Matthias Schmidt

In one of our current projects, we are investigating causes and consequences of the desiccation of Lake Urmia in Iran. Increasing droughts due to climate change, technocratic water management and problematic political constellations have led to a dramatic water crisis in Iran. We analyse reasons for and effects of potentially environmentally-induced migration and study transformations of local and national water management. In other projects, we deal with energy system transformation and competing land uses, with the emerging coffee culture and the creation of third spaces in Kyrgyzstan, with the transformation of social-environmental conditions and neoextractivism in Cuba, and with the influence of the Belt and Road Initiative on Central Asia.

Contact: matthias.schmidt@geo.uni-augsburg.de