Land Sciences (until 2022)
The Working Group on Land Sciences works interdisciplinary on the topics of land, landscape and land use. The special focus is on agricultural landscapes that extend from rural areas further and further into cities and urban settlements and are characterized by multifunctional use by a wide variety of actors.
A sustainable development of these landscapes requires a new understanding of the sectoral and regional contexts. The Agenda 2030 for the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a frame of reference. The negotiation of objectives between local and regional groups of actors, the elaboration of trade-offs between objectives and the evaluation of developments on the basis of suitable criteria contribute to a discourse-oriented design of landscapes by politics and society.
The challenge lies in the interaction between the groups of actors and politics. Although the requirements of "good technical practice" and legal framework conditions are observed everywhere, this is not sufficient to meet all social demands and to contain the negative environmental impacts of land use. The analysis of this area of tension requires a systemic research approach that brings together qualitative and quantitative methods and takes into account the scientifically measurable aspects of resource conservation and biodiversity (ecological integrity) as well as the ethical and cultural issues of evaluating and valuing nature and cultural landscapes (cultural identity).
