Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development has been defined as" meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It therefore encapsulates all environmental, social and economic concerns, and has a broad agenda.

Emergency shelters

One of our recent projects have been concerned with the provision of emergency shelters. The question of whether such shelters can be sustainable has been addressed and a series of criteria to help with sensible decision making has been developed. If put into place, such planning can encourage sustainable practice.

Non-traditional building materials

In areas where there are few naturally occurring building materials, it seems practical to try and use waste materials to manufacture new building materials. We have shown that it is possible to produce bricks using a combination of newspaper and rice water which have good mechanical properties whilst being biodegradeable and easy to manufacture using readily available materials. Development of this idea could become increasingly important to build functional housing as the population and the waste it produces both increase.

Modelling Energy Usage

Energy supply consumes physical resources and can effect people's lives in many ways, impacting on the environment, society and national economy. Construction of a model of energy supply and usage would allow policy makers to test various scenarios for likely impact and thus optimise policy at a national level.As a first step towards producing such a tool, a supply and demand model based on the energy needs of Nepal has been devised. This has provided a framework for policy analysis and guidelines for the prudent application of engineering technology to allow energy needs to be met in a sustainable way.

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New MPhil in Sustainable Development