-rural territory. 

• Urban-rural growth. 

• Landscape, territory and social inclusion. 

• Rural communities. 

• Public policies for the urban-rural territory (housing, infrastructure, employment, education, etc.). 

• Productive chains and structuring of value chains. 

• Agri-food production systems. 

• Marketing and fair trade. 

• Rural education. 

• Agricultural economics. 

• Financial systems and their articulation with rural projects. 

• New country-city relationships in their different dimensions and structuring attributes. 

• Conditions of change, mutation and transition that generate the new field-city relations. 

• Alternatives for planning the growth and development of the urban-rural territory, with specificity in the territories and micro-territories of transition, threshold, and border. 

• Conditions of rurality or "ruralities" that the territory presents from the global, national, and local scale. 

• Construction of rural communities from the cultural landscape, territory, infrastructure, and social inclusion. 

• Systems of exploitation and use of the productive condition, and food availability of the rural and urban territory. 

• Loss of quality of life in the countryside, because of the lack of mobility infrastructure, accessibility, public services, water, equipment, and housing.