Land-use systems

The land-use systems group studies landscape patterns and processes and their changes over time. We focus on urban, rural and alpine landscapes and their multifunctionality while conducting research in the following topics:

  • Development of models for simulating future landscape dynamics and for estimating the resulting landscape services.
  • Analysis of historical changes in ecosystems and landscapes (focus on the past 100 to 250 years) and their implications in the context of historical ecology.
  • Analysis of actors, driving forces, and land change and their interaction to understand the causes of landscape change.
  • Contributing to the further development of landscape planning, based, for example, on conflict analysis and the evaluation of planning instruments.
  • Analysis of social-ecological networks and the assessment of their ecological connectivity in urban and peri-urban areas.

The land-use systems group combines methods and theories from natural sciences and social sciences on spatial scales from single ecosystems to continents. We are equally committed to theory development and innovative applications.

Projects

Services and Products

Staff

Land-use systems

Anna Hersperger

Groupleader

Mahsa Bazrafshan

PhD student guest

Janine Bolliger

Scientific staff member

Silvia Canelos Raimann

Trainee

Giulia Casciano

PhD student

Fabio Costa

Trainee

Thomas Niklaus Dalang

Visiting scientist

Vasco Diogo

Scientific staff member

Rebekka Dossche

Visiting scientist

Maria Garcia Martin

Scientific staff member

Tim Geiges

Scientific staff member

Simona Raluca Gradinaru

Scientific staff member

Felix Kienast

Temporary employee

Yuexin Liu

Visiting scientist

Susan Lock

Temporary employee

Philipp Manser

Temporary employee

Franziska Mohr

PhD student

Daniels Saakjans

PhD student

Franziska Schmid

PhD student

Stephanie Schwab Cammarano

Scientific staff member

Elena Grace Siegrist

Scientific assistant

Silvia Tobias

Scientific staff member

Nicola Van Koppenhagen

PhD student

Peter H. Verburg

Senior Scientist

Lea von Büren

Bachelor student

Sophie von Einsiedel

PhD student guest