Professor Janet Silbernagel
Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Fellowship Period: 08.2017-12.2017
It was a great honor to be hosted as a fellow in the Landscape Dynamics Research Unit at WSL. This sabbatical fellowship was most welcoming, engaging, and highly productive. Further down I describe several of the productive outcomes of my fellowship at WSL.
I cannot imagine a more professionally stimulating and fruitful sabbatical environment. In addition to these productive outcomes with the remarkable Landscape Dynamics group, we have laid the foundation for additional long-term collaborations.
Activities within WSL Fellowship
- Co-wrote and submitted (March 2018) a manuscript to Landscape Ecology journal on functional connectivity models with Dr. Janine Bolliger.
- Bolliger, J., V.Pfeiffer, and J.Silbernagel. in revision. How functionally informed are connectivity assessments. Landscape Ecology.
- Co-designed, wrote, and recorded a case study on “Land Ethics and Conservation” for Landscape Ecology MOOC led by Dr. Felix Kienast and Gregor Martius, launching Sep 2018.
- Attended the International Association for Landscape Ecology – Europe symposium in Ghent, Belgium in September with several colleagues from the Landscape Ecology and Remote Sensing groups, extending the presence of WSL among this key international professional society. Attending with WSL colleagues also continues key leadership influence – Dr. Kienast is past-President of the International Association (IALE), while I am now current President of IALE-North America and will represent the North America chapter at the IALE World Congress in Milano in 2019.
- Shared work on place attachment and tools for capturing cultural landscape values, related in particular to Dr. Bürgi’s work. My September seminar and workshop on this topic led to guidance on several WSL student and post-doc projects, and collaboration with Dr.s Marcel Hunziker and Felix Kienast, including potential integration of my work with the Swiss Landscape Monitoring project.
- Updated content for a Conservation GIS e-book to be published this June, with expert contributions from Dr. Janine Bolliger and illustrations by Gregor Martius.
- Seminar topics and dates:
- 06.Sep.2017, WSL, “Capturing Narratives of Place: Geotools for Citizen Engagement in Environmental Conservation.” Followed by a hands-on workshop.
- 05.Oct.2017, WSL, “Landscape Conservation Scenarios and Strategies.” Research overview.
- 06.Dec.2017, ETH, “Landscape Scenario Modeling in the Great Lakes and China.” For Advanced Landscape Research class led by Dr. Matthias Bürgi.