Urban Systems

With over 70 academics and scientists representing all faculties at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Main Research Area of Urban Systems has become Europe’s most diverse urban studies research hub over the past few years; this diversity is evidenced by the number of disciplines involved in the Main Research Area and its broad network of partners in urban and metropolis research. In cooperation with these partners from all over the world, Urban Systems is working to address the central challenges and prospective concerns of urbanized societies; these challenges include technical, economic, ecological, and socio-cultural issues.

What sets Urban Systems apart from other comparable research centres is the value it places on the close cooperation between diverse academic disciplines and its flexibility in creating ‘customized’ interdisciplinary research teams based on the demands and goals of single projects. Academics and scientists from the fields of engineering, the natural sciences, the humanities, economics, the social sciences, and education are involved in different combinations in a number of research projects. The breadth and depth of the academic programmes on offer is also one of a kind, including numerous Bachelor’s and interdisciplinary Master’s programmes as well as structured doctoral courses; this breadth ensures the integrated support of young researchers at all levels of their education.

The following interdisciplinary Master’s programmes are closely linked to the research programmes of the Main Research Area and are supported organizationally and institutionally by the Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU) and the Centre for Logistics and Traffic (ZLV):

Water Sciences Programmes

• Water Science
• Management and Technology of Water and Wastewater (MTW3)
• Transnational ecosystem-based Water Management (TWM)
• Environmental Toxicology (EnviTox).

Logistics and Traffic Programmes

• Supply Chain Management and Logistics
• Logistics Engineering
• Technology and Operations Management
• Traffic and Transport Physics
• International Studies in Engineering, Focus on Production/Logistics
• Public Transport Management (Master’s programme: vocational further education programme with the Ruhr Campus Academy).

Further, two closely-linked Master’s programmes were introduced in the winter term 2011/12, which seek to train experts able to address the central scientific, economic and social concerns of developing sustainable metropolitan regions on an interdisciplinary level:

• Sustainable Urban Technology
• Urban Culture, Society and Space.

Alongside the doctoral studies programme “ARUS – Advanced Research in Urban Systems”, the programmes listed above ensure the integration of research, instruction and the fostering of young academic talent in the field of interdisciplinary metropolis research.