Prior to joining UNU-EHS, Dr. Zita Sebesvari worked on environmental monitoring and remediation projects in the Institute for Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany as well as on chemical and microbial signalling processes in the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment in Oldenburg. Since 2007, Dr. Sebesvari is an Associate Academic Officer in the Environmental Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services (EVES) Section. She is responsible for research concerned with social-ecological vulnerability, environmental pollution, ecosystem services, and sustainable agricultural production mainly in the regional context of Southeast Asia. She is supporting the Section Head as well as taking responsibility for research dealing with environmental degradation and the exposure of social-ecological systems to the degradation particularly in the context of climate change e.g. salinity intrusion in coastal areas. Dr. Sebesvari researches i) the risks associated with unsustainable agricultural practices in Southeast Asia linked to the use of pesticides and antibiotics resulting in environmental pollution, ii) the risk associated with the use of contaminated water for drinking and domestic purposes as well as iii) the impacts of certain adaptation practices on the long term sustainability of soil and water resources as well as develops concepts and new projects for the section in these research fields. Dr. Sebesvari gained more than seven years of fieldwork experience in Vietnam in the frame of the German-Vietnamese WISDOM. She was involved in the IWQGES project which aims to develop International Water Quality Guidelines for Ecosystems on behalf of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). Currently she executes UNU-EHS’ activities for the Belmont Forum and DFG funded DELTAS project aiming to develop a global delta vulnerability index (GDVI) with case studies in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Brazil and the German-Vietnamese DeltAdapt project aiming to find sustainable solutions for agricultural adaptation to salinity intrusion in delta systems. She is involved in teaching, supervises MSc. students and co-supervises PhD. scholars.

Degradation & Pollution of Water & Soil Resources, Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Agricultural Production, Vulnerability of Social-Ecological Systems