RurbanFlows: Material flows, supply chains, and ecosystem services in rurban spaces

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Andreas Bürkert; Professorin Dr. Soubadra Devy; Professorin Dr. Brigitta Schütt
• Subject Area: Ecology of Land Use ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Plant Cultivation, Plant Nutrition, Agricultural Technology ; Physical Geography
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548312187

Project A04 will analyse the status quo and spatio-temporal changes in supply and demand functions driving material flows in rurban systems of Ghana and India, representing many intertwined characteristics of rural and urban features. It addresses how and to what degree the interdependence within and between rurban spaces depends on and affects provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Comparative field work will be conducted in the coastal metropolis of Accra in Ghana, and in Bengaluru, a globally connected landlocked hub in South India. Using a combination of field and documentary surveys, agronomic experiments, (satellite) image analysis, and modelling, we will identify and quantify material flows, use, and cycling frameworks for selected natural resources in rurban spaces. Agricultural inputs and outputs such as soil, nutrients, water, crop yields, and fodder are biological resources relevant for the food system, and governing regulating and provisioning ecosystem services. Agronomic field experiments will support broader assessments of crop yields under different management conditions. Based on warehouse, administrative, and waste picker records, we will follow a supply chain approach and monitor food flows from harvest and subsequent processing to waste production and dumping (cooperation with A03, B02). In cooperation with A03, this approach also allows real-time monitoring of the fate of micro- and nano-plastics from rurban waste environments in the soil-water system. Mineral resources investigated are constituents of mining systems that supply building materials for (r)urban construction. Backwards satellite monitoring of mining locations and their re-use for irrigation will allow to assess mining effects on supporting, provisioning, and cultural ecosystem services. Our diachronic approach will allow us to compare key landscape features of rurban systems over the last four decades. In Phase 2 we plan to expand activities to secondary rurban spaces such as Tamale in Ghana and Dehradun in North India.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5903: Sustainable Rurbanity - Resources, Society, and Regulatory Systems
• International Connection: Ghana, India
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Akua Britwum; Professorin Dr. Mahalaya Chatterjee; Professor Dr. D.C. Hanumanthappa; Professor Dr. Z. Mudalagiriyappa; Professor Dr. George Nyarko; Professor Dr. Martin Oteng-Ababio; Sheetal Patil; Professor Pradip K. Sikdar, Ph.D.