News
Building outside building zones has a significant effect on the visual quality of our landscapes
Our paper, “Visual exposure to buildings in Switzerland: spatial patterns and changes over six decades” published in Scientific Reports, examines exactly that question. Led by Andreas Moser, the paper combines historical and contemporary building footprint datasets with binary and cumulative viewshed analyses to quantify changes in building visibility from 1960 to 2024 in Switzerland.
Urban water project must consider landscape architects
Our new paper, published in Nature Water, argues from experience in Madagascar, that landscape architects can leverage precision modelling and vernacular intelligence to design resilient and culturally embedded solutions to floods.
Global expansion of the ecological impact of extra-urban road traffic
Our new study, published in Nature Sustainability, uncovers the growing global footprint of extra-urban road traffic and its ecological implications.
The pluralistic natural capital values of a tropical city
We finally made it! Our synthesis of the large NatCap project in Singapore «The pluralistic natural capital values of a tropical city» has been published in Ecosystem Services, presenting the most extensive Natural Capital Assessment carried out in a tropical urban setting.
Aligning spatiotemporal supply and demand of Nature's Contribution to People (NCPs) for sustainable resource management
Spatial and temporal mismatches between the supply of and demand for NCPs present significant challenges for municipalities. Analyzing their evolution over several decades reveals patterns, common pressures, and opportunities for coordinated management.
Four successful PhD defenses
In the past three months, four PLUS PhD students successfully defended their thesis work, investigating landscape changes from different angles and using different theoretical and methodological lenses.
PLUS returns to the sunny Saas Valley for their annual writing week
After two years in Austria, PLUS made a return to the lovely Saas Valley in Wallis for the 8th edition of the annual writing week.
New article in Ecological Indicators: Towards a standardised monitoring of ecosystem condition
Systematic monitoring of the health and quality of ecosystems is vital for effective conservation and restoration, yet the approaches used to assess ecosystem condition are diverse and often difficult to compare.
Venice Biennale: Designing resilient urban landscapes for Antananarivo
The final landscape designs, resulting from a five year long project of the Future Cities Lab Global, will be exhibited at Venice until Novembre 23rd this year.
New article in Agricultural and Food Economics journal: Do animals increase the productivity of Swiss farms?
Research assessed a database of 2500 Swiss farms, comparing the productivity of farms with and without farmed animals, showing that…
In Memoriam Prof. Dr. Jakob Maurer
Jakob Maurer, emeritus professor of spatial planning at ETH Zurich, passed away on 30 May aged 96.
New Publication in Landscape Ecology – Rethinking Habitat Availability Across Time and Space
New article in Nature Cities – Emotions overrule cognitive evaluations in urban neighborhood preferences
Peri-urban growth is reshaping rural areas and creating challenges. Using immersive experiments, this study finds that emotional reactions dominate over cognitive judgments, with people favoring urban and rural settings over peri-urban ones in neighborhood preferences
New article in Renewable Energy: GIS-based analysis for identifying priority regions and developing renewable energy in post-war Ukraine
Research assess the technical potential of solar and wind energy combined with environmental, social, and technical factors for determines priority regions for the development of renewable energy. For the first time in Ukraine, the research defines a detailed renewable energy potential using spatial analysis, with 25 indicators to assess regions and pixel suitability and considered local features such as restrictions on the use of agricultural land.
Policy Brief: Where in the agricultural landscape is bird conservation worthwhile?
A publication in “Agrarforschung Schweiz” summarizes the results of a recently published research article in a practice-oriented manner. As part of the study, a focus map by Agroscope, ETH Zurich and the University of Lausanne shows where in the Swiss agricultural landscape biodiversity measures could have a positive effect on birds and where not. Based on these findings, land use can be better planned.
What happens when the soil that sustains agriculture also becomes the foundation for building cities?
When I arrived in Madagascar three years ago, I was struck by an unexpected sight—piles of red bricks scattered across rice fields near Antananarivo. Curiosity led us to farmers and brick-makers, where we observed, interviewed, and pieced together a complex story—one of adaptation, resilience, and trade-offs.
New article in Ecosystem Services: Uncertainties in ecosystem services assessments and their implications for decision support
How assessing uncertainties can improve uptake of ecosystem services assessments in decision making.
New article in Cities: Predicting Settlement Development Pathways
Analyzing 120 years of settlement development reveals how archetypical pathways can be predicted and shifted.
New article in Renewable Energy – Advancing shared energy transition through strategic regional future developments
To advance energy transition, it is essential to understand residents’ views on regional energy transition and how it relates to local spatial development. This insight is key to identifying shared solutions.
New publication in Frontiers in Virtual Reality (Virtual Reality in Medicine) - Immersive virtual reality for gait rehabilitation
How can immersive virtual reality environments transform healthcare? Our latest research explores this question by developing a head-mounted display VR (HMD-VR) exergame to use in gait therapy. This study demonstrates the potential of high-fidelity virtual environments to provide patients with engaging and realistic training experiences tailored to their therapeutic needs.