Sustainable Land Management in a European Context

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

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2. Chapter 1. A Knowledge-Based European Perspective on Sustainable Land Management: Conceptual Approach and Overview of Chapters

   • Open Access

   Thomas Weith, Tim Barkmann, Nadin Gaasch, Sebastian Rogga, Christian Strauß, Jana Zscheischler

   Abstract

   This introductory chapter, written by the editors, provides an overview of their conceptual approach, the book’s line of argumentation, and an insight into the different chapters of the book “Sustainable Land Management in a European Context—a co-design approach”. The synopsis highlights the various approaches and possible applications of a co-design approach.

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3. Land-Use: State and Drivers in Europe

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 2. Landscape Change in Europe

      • Open Access

      María García-Martín, Cristina Quintas-Soriano, Mario Torralba, Franziska Wolpert, Tobias Plieninger

      Abstract

      The study of the evolution and change of landscapes’ ecological conditions through history has fascinated professional and amateur scientists for centuries. However, the understanding of why these changes happen and what these changes fully entail is still an emerging field of research, which nowadays broadly covers the study of the evolution of landscapes as complex social-ecological systems. This field has become particularly relevant in the current context of rapid global change, widespread environmental degradation and increasing land use conflicts, as an important source of information to facilitate sustainable landscape management. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current state of landscape change research in Europe and of the main findings and methodological challenges therein. These methodological challenges are bound up with the complex, dynamic and interlinked nature of landscapes, which require co-designed approaches that combine different perspectives, such as quantitative analysis with participatory approaches, and that capture diverse spatial and temporal scales. Together, these make it possible to achieve a comprehensive understanding of past changes and future trajectories.

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   3. Chapter 3. New Trends and Drivers for Agricultural Land Use in Germany

      • Open Access

      Dieter Kirschke, Astrid Häger, Julia Christiane Schmid

      Abstract

      Agricultural land use in Germany is faced with new drivers and conflicts. There has been a continuous downward trend in agricultural land use since reunification, and agriculture seems to be increasingly squeezed by various land use demands. Whereas land prices and land rents have stayed rather stable during the 90ies and at the beginning of the new millennium, they have started to go up considerably during the last ten years. At the same time the agricultural sector is faced with deteriorating environmental indicators and a changing land use structure and concentration. International agricultural prices have become a key determinant for land prices in Germany contributing to increasing land prices. Equally, new demands for nature conservation and natural resource protection under the Common Agricultural Policy have contributed to make agricultural land scarcer, and bioenergy production under the Renewable Energy Act has considerably affected land demand and prices in various regions. In East Germany, some land market specialties relate to the farm structure and the land privatization process after reunification. In view of these developments, there is a new policy debate on agricultural land market interventions.

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   4. Chapter 4. Demographic Change and Land Use

      • Open Access

      Jens Hoffmann

      Abstract

      Demographic change is increasingly being described as one of the central factors of human influence on land-use change. But do changes in population size and composition directly effect changes in land use? These reflections prompted the author and two colleagues to conduct a study aimed at (a) finding answers to the questions of whether and to what degree clear correlations between demographic change and observable land-use changes could be found in the existing literature, and (b) establishing what this means for regional studies and regional development policies. After presenting the methodological approach, the current state of knowledge regarding correlations between demographic change and land-use change is reflected and will finally be followed by conclusions and the need for further research.

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   5. Chapter 5. Urbanisation and Land Use Change

      • Open Access

      Henning Nuissl, Stefan Siedentop

      Abstract

      Urbanisation is one of the major driving forces behind the formation of today’s land use systems. It almost always involves the conversion of land use from non-urban to urban uses. A great deal of contemporary urbanisation has been characterised as urban sprawl, i.e. a highly extensive form of land take for urban uses having environmentally detrimental effects. However, urban land use change can occur in relatively diverse forms in terms of layout, building density and speed of change, to name but a few aspects. In recent decades, researchers have made substantial progress in empirically addressing the various forms of urban land use and its change over time. As a consequence, the global dimension of urbanisation-related land use change is now on the agenda of policymakers and researchers worldwide. In order to provide an overview of the many geographical, environmental, sociological and political aspects that are relevant with respect to urban land use change, this contribution strives to make (1) some conceptual clarification regarding the notions associated with urban land use change, before (2) highlighting its (economic, social and political) drivers, as well as its (3) impacts. The text then moves on to (4) briefly systematising the instruments and strategies that have been put in place to cope with urban land use change. Finally, (5), we reflect on the current state of the art regarding research and policies on urban land use change.

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   6. Chapter 6. Urban-Rural Interrelations—A Challenge for Sustainable Land Management

      • Open Access

      Alexandra Doernberg, Thomas Weith

      Abstract

      Although the relevance of urban-rural interrelations is widely acknowledged in science and practice, there is as yet no feasible theoretical or theory-driven approach or model that addresses the multiple interconnections in urban-rural spaces at the regional level and makes them applicable to actors in policy and planning practice. In this chapter, we give a short overview of how the topic has developed; present core concepts for urban-rural interrelations; and discuss their applicability and potential improvements by integrating other concepts and connecting governance debates. In the process, we develop new ideas for the analysis and governance of regional functional interrelations in a bid to improve sustainable land management.

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4. Co-Production of Knowledge

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 7. Transdisciplinary Research in Land Use Science—Developments, Criticism and Empirical Findings from Research Practice

      • Open Access

      Jana Zscheischler

      Abstract

      The particular importance of transdisciplinarity (TD) is emphasised against the backdrop of urgent complex real-world challenges and a changed societal demand for knowledge. It is no longer just a matter of producing new scientific insights, but also of achieving the solution-oriented goals and producing the action knowledge that support sustainable development and land management. Transdisciplinary research (TDR) projects have been supported in Germany over the past two decades. However, critical questions are increasingly being raised about the extent to which such projects have been successful. This chapter introduces the development of the TDR concept; describes the current criticism of TDR; and presents empirical findings from research practice. The results reveal a number of implementation deficits that can be traced back to a misfit with academic structures and a lack of knowledge.

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   3. Chapter 8. Innovations for Sustainable Land Management—A Comparative Case Study

      • Open Access

      Jana Zscheischler, Sebastian Rogga

      Abstract

      There continues to be a poor understanding of how transformation and socio-technological change in the specific field of sustainable land use and management can be effectively governed and supported. The aim of this article is to contribute to this knowledge gap by presenting the findings from a comparative case study of nine local innovation projects that sought solutions for sustainable land management (SLM). For each of the nine projects, we examined the (i) problem definitions and framings, (ii) the type and degree of innovation, (iii) the different approaches taken to manage innovation processes, and (iv) the leverage points of these solutions in the governance system of SLM. The results show that SLM innovations start from diverse problem framings and emerge from distinct action fields. We found a broad variety of innovation types following distinct solution strategies that can be clustered into (i) multiple land use, (ii) knowledge-based decision support tools, (iii) co-management approaches, and (iv) new organisations and institutions. All nine projects applied multi-actor approaches to facilitate reflexive processes of social learning and cognitive reframing by embedding experimental innovation management approaches such as real-world laboratories (thus optimising the solution) into larger transdisciplinary and participatory processes (to adjust to societal discourses and normative orientations).

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   4. Chapter 9. Knowledge Exchange at Science-Policy Interfaces in the Fields of Spatial Planning, Land Use and Soil Management: A Swiss Case Study

      • Open Access

      Marco Pütz, Regula Brassel

      Abstract

      In this article, we investigate knowledge exchange at the intersection of science and Swiss public policy in the fields of spatial planning, land use and soil management. Based on a literature review and expert interviews, we identify six types of knowledge exchange, and examine the barriers to and opportunities for knowledge exchange. These six underlying concepts suggest knowledge exchange is a challenging task because different expectations exist on how knowledge should be exchanged.

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   5. Chapter 10. Serious Games in Sustainable Land Management

      • Open Access

      Jacqueline Maaß

      Abstract

      Over the last few decades, Germany has experienced a trend towards increased suburbanisation and urban sprawl, accompanied by growing distances between residential and commercial areas and growing numbers of the commuting population. These phenomena were made possible in part by cheap energy prices for fossil fuels and have accordingly determined our land use and settlement structures to a major extent. As energy prices for fossil energy rise, we feel the effects in the structures society has built, and these have an impact on land use and sustainable land management.

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   6. Chapter 11. Real-World Laboratories Initiated by Practitioner Stakeholders for Sustainable Land Management—Characteristics and Challenges Using the Example of Energieavantgarde Anhalt

      • Open Access

      Helga Kanning, Bianca Richter-Harm, Babette Scurrell, Özgür Yildiz

      Abstract

      Real-world laboratories have gained substantially in importance as a format in sustainability and transformation research in recent years in Germany. This increase in significance is associated with the expectation of fostering and experimentally investigating transformations towards sustainability under real-world conditions in a bid to gain knowledge of their dynamics, to identify characteristics of successful transformation processes, and to be able to transfer this knowledge to other cases. Real-world laboratories are usually managed by a scientific partner, enabling use to be made of established procedures and methods in areas such as knowledge integration. Where responsibility for coordinating real-world laboratories lies with practitioner stakeholders, there is promising potential for their deployment. However, it also gives rise to situations, processes and challenges that are new to all parties involved and that have yet to be explored. In principle, experimental approaches that are characteristic of real-world laboratories are not new in the field of sustainable land management and spatial development. However, they are not traditionally alluded to as the real-world laboratory format. The two desiderata above provide the starting point for the present article. The aim of this article is to classify and reflect on the possibilities generated by real-world laboratories that have been initiated by practitioner stakeholders. A prime example of such real-world laboratories are those developed by Energieavantgarde Anhalt. This registered association wishes to contribute to sustainable land management in the context of the energy transition in rural areas, featuring small and medium-sized towns. A comparative analysis of these real-world laboratories is conducted using core characteristics from the scientific debate on real-world laboratories. As a result, the insight gained from this analysis can be used for future development and research.

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   7. Chapter 12. Knowledge Management for Sustainability: The Spatial Dimension of Higher Education as an Opportunity for Land Management

      • Open Access

      Jens Schulz, Thomas Köhler, Thomas Weith

      Abstract

      The production and dissemination of knowledge are seen as essential elements of sustainable land management (Salet 2014; Kaiser et al. 2016). Digitalisation creates a variety of opportunities for knowledge creation and communication. Knowledge cooperation and digitalisation for governance of land is a concept coined by the various and perhaps diverse interests of diverse stakeholders. In the era of digitalisation, new developments trigger further changes that may be of a challenging nature. However, digitalisation also offers innovative options for collaborative activity in land use, bringing together these diverse interests and eventually enabling new patterns of collaboration. The authors address principal patterns of collaboration in multi-stakeholder networks that have only recently been considered meaningful for research. Concepts from both domains—higher education and land management—are advantageously combined, allowing new interpretations of spatial and digital artefacts. Digitalisation is dramatically changing the knowledge-related domain itself at the end of the 2010s. Besides encouraging new teaching and learning activities, new technologies also have an impact on knowledge spaces and on the institutional and personnel knowledge carriers established therein. However, the institutional and sectoral development of academic education practice has rarely been addressed in the context of higher education research. To illustrate the new way in which knowledge management is directed under such conditions, the authors briefly present digital networks from both sectors. Obviously, different layers of stakeholders (state ministries and other authorities; higher education institutions and their sub-units, and other societal actors, etc.) need to collaborate in order to define and run the processes prevailing in and for higher education. How do these spatially distributed institutions interrelate in order to co-design the higher education landscape across an entire federal state? Which structures and processes are applied in co-design practices? Consequently, this paper outlines these developments, and combines knowledge economics, educational geography and educational science approaches in the context of higher education research.

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   8. Chapter 13. Transcending the Loading Dock Paradigm—Rethinking Science-Practice Transfer and Implementation in Sustainable Land Management

      • Open Access

      Sebastian Rogga

      Abstract

      Modern science is increasingly called on to produce societally relevant and usable knowledge to tackle global challenges. Academics respond by conducting research projects that transcend the boundaries of single disciplines and institutions by actively engaging with non-academic actors. Such institutional arrangements open up entirely new perspectives for science communication and the problem-solving of real-world issues. However, they also call for elaborate management tasks and demand learning processes on the part of all those involved. This chapter introduces transfer and implementation (T&I) as a conceptual pair of terms to grasp the challenges, without compromising the opportunities of this new research mode. In doing so, this chapter discusses contemporary approaches of science knowledge transfer, and promotes a notion that prioritises knowledge transfer over information transfer through artefacts. After reframing T&I as a management area in research projects, I present three strategic policy pathways for sustainable land management.

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5. Co-Evolution: New System Solutions and Governance

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 14. Small-Scale System Solutions—Material Flow Management (MFM) in Settlements (Water, Energy, Food, Materials)

      • Open Access

      Peter Heck

      Abstract

      The complexities of the present energy-climate era coupled with the ambitious targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand approaches to resource management that transcend conventional strategies. Material Flow Management (MFM) can be a vital tool in sustainable resource management (SRM) in complex systems. It contributes, among other things, to the protection of land, the conversion of abandoned land and the upcycling of degraded land. Despite its relative novelty, its usefulness has already been demonstrated. This chapter presents the practical application of MFM in small-scale systems, which are characterised by decentralised material and energy flows. It attempts to highlight the utility of MFM in SRM. The chapter gives special attention to the augmentation of source and sink capacity, employing MFM to reduce impacts on ecosystems both upstream and downstream—i.e. on the use of resources as well as on the amount of emissions.

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   3. Chapter 15. Multifunctional Urban Landscapes: The Potential Role of Urban Agriculture as an Element of Sustainable Land Management

      • Open Access

      Kathrin Specht, Julian Schimichowski, Runrid Fox-Kämper

      Abstract

      Urban agriculture (UA) has long been the subject of civic and scientific debate, since it provides cities with a diverse range of functions and services. UA is thought to have a positive effect on sustainable urban development in environmental, economic and social areas. Although most of the effects attributed to UA are positive, there are also critical aspects and concerns. For example, doubts have been raised about the quality of the products grown, considering the prevalence of air pollution and contaminated soils; and there are doubts about the contribution that urban agriculture makes to feeding urban populations, owing to the small quantities produced. Moreover, there are conflicts surrounding land use, especially in big cities; and in some cases, agricultural activities are undertaken in the city without the necessary building approvals. The concept of co-production and sharing as a (business) model is increasingly being applied with reference to urban gardens. This is particularly the case with volunteer-led community gardens, which are tremendously open to gardening enthusiasts and are renowned for the sharing of resources and space. Rather than seeking to make a profit, many of these initiatives operate under the principles of a non-profit or sharing economy. This chapter explores how UA can contribute to sustainable land management and co-production. To this end, background information is given on the (re-)emerging phenomenon of urban food production and on what motivates those involved to implement collaborative practices. The functions and services provided by UA as an element of sustainable land management are then explored using the three pillars of sustainability.

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   4. Chapter 16. Integrating Ecosystem Services, Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions—New Perspectives in Sustainable Urban Land Management

      Combining Knowledge About Urban Nature for Action

      • Open Access

      Dagmar Haase

      Abstract

      Global urbanisation comprises both urban sprawl and increasing densification of existing cities. Along with the heat waves, floods and droughts associated with climate change, urbanisation challenges our cities, and thus the places where soon 60% of the world’s population will live. In addition to human beings and their health, nature and biodiversity are under extreme pressure to function and to survive in these growing urban systems. More and more key biodiversity areas (KBAs) are becoming urbanised, and wetlands are being sealed. However, ecosystems are crucial for a healthy and safe life in cities. So how should we save urban nature as a habitat for humans, flora and fauna? This chapter presents three concepts that provide different perspectives for sustainable urban land management. They represent complementary paths to increased urban sustainability. Nonetheless, implementation is still a long way off, and moreover, unsolved issues still exist, such as the social inclusiveness of the three approaches.

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   5. Chapter 17. Upcoming Challenges in Land Use Science—An International Perspective

      • Open Access

      Christine Fürst

      Abstract

      This chapter provides an overview on relevant concepts, such as ecosystem services, sustainability, multifunctionality and social-ecological systems/frameworks applied in land use sciences. Current discussions, political debates and challenges in terms of methodological aspects, actor enrolment or project design are raised. Future research topics particularly related to the often non-coherent UN Sustainable Development Goals and their mutual trade-offs are raised and challenges in how to advance land use science are provided. An outlook is provided how co-development of knowledge and co-design of land use system research could be conceived in the future.

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6. Outlook

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 18. Conclusions and Research Perspectives

      • Open Access

      Thomas Weith, Tim Barkmann, Nadin Gaasch, Sebastian Rogga, Christian Strauß, Jana Zscheischler

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