Ecological Indicators

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Lectures, computer exercises, literature reports.

Learning Outcomes

Students are prepared for creating and applying indicator sets and for bundling information in order to support decision making processes in their future field of work. Participants are able to critically reflect the quality of indicators and indices and to cope with the complexity of human-environmental systems.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Indicators are focal tools of environmental management on several spatial, temporal and administrative levels. To get prepared for the usage of these instruments theoretical and applied items of indication in a human-environmental surrounding are elaborated in the course. The fundamental conceptual knowledge i.e. referring to the requirements for high quality indicator sets is applied in several case studies, and in the end the participants develop an own index on the base of international data sets.

The first part of the course is related to the elaboration of theoretical framework conditions and to learning indicator methodologies. The discussed indicator systems are assigned to different scales, from local decision making processes over regional landscape planning concepts to international and global indicator systems that reflect an ecological or humanenvironmental context. In a second phase different indicator sets are presented by the students.

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 100.0%

Bibliography

Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources - CGER -

(2000): Ecological Indicators for the Nation. National Academy Press,

Washington DC

Jackson, L., J. Kurtz and W. Fisher (eds. 2000): Evaluation Guidelines

for Ecological Indicators, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC

Joergensen, S.E., R. Costanza and Xu, Fu-Liu (eds., 2005): Handbook

of Ecological Indicators for Assessment of Ecosystem Health. CRC

Press, Boca Raton

Wiggering, H. & F. Müller (eds.) (2003): Umweltziele und Indikatoren.

Springer - Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.

Wong, C. (2006): Indicators for Urban and Regional Planning: The

interplay of policy and methods. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group,

London, New York