Doctoral Program in Urban Environmental Sustainability

The Doctoral Program in Urban Environmental Sustainability – PPGSAU – is based on two major themes, Sustainability and Urban Environment, which requires a diversity of skills and interdisciplinary action. The PPGSAU is part of the College of Exact, Technological and Multidisciplinary Sciences, part of the great area of Multidisciplinary studies, subarea of Environmental Sciences of ​​the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).

At this Program, we aim to study complex processes of metropolization, including advances in management issues and new technologies to face the challenges of Urban and Environmental Sustainability. This is an unprecedented proposal in the region and in Brazil itself, which has a variety of graduate programs involving sustainability or urban management issues, but none of them specially addressing the theme of urban and environmental sustainability. The issue of urban and environmental sustainability is the core of the Program, seeking to meet a growing demand for qualified professionals in this field of work, based on the process of urbanization of societies and their impact on natural systems.

Based on the foregoing, the Graduate Program in Urban Sustainability at PhD level aims to qualify professionals to work in public and private organizations focused on sustainable urban management. Graduates are educated from an interdisciplinary perspective with competencies in prospecting, research, development, technology and management instruments for urban sustainability.

PPGSAU selection process occurs throughout the year based on project analysis by a Selection Committee. Seats shall be available every four months.

Area of Concentration

There is a single area of ​​concentration, Urban Environmental Sustainability, divided into two lines of research: (i) Management Instruments for Sustainability; and (ii) Technologies for Sustainability. Sustainability is seen as a contemporary challenge, especially in the urban context, where most of the population and socioeconomic activities are currently concentrated, which are responsible for environmental, social and economic impacts in the urban area as well as in other regions as a reflex. The principles of sustainability are a social requirement guaranteed by the Constitution, the Laws and the various Public Policies. Sustainability is an emerging field of knowledge, on the edge of several areas of knowledge, such as Biological, Exact and Earth Sciences, Engineering, Multidisciplinary, Humanities and Applied Social Sciences. Aligned with the social requirement and converging with this new field of interdisciplinary knowledge, the proposal shall focus on cross-reference research between technologies and instruments for urban management.

Lines of Research

Regarding the lines of research, we focus on:

Management Instruments for Sustainability – IGS
Basic, prospective and applied research on management instruments for urban sustainability. It includes the development of methods, decision-making techniques, planning and management techniques, urban sustainability indicators and assessment, sustainability information systems, training and capacity-building processes, information management.

Technologies for Sustainability – TS
Basic, prospective and applied research of new technologies for urban sustainability. It includes research on urban mobility, thermal and acoustic comfort, (solid, liquid, thermal) waste recovery, wastewater treatment systems using constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting systems, green walls and green roofs.