The priority area Environmental Risk is based on two scientific research groups at ENSPAC; Environmental Dynamics and Geosciences (former Quaternary Research Group). At the same time the target area is involving expertise knowledge from the research group METRIK. Environmental Risk is an ambitious interdisciplinary target area which brings various natural science subjects together with social studies within environmental regulation.

The area includes a plurality of challenges which require scientific research to be able to recognize, find and assess the risk, but at the same time combine the applicable knowledge within social science. The risk when handling various types of chemical combinations in the surrounding environment, within the working environment and in connection with consumer goods is in focus for the EU REACH regulation and there is a risk assessment task with great challenges.  Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslide, etc., comprise another type of risk handling, in another scale of time and space. Both types of environmental risk are requiring the same type of interdisciplinary knowledge which can be achieved within ecological, biological, geological and physical geographical research and can be combined with knowledge from these areas with regulation and planning in theory and in practice.

The priority area runs in connection with our international Master’s degree programme Environmental Risk.