Sustainable Land Management

Global and regional challenges such as climate change, demographic changes and competing demands for land use and space require innovative and region-specific solutions. Climate change is leading to increasingly frequent extreme weather events, making adaptation strategies necessary at local and global level. Demographic changes and urbanisation are also intensifying conflicts of use and require carefully planned land management. Research in the field of sustainable land management focuses on creating knowledge bases and action strategies that enable the resilient and environmentally friendly utilisation of resources. The aim is to develop sustainable models that fulfil both ecological and economic requirements.

The aim of Land Use Research is the creation of the required knowledge and decision bases for sustainable land management as well as the provision of action strategies and instruments for a forward-thinking adaptation of regional land use to global change. Thus, knowledge-oriented and implementation-oriented research is being linked. This is a precondition for the better system understanding of the essential processes of global change. With this, it is possible to also identify interactions between ecological, economic and socio-cultural concerns and to mitigate the conflict of goals with regard to the search for future-oriented and reliable system solutions. With Land Management Research, implementation know-how in the sense of integrative acting will be generated. Since in this field of research, scientific-technological points of view are brought together with economic and social-scientific aspects, the basis is laid for a closer linking of technological, non-technological and organisational innovations in future. The feasibility is of central importance for the success of funding; the decision is made on the actors’level (e.g. acceptance issues, institutional framework conditions) and requires transdisciplinarity, as e.g. the inclusion of decision makers and actors in the research process. The funding measure has a modular structure and will be continued through the development of further funding modules.
Low mountain range© Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung

Development of cross-sectoral approaches for sustainable land use 

The focus is on the development of practical and cross-sectoral approaches that take into account the interdependence of ecological, economic and social aspects. This includes, for example, the climate-stable conversion of forests, the promotion of circularity along the entire value chain of land use and the sustainable organisation of relationships between urban and rural areas. The combination of research and practice plays a decisive role here in order to be able to implement the concepts developed at local level.

Ensuring feasibility through transdisciplinary cooperation 

Particular attention is paid to the feasibility of the solutions developed, which is to be ensured through the involvement of all relevant stakeholders and transdisciplinary cooperation. The direct involvement of decision-makers, scientists and practitioners ensures that the strategies developed are not just theoretical concepts, but can actually be put into practice. The aim is to develop integrated, sustainable action plans for land use that do justice to both global challenges and regional characteristics. This also includes identifying obstacles that could make implementation more difficult, such as institutional barriers or a lack of acceptance on the part of the population. Only through the active participation of all stakeholders can solutions be found that are effective in the long term and contribute to improving the quality of life.

Development of assessment tools for sustainability strategies

Another important aspect is the development of instruments and methods for evaluating the sustainability of land use strategies. By using such instruments, progress can be better measured and the effectiveness of the measures applied can be continuously monitored. The research thus helps to create flexible and adaptable solutions that can respond quickly to new challenges. At the same time, the education and training of specialists is also supported to ensure that the necessary expertise for sustainable land management is available in the relevant sectors.

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