Sustainable Landscapes – The Wadden Experience

About

How to steer towards sustainability at the landscape level? In the Northern part of the Netherlands lies the World Heritage Wadden Sea Region. Within this region, human and natural landscape development is strongly intertwined. The region has a strong drive towards sustainable development. Many questions are unresolved however. How to combine mass-tourism with a sensitive natural area? How can wind parks, power plants, natural gas extraction, fisheries and agriculture fit in? What role is there for cultural heritage and identity? How to combine competitive economic activities with utter stillness?

The Sustainable Landscapes team of the University of Groningen in cooperation with the Wadden Academy welcomes you to explore these issues, both theoretically and through experiencing the Wadden landscape from within. Join us for a five day sailing trip with lectures by leading experts. The lectures will show you scientific perspectives from different fields. We explore the themes of cultural heritage; coastal tourism; landscape stewardship; regional food production; sustainable enterpreneurship; and global bird flyways.

Each lecture is supported by cutting edge literature – which you can study in advance. In addition to the lectures, you will dive into socio-ecological modelling and social innovation. You and your 19 fellow participants will meet several stakeholders and .. you will be actively sailing the Wadden Sea!

Course leader

Frans Sijtsma – Faculty of Spatial Sciences Wander Jager – University College Groningen

Target group

This course is developed for talented bachelor students, for master and research master students, PhD students and professionals in the field of spatial (landscape) planning, economics and business, landscape ecology, human geography and fields of interdisciplinary landscape studies.

It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English.

Course aim

In a curriculum that unites critical reading, thinking, and discussion with hands-on experience, the participants:

- are familiarized with recent theories and methods of ecology (bird-migration), cultural landscapes, landscape stewardship, sustainable agriculture
- develop a keen perspective on the meaning of sustainability for the landscape
- learn to think across conventional boundaries between landscape, ecology and agriculture

Fee info