The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research (SIDEER), one of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was conceived based on a bold vision: to develop a basic scientific approach to synthetic study of arid environments and the peoples who inhabit them.
The scientists of the SIDEER study all facets of the interdependencies between the physical environment, natural and human created – technological, and life in this environment. This includes the study of dryland ecosystems and the patterns these systems follow, the ecology of animals and plants at all levels - individual, population, community and landscape; the physical basics of acquisition, use and storage of natural resources, such as solar energy and advanced environmental technologies.
In line with this vision, SIDEER is the first-ever institute bringing together ecologists, physicists and mathematicians under a single roof for the purpose of a fundamental desert research.
What practical purpose will this research serve? The basic knowledge provided by research under the SIDEER umbrella will help to guide people and governments combatting the world wide threat of desertification, and strive for sustainable development and healthy preservation and conservation of the environment. The two research departments of the SIDEER are united by their common mission to foster integrated, multidisciplinary research.
Mission and Methods
The mission of SIDEER is to foster integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the environment in the drylands of Israel and the world. SIDEER strives to develop, implement and disseminate scientific knowledge and environmental technologies through interactions between the biological, physical, social, and planning disciplines. SIDEER endeavors to improve human wellbeing in natural and man-made environments in drylands by promoting conservation of the environment and sustainable development.
The researchers of SIDEER strive to:
- Determine the extent to which drylands can be further developed by and for the growing populations, in ways that utilize rather than compromise the support of the environment.
- Assess the optimal number of people as well as the optimal mix of their traditional (e.g. rural, pastoral) and novel (e.g. ecotourism, biotechnology, intensive aquaculture, hi-tech) livelihoods that can be supported by the dryland environment in an intelligent and sustainable manner.
- Determine the extent to which harnessing the abundant desert solar radiation, combined with daring, innovative, and environmentally sensitive afforestation in vast dryland expanse – two measures that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere – can generate global benefits, as well as income for dryland people, under the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon trading mechanisms.
