Professorship of Landscape Planning and Impact Mitigation

The Professorship for Landscape Planning and Impact Mitigation pursues an integrative approach with a focus on the landscape level. Special attention is paid to the natural and socio-cultural characteristics of Central Europe. In addition, the department seeks a close interaction between research and teaching and a strong international reference to current scientific and political topics.

The department’s research activities focus on impact mitigation at the nexus between many years of experience with the German Impact Mitigation Regulation and existing compensation approaches in other countries as well as increasing global debates on biodiversity offsets. As part of our research, we address current and future challenges in landscape planning, e.g. with regard to the global loss of biodiversity, planning management of land use for various purposes (e.g. energy, agriculture, transport), the anthropogenic impact on the (cultural) landscape and nature conservation policy at different levels (e.g. UN sustainability agenda).

Our teaching is based on a sound planning education on the contents and methods of formal and informal landscape planning, impact mitigation regulation and environmental assessments. With this sound skill set, students should be able to transfer their knowledge to other areas and understand, analyze and discuss the interrelation with political and social objectives and discourses, for instance the value of nature, ecosystem services and market-based approaches. Our aim is to keep our students up-to-date with the international scientific community, for example by providing lectures in English and cooperating with partner institutions from France and Australia.