Past Research Projects

Moving towards Adaptive Governance In Complexity (MAGIC)

MAGIC explores the various ways in which the water-energy-food nexus is conceptualised and operationalised in different policies and stakeholder narratives. MAGIC’s approach to address complex policy issues is focused on the assessment of the feasibility, viability and desirability of policy narratives, using the metabolic pattern of socio-ecological systems as underlying theoretical concept. MAGIC analyses 5 policy areas, including the Common Agricultural Policy, the Water Framework Directive, Energy Policy, the Circular Economy and the Habitats Directive. Within the project, I work on the interface between quantitative analysis of water-energy-food metabolism and processes of policy- and narrative-making.

The MAGIC project is led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with partners at the University of Bergen, James Hutton Institute, Wageningen University, University of Twente, DG Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Climate Analytics, Instituto Tecnologico de Canarias. MAGIC is a four-year project funded under the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, topic “Integrated approaches to food security, low-carbon energy, sustainable water management and climate change mitigation” (WATER-2b-2015).

Publications:

Muscat, A., de Olde, E.M., Kovacic, Z., de Boer, I.J.M. and Ripoll-Bosch, R. (2021) Food, energy or biomaterials? Policy coherence across agro-food and bioeconomy policy domains in the EU. Environmental Science & Policy, 123: 21-30.

Völker, T., Kovacic, Z. and Strand, R. (2020) Indicator development as a site of collective imagination? The case of European Commission policies on the Circular Economy. Culture and Organization, 26 (2): 103-120.

Kovacic, Z. and Di Felice, L. J. (2019). Complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity: Implications for European Union energy governance. Energy Research & Social Science, 53: 159-169.

Völker, T., Blackstock, K., Kovacic, Z., Sindt, J., Strand, R. and Waylen, K. (2019). The role of metrics in the governance of the water-energy-food nexus within the European Commission. Journal of Rural Studies, (in press).

Co-Designing Energy Communities with energy poor women in urban areas, case studies in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa (Co-DEC)

Provision of affordable, clean and modern energy to the African urban population is an immediate and future challenge. This is in particular, in the informal settlements, which is a dominant feature in African urban environments. Informal settlements are mostly excluded from energy planning processes. In order to enhance and provide scientifically supported interventions to deal with energy poverty and health related challenges, the proposed project undertook a comparative analysis in co-designing energy communities in urban informal settlements, with specific focus on the cases of Mathare, Kasubi-Kawaala and Enkanini in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa respectively.

The Co-DEC project was led by the University of Kenya, with partners at Stellenbosch University and Makerere University. Co-DEC was a research project supported by the LIRA2030 programme. It was one of the nine projects awarded 90000 Euros to carry out collaborative studies under the theme: “Understanding the «Energy-Health-Natural Disasters» nexus in urban contexts in Africa”. The programme is being implemented by International Council for Science (ICSU) in partnership with the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Publications:

Kovacic, Z., Musango, J. K., Ambole, A., Buyana, K., Smit, S., Anditi, C., Mwau, B., Ogot, M., Lwasa, S., Brent, A. C., Nsangi, G. and Sseviiri, H. (2019). Interrogating differences: A comparative analysis of Africa’s informal settlements. World Development, 122: 614-627.

Ambole, A., Musango, J. K., Buyana, K., Ogot, M., Anditi, C., Mwau, B., Kovacic, Z., Smit, S., Lwasa, S., Nsangi, G., Sseviiri, H. and Brent, A. (2019). Mediating household energy transitions through co-design in urban Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Energy Research & Social Science, 55: 208-217.

Participatory Integrated Assessment of Energy Systems to Promote Energy Access and Efficiency (PARTICIPIA)

PARTICIPIA aimed at developing and implementing innovative Master modules and/or programs in Participatory Integrated Assessment of Renewable Energy Systems in the ACP-member states of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Within the project, I developed the teaching module on the metabolic analysis of informal settlements and I analysed the electrification policy of the Enkanini settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

PARTICIPIA was a three-year project funded under the EDULINK II programme; an ACP-EU Co-operation Programme in Higher Education funded by the European Development Fund (EDF) and the Development Co-operation Instrument – Relations with South Africa (DCI).

Publications:

Kovacic, Z., Smit, S., Musango, J. K., Brent, A. C. and Giampietro, M. (2016). Probing uncertainty levels of electrification in informal urban settlements: A case from South Africa. Habitat International, 56: 21-221.

Kovacic, Z. and Giampietro, M. (2017). Between theory and quantification: An integrated analysis of metabolic patterns of informal urban settlements.Energy Policy, 100: 377-386.

Kiravu, C., Diaz-Maurin, F., Giampietro, M., Brent, A., Bukkens, S., Chiguvare, Z., Gasennelwe-Jeffrey, A.M., Gope, G., Kovacic, Z., Magole, L., Musango, J., Ruiz-Rivas Hernando, U., Smit, S., Vázquez Barquero, A. and Yunta Mezquita, F. (2018). Proposing a Master’s Programme on Participatory Integrated Assessment of Energy Systems to Promote Energy Access and Energy Efficiency in Southern Africa. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 19 (3): 622-641.