Main Research Areas

One of the classic fields of research in physical geography and landscape ecology is focussed on landscape structures and processes. The aim is to understand which abiotic and biotic elements and structures can be found in landscapes, how they interact and how landscapes ultimately “work”. one important research topic at our Institute is the detection of earth surface processes with a special focus on soil erosion by water in agro-ecosystems under various management methods. In addition to the classic survey methods, we use digital three-dimensional spatial survey and evaluation methods. This also includes script- and machine learning-based computing algorithms for analyses of large amounts of data - big data - such as earth observation data.

Contact persons: Benjamin Burkhard, Alexander Störmer, Simone Ott, Jens Groß, Bastian Steinhoff-Knopp

Ecosystem services (ES) describe and value the diverse benefits that society derives from nature and functional landscapes. These include directly consumable goods such as food, water or energy (provisioning ecosystem services), landscape aesthetics and recreation (cultural ecosystem services) as well as regulating ecosystem services such as climate or flood regulation, pollination by insects and erosion regulation. ES in rural but also in urban areas are a main focus at our Institute. We also investigate recreational ecosystem services and climate regulating ecosystem services provided by urban vegetation in their potential to improve health and wellbeing of city residents.

Currently, some of our projects focus on the spatial modeling of habitat suitability for pollinating insects and soil erosion-related processes, especially in agricultural and urban ecosystems. Other ecosystem services are also mapped, modelled, analysed and valuated using integrative assessment methods such as the ES matrix method, simulation models or natural capital accounting.

Contact persons: Benjamin Burkhard, Nadja Kabisch Sabine Lange, Ina Sieber, Joana Seguin, Tinka Kuhn, Lukas Fricke, Malte Hinsch, Claudia Dworczyk, Grazia Zulian, Luke Brander

Global Change relates to several global challenges of climate change and urbanisation and land-use change. Challenges of climate change include for instance droughts, heat waves, extreme precipitation events and the associated threats on the functionally and health of ecosystems. These threats highly impact the health and well-being of urban residents, especially because they accumulate in urban systems that have high and often increasing population densities.

The research area of Global change addresses interdisciplinary research questions to societal challenges such as adaptation and mitigation to climate change, urban climate resilience and nature-based solutions. We apply socio-ecological and socio-ecological-technical approaches which are integrated in research on climate adaptation, sustainability and resilience. This includes a perspective on environmental justice, because challenges of global change but also potential solutions are not equally and fairly distributed globally and locally.

Contact persons: Nadja Kabisch, Claudia Dworczyk, Lukas Fricke

Digital measurement and remote sensing methods are the basis for assessing landscape structures and processes and for the creation of digital elevation and surface models (DEM/DSM). In addition to the possibilities of photogrammetric analyses of existing satellite and aerial image data, the Institute possesses unmanned aerial systems (UAS/flight drone systems), some with near-infrared cameras for vegetation detection. We also have a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) for exact data acquisition in different research and study projects. Data are collected with high precision using the Institute's global navigation satellite system devices (GNSS) and then processed in geographic information systems (GIS) or simulation models. The Institute can thus provide the complete workflow, from high-precision data acquisition in the field to the creation of exact digital landscape models in GIS.

Contact persons: Benjamin Burkhard, Simone Ott, Alexander Störmer

Spatial data are the basis for physical-geographical and landscape ecological research. Geographic information systems (GIS) offer the possibility to digitally collect, manage and analyse spatial data and to present them as two-dimensional maps or three-dimensional terrain models. Due to the enormous importance that GIS have in modern digital physical geography, GIS and Python scripting are a focus in teaching and research at our Institute. GIS data also form the basis for many other applications, for example in soil erosion research and spatial modeling of various ecosystem services with the model systems Erosion3D ©, ESTIMAP © and InVEST ©. We also use artificial intelligence methods such as machine learning, especially for the analysis of big data or for predicting landscape ecological phenomena and processes. We are able to integrate and assess highly diverse research data using linked-data approaches.

Contact Persons: Benjamin Burkhard, Nadja Kabisch, Malte Hinsch, Joana Seguin, Susannah Griffin, Alexander Störmer, Claudia Dworczyk, Lukas Fricke