Urbaria Thesis Topic Market (Spring 2025)

Global salt production is approximately 300 million tons annually, consisting primarily of NaCl, but also other salts such as KCl, MgCl2  and other compounds. Similar to the use of fossil hydrocarbons, much of the salt we consume is taken from deposits which are hundreds of millions of years old. This “fossil salt”, long ago removed from the water cycle, is then reintroduced to the hydrosphere. Traditional treatment methods, such as those used at municipal wastewater treatment plants, do no remove salt from water and so most is discharged to surface waters and eventually to the world’s oceans.

In this MSc project, you will determine the annual global production of all forms of salt and will work with researchers to model how the input of fossil salt could impact the salinity of the world’s seas and oceans.

1. Just transitions and urban governance
2. Cross-sectoral collaboration and participatory methodologies in planning
3. Urban experimentation (i.e. urban labs, transition labs, living labs)
4. Capacity building for change (including but not limited to residents and planning experts)
5. Roles of municipalities in enabling sustainability transformations: tensions, bottlenecks, limitations and opportunities
6. Community-led dynamics of urban change: bottom-up drivers, social movements, demand and resistance
7. Urban socio-ecological systems and their sustainability transformations
8. Human-nature relationships and multispecies justice in urban context