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About Topic 5

Mission:

The mission of Topic 5 is to develop pathways towards multifunctional landscapes which maintain functioning ecosystems, halt biodiversity loss, and provide fresh water, food, and habitable living spaces as essential resources for humans.

Our focus:

Future landscapes must sustainably deliver the many and diverse services demanded by society, even under intensifying pressures, while retaining their natural capacities to fulfill their vital role in the Earth system. Topic 5 concentrates on the interplay of human impacts and the natural dynamics of terrestrial landscapes. We study how individual parts of these complex systems influence each other, what the natural and socioeconomic drivers are, and how political decisions are made that affect the environment, whether positively or negatively. Only with this knowledge can we succeed in maintaining the balance between the various landscape functions. We aim to provide actionable knowledge and develop societal responses (e.g., governance mechanisms and policy options) for adaptation to climate change, halting biodiversity loss, sustainable agricultural policies, achieving freshwater security, and transforming cities as resilient human-natural systems.

T5 provides a unique platform for synthesizing pathways towards multifunctional landscapes of the future.

Recent HighlightsStructure | Subtopics | Participating Centers | Contact

Recent Highlights

TERENO

15 Years TERENO – a success story

In 2008, the research infrastructure Terrestrial Environmental Observatories - TERENO was established to build and maintain a network of observatories. The goal is to conduct interdisciplinary, long‐term research on the impacts of global environmental changes on terrestrial ecosystems and their socio‐economic effects. Over the past 15 years, four observatories have been part of this network, contributing to valuable monitoring data. Today, TERENO is a crucial component for environmental modeling and forecasting in Germany.

Structure

Graphic Representation of Subtopics

© Helmholtz

Subtopics in detail

Participating Centers