Thesis Topics

The dissertation projects of the DK (in the first phase from 2014 to 2018) contribute to finding answers to three questions:

How do we understand and deal with climate change uncertainties in the natural and social sciences as well as from the perspective of normative theories?
What are critical thresholds of environmental, social and economic systems considering their vulnerability and how are these thresholds related to the normative threshold of sufficiency, that is, the threshold of well-being below which persons’ basic rights are infringed or violated?
What are scientifically sound, technologically and institutionally feasible, economically efficient, and ethically defensible and sustainable strategies to cope with climate change, particularly taking into account the problems of implementation in an environment characterized by uncertainties and thresholds?

Phd projects dealing with research question 1

student	dissertation project	supervisor co-supervisor
Lukas Brunner	Uncertainties in atmospheric circulation processes at mid-latitudes during recent climate change	Steiner Birk
Kian Mintz-Woo	Moral Uncertainty about Climate Change: What is it, Does it Matter, and How?	Meyer Steininger
Sungmin O	Uncertainties in measured extreme precipitation events	Foelsche Sass
Katharina Schröer	Exploring the causes of rare extreme precipitation events in the south-eastern Alpine forelands	Kirchengast Sass
Josef Innerkofler	Radio occultation excess phase processing with integrated uncertainty estimation and use for tracing climate change signals	Kirchengast Birk
Hallgeir Wilhelmsen	Climate change diagnostics from atmospheric observations and climate model data	Steiner Winiwarter

student	dissertation project	supervisor, co-supervisor
Sajeev Erangu Purath Mohankumar	Scenarios of low carbon society—sector agriculture	Winiwarter, Steininger
Johannes Haas	Impact of climate change on groundwater resources: Feedback mechanisms and thresholds unter drought conditions	Birk, Posch
Clara Hohmann	Uncertainties and thresholds of hydrological changes in south-eastern Austria in a warming climate	Kirchengast, Birk
Michael Kriechbaum	Social and economic uncertainties and thresholds for the diffusion and adoption of renewable energy systems	Posch, Bednar-Friedl
Florian Ortner	Integrative Perspectives of Natural Hazards in Alpine Valleys	Sass, Steininger
Silke Carmen Lutzmann	Thresholds in torrential systems of alpine watersheds	Sass, Foelsche
Eike Düvel	The Normative Significance of the Imposition of Risks of Rights Violations in the Context of Climate Change	Meyer, Baumgartner

student	dissertation project	supervisor, co-supervisor
Matthias Damert	Individual mobility as climate challenge—Climate change risks and corporate vulnerability in the automotive sector	Baumgartner, Bednar-Friedl
Javier Lopez Pról	Transformation to a Low Carbon Economy	Steininger, Posch
Yadira Mori-Clement	Coping with climate change: fair burden sharing among industrialized and developing countries	Bednar-Friedl, Meyer
Arijit Paul	Sustainable strategies of companies in energy intensive sectors to cope with climate change	Baumgartner, Meyer
Christian Unterberger	Thresholds and fat tail risks in public decision making about climate change	Steininger, Kirchengast
Daniel Petz	Sufficientarian Weighing of the Imposition of Risks of Rights Violations and Other Set-backs of Interest in the Context of Climate Change	Meyer, Winiwarter
Vincent Hess	Economic and Ethical Consequences of Natural Hazards in Alpine Valleys	Steininger, Sass
Philipp Babcicky	Private Adaptation to Climate Change: Explaining Adaptive Behaviour of Flood-prone Households	Posch, Steiner
Hannah Hennighausen	Understanding the effects of risk, uncertainty and externalities on decision-making in the context of climate change adaptation	Bednar-Friedl, Foelsche
Stefan Nabernegg	Instruments for GHG emission reductions: A macroeconomic evaluation of technological, regulative and behavioral policies	Bednar-Friedl, Baumgartner