Institute for Landscape and Environment

At the Institute of Landscape and Environment (ILU) ten professors covering different disciplines of the Faculty Environment Design Therapy (FUGT) are currently working together on practice-orientated research projects as well as on the delivery of services in the field of landscape and environment. They are supported by a research team of ten employees.

In addition to projects primarily concerning nature conservation and landscape planning, the ILU houses a number of other projects on different aspects of landscape planning and environmental protection: These include the fields of nature conservation law, eco-accounting (“Ökokonto”), ecosystem services and the creation of regional concepts for the sustainable development of municipalities.

On a number of interdisciplinary and research projects, the institute cooperates with different companies, research institutes, conservation agencies, municipalities and landscape planning offices. Firstly, this allows for the direct transfer of research results into the public and political sector. Secondly, this cooperation enables the ILU to tackle current and relevant issues from the field.

The close connection between the Institute of Landscape and Environment and Nürtingen-Geislingen University offers students the opportunity to do their internships, write their bachelor or master thesis or gain their first working experiences in one of our projects.

The research focus Landscape Planning includes projects with a holistic approach on how to manage, care for and develop nature and landscape.

A current approach in this research area focuses on compensatory measures. The amendment of the Nature Protection Law Baden-Württemberg (“Naturschutzgesetz Baden-Württemberg”) has enabled companies, associations (e.g. NGOs) and private citizens to use eco-accounting (“Ökokonto”) to gain ecopoints for implementing compensation and replacement measures and to trade these ecopoints.

The research projects in this area primarily deal with the potential analysis of suitable areas, the economic viability of appropriate measures and the communication of opportunities and limitations of eco-account measures.

One major focus of our projects in the area of Nature and Landscape Conservation is the analysis and evaluation of flora and fauna, vegetation as well as land use change. Building on this, different research issues are addressed e.g. the analysis of landscape management concepts and the development of different practical actions for landscape management and biotope networking. Our research areas are diverse and include the calcareous grasslands of the Swabian Alb, the mires in the Alpine foothills and the wetlands and watercourses of the Baar.

The preservation of meadow orchards (“Streuobstwiesen”) is another research focus of the Institute of Landscape and Environment. In the recent years, we carried out a number of projects as a part of the LIFE+ project “Protection of birds in the foothills of the Swabian Alb". The goal of these projects was the preservation of the traditional meadow orchards and the protection of the endangered bird species of these orchards.

It is our goal to promote and reinforce Sustainable Development in every field of municipal activities and to make it more transparent for the public. Therefore we use communication tools like N!-reports (“Nachhaltigkeitsberichte”, sustainability reports), guidelines for sustainable actions and workshops.

It is our responsibility to support citizens, communities and associations on their way to sustainability. Thus it is important to include people into the social and political life, sensitize them to sustainable action and develop new ideas and activities together that embody the thought of sustainability. Ecological, economic and social progress starts at the local level, in communities together with their actively committed citizenry.

One of the focal points of sustainable development is communal sustainability reporting. In addition to indicators for communal sustainability and sustainable actions, the following factors play an important role: The realization of sustainability goals, actions in the areas of ecological viability, economy and social affairs and a framework for sustainable communal development.

The processing of field-specific data to allow for a targeted information and communication plays an important role in all of our projects in the field of Environmental Information and Communication. For the transfer of knowledge the emphasis is placed on the areas of environmental protection and management as well as on sustainable development. In addition to traditional visual media – like exhibition boards and brochures – we also develop new concepts, e.g. for an audio-visual educational trail.

Some projects specifically cover public participation and the development of different communication channels. These include workshops for stakeholders of nature conservation projects and sustainability workshops in the context of communal sustainability processes.