Caroline Kostuch
Sustainability is a work in progress, but it is not a job for scientists and academics alone, an author and professor in architecture and urban planning said Monday. Policymakers, journalists, architects, historians, students and more can help research, discuss and promote sustainable practices.
“Everybody who is interested in this field, whatever your discipline is, give us some insight, and let’s put them together,” Carola Hein said during her “Valuing Water, Culture and Heritage” lecture at the University of Georgia.
Hein is a professor at Technical University Delft in the Netherlands, Leiden University and Erasmus University as founder and director of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus PortCityFutures program. Her lecture at UGA was a part of Women’s History Month events and the Signature Lecture Series.
Hein’s work emphasizes the importance of reaching across boundaries, both national and disciplinary, in order to acheive environmental goals. She focuses on water and port cities, thinking about how they can be maximized and protected through technology, history and international cooperation.
Emily Bell, professor of public administration and policy at UGA, asked Hein what the most prominent boundaries are when thinking about sustainability as a political challenge and if there are ways to overcome those boundaries.
The boundaries are complex, Hein said. Disciplinary boundaries make it difficult to get the conversation surrounding sustainable practices started.
For example, at UNESCO, where Hein is Chair for water, ports and historic sites, departments are harshly separated, making it challenging to fill the gaps between them. Hein said it took her a year just to get on the mailing list for a different area of focus at UNESCO, highlighting the discipline separation.
Hein and other UNESCO chairs combined their expertise to publish “The Blue Papers: A Journal for Empowering Water and Heritage for Sustainable Development” in an effort to fill in disciplinary gaps and promote conversation among different specialties.
Students are becoming more multidisciplinary, and if they are pushed to challenge boundaries taught by their teachers and future employers, bridges can be built across fields in relation to sustainability, Hein said. The seemingly impossible challenge of sustainability can become more obtainable if the disciplines can meet.
“So maybe in this burning house where the doors are shut, some people are at least trying to open the door,” Hein said.
Hein attended the U.N. 2023 Water Conference in New York last week where she collaborated with artists and youth activists, working to extend sustainable thinking throughout multiple platforms.
“We have to throw it out in the open and invite everybody,” Hein said.
Hein’s book “Port City Atlas: Mapping European Port City Territories: From Understanding to Design” is coming out early July. The book demonstrates the accomplishments of combining disciplines in the area of sustainability.
Why I Wrote the Story:
Carola Hein, author and professor in architecture and urban planning, visited UGA for a guest lecture on “Valuing Water, Culture and Heritage.” I was covering the sustainability beat at the time, so it was my responsibility to cover the event. In covering this event, I was able to grow more confident in my interviewing skills and gain knowledge about covering a beat.