Support BGU Support BGU
The Negev Center for Sustainability
The Negev Center for Sustainability
About us Members

Projects

Projects

This research examines the social and economic implications of the relocation of the IDF bases to the Negev, focusing on urban development, transportation and Bedouin population. Comparing between the intended and likely outcomes, the research examine the degree to which the development matches with principles of sustainable development. This is a tree year research. After completing the gathering of information and based on the existing plans and visions, the team examines a series of development scenarios and assess their implications. Finally, the team intends to define policy tools that narrow the gap between the intended and the likely outcomes.

Staff:

  • Nurit Alfasi (Principal investigator and urban team manager), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Yodan Rofè (Researcher, urban team), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Hillel Bar-Gera (Researcher and transportation team manager), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Oren Musicant (Researcher, transportation team), Ariel University, Israel
  • Josuha Shmidt (Researcher and Beduoin team manager), Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, Israel
  • Asher Vaturi (Researcher, urban team), The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel

Partners:

  • Ariel University
  • The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College
  • Dead Sea and Arava Science Center

Finance:

Ministry of Science, Technology and Space

Timeframe:

December, 2014 - December, 2017

This project examines the changing nature of urban citizenship in immigrant cities of the current epoch. The nature and status of urban citizenship is linked directly to the strength of urban communities and hence to the social and economic sustainability of the region in question. The project focuses, initially, on a comparative analysis of Berlin and Tel-Aviv, and plans to expand to other immigrant cities in Africa, Asia and Australia.

Staff:

Oren Yiftachel (Researcher), Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Finance:

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

Timeframe:

June, 2012 - December, 2016

Additional Links:

IJURR symposium on urban citizenship and right to the city

The Bedouin of the Negev (Naqab) is a population with unique lifestyles and culture. Since the establishment of the state of Israel, various on-going social processes gave rise to a variety of social, cultural, economic and environmental challenges. Currently over 200,000 Bedouins live in the Negev region, yet well documented knowledge of several aspects of life of the Bedouin is still missing. Reliable and accessible information about social, economic, demographic, cultural and environmental aspects of Bedouin communities, may contribute to policy designation aimed to improve the livelihood of the Negev's Bedouins, to identify and analyze various trends. Following this project aims to collect, process, and publish a periodic set of indicators and indices about different aspects of the Negev Bedouins.

Staff:

Itzhak (Kiki) Aharonovitz (Field Leader), The Negev Center for Sustainability

Start Date:

November, 2015

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to mitigate anthropogenic climate change and global warming is a major challenge for humanity. Cities are major emission points but they also hinder the potential for successful implementation of mitigation schemes, through reduction and energy efficiency policies. Many cities worldwide monitor direct and indirect emissions related to urban activities, and explore the contribution of diverse set of policy instruments (such as: planning, investment in urban infrastructure, adoption of technologies and promotion of a behavioral change) to emission reduction. The current project estimates both direct and indirect GHG emissions of the Southern city of Eilat, Israel, and explores how do different urban policies and mechanisms contribute to emission reduction. Eilat's unique characteristics, geographic location and function as a touristic city, are expected to form a distinct emissions' pattern compared with other Israeli cities. As such, unique action may be taken to reduce Eilat's greenhouse gas emission.

Staff:

  • Meidad Kissinger (Researcher), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Ze'ev Stossel (Field Leader), The Negev Center for Sustainability
  • Tal Har Even Levy (Research Assistant), Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Partners:

  • Environmental Unit Eilat – Eilot
  • Eilat city council

Finance:

Eilat city council

Timeframe:

October, 2015 - August, 2016

The project purpose was to formulate planning patterns which will preserve the Bedouin culture by a public participation process with the women population among the Bedouin community in Kseife. Public participation emphasized women's needs and insights about planning the city and the un recognized villages within the city`s jurisdiction. The project included meetings with women from different generations – some of them were young women who live in the city and work there, some are students in the university at Beer Sheva, and some are living in the unrecognized villages around the city and in the Negev mountain area.

Staff:

  • Yodan Rofè (Instructor), Ben-Gurion University
  • Yaara Rosner-Manor (Instructor), Ben-Gurion University
  • Neta Sboni-Galili
  • Maureen Davidson
  • Fida Shchada
  • Shira Moryosef

Timeframe:

March, 2016 - July, 2016

Creativity is a key component of a region's vitality and an important engine of regional development. As such, several projects have been established during recent years, aiming to develop methods to monitor creativity, and to evaluate the level of creativity in different places. Out of those indicators, many are focused on art and culture occurring in places in which creativity is a significant factor with contribution to regional development. This project aims to evaluate the levels of and the forms that creativity and vitality takes in the Negev region. It will provide, for the first time, a unique and a credible insight of the Negev's creativity and vitality, and will establish a suite of indicators with which temporal evaluations could take place.

Staff:

Asaf Raz (Field Leader), The Negev Center for Sustainability

Finance:

The Jewish Federations of North America

The project investigates in depth the property and planning-developmental regime in the region since C19th to present day. The land regime constitutes an important foundation of the social, economic and political sustainability of any society. The project's main focus is on the indigenous Bedouin space, and its changing land and development systems under various regimes who attempted to assert their sovereignty the Negev.

Staff:

  • Oren Yiftachel (Researcher), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Sandy Kedar (Co-Researcher), Haifa University, Israel
  • Nir Cohen (Co-Researcher), Bar-Ilan University, Israel
  • Henrik Lebuhn (Co-Researcher), Humboldt University, Germany

Partners:

Haifa University, Israel

Finance:

Israel Science Foundation

Timeframe:

June, 2013 - December, 2016

Urban systems conduct intricate relations with their surroundings while exploiting resources and emit wastes at local, regional / national and global scale. These relationships depend on a variety of urban characteristics, such as: city demographics, its geographic location, cultural attributes, governance, etc. Urban sustainability depend on activities of local government agents, local firms, and urban citizens. In addition, there is a growing recognition of the importance of interactions between the city and other locations of other scales to urban sustainability. Recently, new indices that monitor and evaluate urban and non-urban interactions have been put forward for urban sustainability assessment. Such indicators allow urban citizens and the local government to examine the state of urban sustainability and to analyze its response to various policy instruments. The current project aims to develop and examine an 'Urban Sustainability Index' for the city of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. The index will assess Tel Aviv's sustainability, and the contribution of different sectors and urban policies to it.

Staff:

  • Meidad Kissinger (Researcher), Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  • Ze'ev Stossel (Field Leader), The Negev Center for Sustainability
  • Orly Ronen (Researcher), Tel Aviv University, Israel

Start Date:

November, 2015