This course introduces landscapes as socially perceived, spatially and temporally dynamic entities that are shaped by natural and societal factors. Concepts and qualitative and quantitative methods to study landscapes from an ecological and societal perspective are presented. The course consists of a mixture of theoretical lectures and exercises or practical sessions.

Capstone course in which students solve complex real-world land-use problems, for which no single correct solution exists. Students work in project teams and take the role of consultants. They integrate the knowledge acquired during their previous studies and deepen their analysis, problem-solving and writing skills.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) allows the detection of organisms from traces of their DNA sampled from water, air or soil. Sampling eDNA instead of organisms makes monitoring fast, non-invasive, scalable and inexpensive. In this lecture, students will learn about eDNA and how it can be sampled, sequenced and analysed for biodiversity discovery and monitoring.

Students are introduced to a typical data science workflow using various examples from environmental systems. They learn common methods and key aspects for each step through practical application. The course enables students to plan their own data science project in their specialization and to acquire more domain-specific methods independently or in further courses.

Students are introduced to advanced data science where environmental data are analyzed using state of the art machine learning methods. Starting from known statistical approaches, they learn the principle of more advanced machine learning methods with practical application. The course enables students to plan their own data science project in their specialization and to apply machine learning mode

The course is an introduction to Landscape Ecology and Landscape Modelling and provides various practical applications of Landscape Ecology in nature and landscape management.

The course provides the student with the spatial tools to address societal challenges toward ensuring the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. Students learn theory, tools and models during a few introductory sessions and apply this knowledge to solve a practical problem in groups related to climate change, land use change and biodiversity conservation.

In this practical, students get to know important field and laboratory methods of forest and landscape research as well as landscape management. They apply these methods in the context of small projects. The practical consists of three parts: Ecology (both forest and landscape), Site Classification (soil science & vegetation science), and Land Management.

Students work in teams to develop an interdisciplinary question, research the literature required to answer it and create an overview of the scientific facts. On this basis, they then create information material for a non-scientific audience in a selected media form (video or infographic).