2024

This year, D-BAUG students awarded Matteo Riva the "Golden Owl" in recognition of his dedication to teaching. Riva is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Spatial Planning and Landscape Development, where he evaluates landscape changes and the condition of ecosystems. For him, teaching is not just about the transfer of knowledge, but an inspiring exchange in which students and teachers can grow together.

As urbanization continues to rise, understanding the impact of urban greenery on human wellbeing becomes increasingly important. Our new paper investigates how different types of urban greenery and neighborhood contexts influence residents’ physiological and psychological responses.

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (UVEK) has conducted a consultation on the amendment to the Spatial Planning Regulations (RPV, Raumplanungsverordnung). The proposed changes take account of the need to limit buildings and soil sealing in landscapes and fertile agricultural land. IRL has responded to the consultation and commented on the draft amendments of the RPV.

The rapid increase in impervious surfaces presents significant challenges to sustainable land management. Our paper explores how sealed surfaces, often associated with urbanization, are also prevalent in rural regions and what these surfaces are used for.

Iryna Doronina, who was at PLUS with a Scholar at Risk scholarship, has explored how the destroyed Ukrainian energy infrastructure can be rebuilt using renewable energy. According to her findings, solar and wind power enable a rapid, decentralized supply and help prevent corruption.

As the popularity and capacity of generative AI continues to grow, our new paper looks at how these models can be used in the systematic review process to gain insight into assessing ecosystem condition.  

In June, my colleague Nantenaina and I organized a series of workshops, as part of Future Cities Lab Global Tana project. We tested our new strategy game, which aims to improve flood management in the peri-urban floodplains of Antananarivo and to explore the potential of blue-green infrastructure.

At the interface of landscape history and metacommunity theory, a new paper identifies the need to view the landscape through the lens of the past for better understanding of regional biodiversity patterns.

Within scenario-based research of social-ecological systems, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of normative scenarios that define positive outcomes for both nature and society.

For the seventh edition of the annual PLUS writing week, we returned to Vandans, Austria, for an inspiring and productive week of writing, discussions, and team building.

Earlier this month a new article was published, in which we, together with other partners in the SELINA project, have designed best-practice checklists to support practitioners in the assessment of ecosystem services.

A study by ETH Zurich shows new approaches on how an intercantonal harmonized monitoring of construction outside of building zones can contribute to sustainable spatial development. It offers a wide range of evaluations of developments outside the building zone, including analyses of the stabilization of buildings and soil sealing, as required by the recently revised Federal Spatial Planning Act (RPG 2).

Have you ever wondered how many vehicles pass through your favourite recreation area or nature reserve? This question can now be answered with our new global dataset on extra-urban road traffic volumes.

Lieber Damian. Herzliche Gratulation zu Deiner Ernennung als Professor of Practice in Raumplanung an der ETH Zürich.

Although economic growth is a key driver of biodiversity loss, the scenarios developed so far consider that the economy must continue growing. This leads to bleak futures for biodiversity. The paper suggests key methodological steps to include economic systems where the priority is not growth but the wellbeing of people and nature.  

Switzerland’s diversity of landscapes offers an ideal setting to describe the various interactions between Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) and biodiversity. In this recent study, we generated spatially explicit maps of 15 NCP indicators covering all of Switzerland, as well as one biodiversity map based on the distribution of over 1400 endangered species across various taxa.

Pioneering a holistic approach in Switzerland, this study redefines renewable energy siting by integrating ecosystem services and public preferences, challenging traditional methodologies that prioritize only technical and economic factors.

Damian Jerjen (*1973), currently Director of the Swiss association for spatial planning EspaceSuisse and Lecturer at ETH Zurich and other Swiss universities, as Professor of Practice at ETH Zurich.

As mountain areas experience increasing tourism, transportation, energy and agricultural development, the need to manage landscape fragmentation and preserve aesthetic and cultural qualities becomes increasingly relevant.

Manuel Sudau and Adrienne Grêt-​Regamey wrote a new article on analyzing argumentation patterns in political discourse for better policy design.