Research directions
CECSC works along three research directions. History and Culture evaluates long-term human responses to climate change. Climatic Impact combines observational data, paleoclimate reconstructions, and climate simulations to understand how climate change, societal impact, and human behaviour interact. Human Behaviour connects past adaptation to current practice in order to develop strategies that promote pro-environmental behaviour.
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History and CultureFrom the start of the Holocene, in the Lower Danube basin
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Climatic ImpactThe last 10,000 years, the last 150 years, and projections to 2100
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Human BehaviourApplied to behaviour today and in the decades ahead
History and Culture
From the start of the Holocene, in the Lower Danube basin
Related work package
WP3Integrated diachronic analysis of social-ecological systems and patterns of environmental adaptation
Coordinated by Mihai Constantinescu
Long-term evaluation of how human populations responded to climate change, using eco-archaeology, bioarchaeology, social history, ecolinguistics, and ethnology. The work covers the Lower Danube basin, a region that went through repeated rapid climate change events during the Holocene, each matched by major socio-cultural change. Sites such as Schela Cladovei, Sărata Monteoru, Histria, Beidaud, Pietrele, and Cârlomănești are re-examined with an interdisciplinary set of methods. The aim is to move away from collapse narratives and towards the strategies communities used to manage climate stress.
Specific objectives
- SO2
Investigate the impact of climate, environment, and cultural complexity on human evolution, lifestyles, and living conditions in areas with eco-social diversity.
- SO3
Examine settlement strategies, human intervention on the landscape, and their relationship with artefact mobility, ancient trade, and migration routes.
- SO4
Assess the correlation between environmental and life quality, and how authorities and local communities respond to climatic stress.
Climatic Impact
The last 10,000 years, the last 150 years, and projections to 2100
Related work package
WP4Linking past and present climatic impact with societal changes
Coordinated by Mihai Dima
Observational data, paleoclimate reconstructions, and high-resolution climate simulations, combined to link past and present climate with societal change. Three strands: the impact of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on the Euro-Atlantic sector and on Romania, analysed separately for each of its two modes of variability; convection-permitting simulations of how convective storms and their hazards change in a warmer climate; and the effect of heatwaves on mental health in urban populations.
Specific objectives
- SO5
Determine the observed impact of climate tipping components, with a focus on AMOC, on the Euro-Atlantic sector and on Romania, across the last 10,000 years, the last 150 years, and climate projections.
- SO6
Analyse how the characteristics of convective storms and their associated hazards change in a warmer climate.
- SO7
Evaluate the impact of heatwaves on mental health in urban populations.
Human Behaviour
Applied to behaviour today and in the decades ahead
Related work package
WP5Cross-cutting integrative approach to climate change behavioural response
Coordinated by Eugen Avram
Past adaptability used to strengthen pro-environmental behaviour today. This direction produces an AI tool that measures the determinants of climate-related behavioural change in individuals and groups, making the psychological drivers of environmental behaviour identifiable and open to intervention. It also delivers a short Cognitive Behavioural Therapy protocol adapted to encourage pro-environmental behaviour, tested in group sessions with immersive virtual reality.
Specific objectives
- SO8
Analyse and integrate historical patterns and determinants of climate adaptation, and identify how they appear in current climate challenges.
- SO9
Develop a tool for assessing and promoting the chained mechanisms that capture adaptation to rapid climate change and its effects.
- SO10
Create AI-driven predictive and simulation models that incorporate impact chains, for long-term adaptive behaviour.
Work packages
Six packages, all led from the University of Bucharest.
- WP1
Project Management and Administration
Coordinated by Bogdan Antonescu
Administration, finance, risk and ethics.
- WP2
Next generation geochemistry and isotope laboratory
Coordinated by Mihai Ducea
Builds the clean laboratory and the geochemical laboratory at the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, then integrates them with the existing Petrochronology and stable isotope facilities at UB.
- WP3
Integrated diachronic analysis of social-ecological systems and patterns of environmental adaptation
Coordinated by Mihai Constantinescu
Reconstructs lifestyle, diet, mobility, land use, and settlement strategy across the Holocene in the Lower Danube basin.
- WP4
Linking past and present climatic impact with societal changes
Coordinated by Mihai Dima
A paleoenvironmental database for Romania covering the last 20,000 years, the climatic footprint of the two modes of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, convection-permitting simulations up to 2100, and the impact of heatwaves and severe storms.
- WP5
Cross-cutting integrative approach to climate change behavioural response
Coordinated by Eugen Avram
Adapts the Impact Chain model to historical adaptation data, collects Traditional Ecological Knowledge, designs a psychometric instrument, runs experiments driven by artificial intelligence, and tests a short Cognitive Behavioural Therapy protocol with immersive virtual reality.
- WP6
Dissemination, communication, and engagement
Coordinated by Bogdan Antonescu
The website and social media, two international conferences, public seminars and videos, a network of climate change ambassadors, and the Climate Change Education Toolkit.