SFB 299:  Land Use Options for Peripheral Regions

Subject Area Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
Term from 1997 to 2008
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5476594
 

Project Description

Every form of land use (e.g. agriculture, forestry, fallow, biotope areas, bodies of water) is coupled with typical abiotic, biotic and social functions: the maintenance of water, energy and material balances, agricultural and forestry production, habitats for landscape-typical or particularly valuable flora and fauna (biodiversity), recreational and leisure use, assimilation of organic wastes (compost, sewage), production of drinking water, flood protection, landscape aesthetics. The decline of farming in regions with non-optimal agricultural structures is growing, as increasing areas of the countryside are laid to fallow. Thus, important landscape functions are disappearing. Up to now little was known about the long-term effects brought about by alterations in land use. Knowledge of such processes, however, is indispensable for the appraisal of land usage changes. The main objective of the collaborative research centre 299 is the development of an integrated methodology towards the achievement and appraisal of economically and ecologically sustainable options for regional land use which are site-specific and economic differentiated. Which land use forms should be aimed for cannot be decided by a single scientific discipline alone. This decision must ultimately take the interests of numerous social groups into account (citizens, experts, politicians, land owners) and can thus only be reached through dialogue with the stakeholders.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

Applicant Institution Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
Participating University Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Spokesperson Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Frede