The POLIS Project on Ecological Governance is a centre for trans-disciplinary research that investigates and promotes sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

. POLIS was established in 2000 by the Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

 in Canada and fills a unique niche on campus as a place where academic and policy research meets community action.

POLIS works to cultivate ecological governance through innovative research, policy analysis and strategic advocacy, law reform, education and community action. Ecological governance offers alternatives to linear, extractive, and unsustainable systems – alternatives that are circular, reflective and self-sustaining in ways that reduce urban demands on distant and local ecosystems.

Research areas and projects

• Law and political ecology
  Political ecology
  Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena....
  
  
• Urban sustainability
  Sustainable city
  A sustainable city, or eco-city is a city designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution...
  
  
• Community-based ecosystem management
• Cultural and ecological health
• Collaborative research and learning
• Property commons
• Knowledge governance

POLIS Water Sustainability Project

The Water Sustainability Project (WSP) is a research group based at the University of Victoria led by political ecologist and water expert Oliver M Brandes.

Started in 2003, The Water Sustainability Project http://www.waterdsm.org/ is an action-based research group that specializes in water conservation and is known for its work on the soft water path

Soft water path

The concept of the soft path was first used for energy resource management and was developed by Amory Lovins shortly after the shock of the 1973 energy crisis in the United States. this concept has now been refined and applied to water, most notably by water expert Peter Gleick and David Brooks...

, water and energy and water law, policy and governance. The WSP approaches water scarcity as a crisis of governance

Governance

Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...

 and has been active in moving Canadian communities away from supply-side management towards long-term-integrated-comprehensive water conservation.

Key publications

• [Thinking Beyond Pipes and Pumps] (2006)http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/22
• [The Soft Path in a Nutshell] (2005)http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/23
• [At a Watershed: Ecological Governance and Sustainable Water Management in Canada] (2005) http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/24
• [The Future in Every Drop: The Benefits, Barriers and Practice of Urban Water Demand Management in Canada] (2004) http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/25
• [What the Experts Think: Understanding Urban Water Demand Management in Canada] (2003)http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/26
• [Flushing the Future? Examining Urban Water Use in Canada] (2003) http://www.poliswaterproject.org/publication/27
• Planet U, R. Michael M'Gonigle, Justine Starke

See also

• Ecological governance
• Soft water path
  Soft water path
  The concept of the soft path was first used for energy resource management and was developed by Amory Lovins shortly after the shock of the 1973 energy crisis in the United States. this concept has now been refined and applied to water, most notably by water expert Peter Gleick and David Brooks...
  
  
• Backcasting
  Backcasting
  Backcasting starts with defining a desirable future and then works backwards to identify policies and programs that will connect the future to the present. The fundamental question of backcasting asks: "if we want to attain a certain goal, what actions must be taken to get there?"Forecasting is the...