News

A new report for the Landscape Decisions Programme by Dr Neil Brummitt and Dr Ana Claudia Araujo of the Natural History Museum has just been released. The Report on the gaps, synergies and opportunities in the UK government’s 25 Year Plan for the Environment provides a detailed assessment of the government’s 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment, which was published in 2018.

The report offers a number of important recommendations. These include setting targets aimed at landscape-scale interventions, prioritising farming and fishing policies, and securing community buy-in from the largest sectors of society.

The full paper can be accessed at the link below.

A new paper drawing on research from the Landscape Decisions Programme has just been published in the journal People and Nature.

The paper, written by a team of interdisciplinary researchers, demonstrates why using a multi-lens framework can help produce more effective and more holistic landscape decisions.

The full paper can be accessed at the link below:

We are now inviting proposals for our final conference, Multifunctional Landscapes: From Research to Policy, to be held on 6-7 September at the Royal Society in London.

We are currently inviting scholars to submit papers for inclusion in the following sessions:     

• Caring for landscapes: can framings around care better align national strategies with local delivery?     
• Data and methods for understanding and promoting multifunctional landscapes     
• Inclusive landscape governance in a decision and policy context     
• Landscape complexity, system thinking and co-management     
• Towards a new framework for using land assets     
• Transforming and restoring landscapes for more resilient societies     
• Translating academic research into policymaking  

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 June 2023. Abstracts can be submitted via our ConfTool platform. Information about acceptance will be sent shortly afterwards.     

If you have any questions about the conference, please contact our team at landscapes@leicester.ac.uk.

A new report for the Landscape Decisions Programme by Dr Julie Urquhart, Dr Alice Goodenough and Dr Nenia Micha has just been released. Decision-support tools for sustainable landscapes: Enhancing farmer engagement shares findings from a series of research workshops to better understand farmers’ and farm advisors’ motivations for adopting decision-support tools in the UK and to provide recommendations for how uptake of decision-support tools can be enhanced.

The full paper can be accessed at the link below.

The EnsemblES team have published a new peer-reviewed paper in Science Advances.

The paper details how the team developed ensembles of multiple models at an unprecedented global scale for five ecosystem services of high policy relevance. These ensembles were 2 to 14% more accurate than individual models.

The full paper can be accessed on the Science Advances website and you can read more about the EnsemblES project at their project page.

We’re excited to announce details of the Landscape Decisions Programme 2023 conference, to be held on 6-7 September at the Royal Society in London.

The theme of our conference will be Multifunctional Landscapes: From Research to Policy. Speakers will be presenting findings from the programme and discussing its wider impact.

Full details on registration will be published shortly, but if you have any questions, please contact our team at landscapes@leicester.ac.uk. We hope to see you there!

Landscapes are places of wonder. Whether it is their natural beauty or their utility, we love them for many different reasons. Yet our landscapes are under threat from droughts, floods, and climate change, as well as increasing demands from land use change.

In a new animated video produced in partnership with the Like Minded, we explain how the Landscape Decisions Programme is addressing these challenges. You can view the video at our YouTube channel.

Our Changing Treescapes project team have released a new guide, Making Socio-Ecological Art and Science Collaboration Work.

The guide provides invaluable advice on how artists and arts-based researchers can work alongside natural and social scientists to develop inclusive environmental research projects. It details practical steps for finding and commissioning artists who have the appropriate skill sets and expertise, while also addressing concerns within the wider research community that bringing an arts perspective into applied research can be challenging.

The full guide is available to read for free at the link below.

We are delighted to announce the award of four new Policy Interface Fellowships to Dr Victoria Jenkins, Dr Leo Peskett, Dr Sophie Tindale, and Dr Martin Wilkes.

The Policy Interface Fellowships are intended to support the integration of research on landscape decision-making into policy. The four Fellows will each oversee a unique project aimed at ensuring interdisciplinary research and policy interfaces are improved both for the current Landscape Decisions Programme projects and for future research in the area of landscape decisions.

The Imagining the measure of change team have released a new report on their Deben Soundings project. The report details the work that has been undertaken during the project by visual artist Simon Read and coastal scientist Helene Burningham. Working together with the Deben Estuary Partnership (DEP), they have established an integrated research network of people and action that explores different approaches to enable and encourage community participation in the governance of the Deben Estuary landscape.

The Imagining the measure of change: Art, science and the estuary community project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Landscape Decisions Programme. More information on the project can be found at the Deben Soundings website.

The Landscape Decisions Programme Coordination Team (PCT) is pleased to launch a new report ‘Making Landscape Decisions to Meet Net Zero Carbon: Pathways that consider ethics, socio-ecological diversity, and landscape functions’

Written by a multidisciplinary team from across the programme brought together by the PCT, this report focuses on three key landscape types (agricultural, peatlands and forests), and the associated practices and impacts with relevance to the net zero carbon agenda. The report discusses the need for change, what change should look like and how it might best be achieved.

It offers key recommendations to address some of the contradictions of the current net zero carbon strategy; the need to invest in transdisciplinary approaches for landscape management decisions; ensure the right ecosystem is promoted in the right place, with no single land-use solution prioritised above others; and increase local and devolved decision-making capabilities.

Integrating perspectives from natural and social science, humanities, and the arts to understand and evaluate how modern landscapes can absorb the impact of potential zero-carbon policies, we are confident this report will be of interest to policymakers, stakeholders, and academics.

On 10 February, the Imagining the measure of change: art, science, and the estuary community (IMOT) project team will be hosting the latest of their Deben Soundings series of events.

Members of the team will be meeting in Waldringfield for a walk from the Maybush Inn downstream to Hemley saltmarsh. They will be joined by David Kemp, Coastal Team Leader for the Environment Agency, and Jon and Linda Wilkins of the Waldringfield Flood Defence Group.

The small settlement of Waldringfield sits at the centre of multiple spheres of interest, attracting visitors to sail, swim, relax on the beach and walk the estuary embankment, but also sitting alongside rich and varied wetland habitats that are host to rare species of wildfowl and wading birds.

Yet while these interests could, in different circumstances, be a recipe for chaos, around Waldringfield they have developed a measure of harmony and mutual dependence. The walk will therefore provide a fascinating exploration of how a complex range of interests within a semi-natural landscape can avoid slipping into conflict.

If you are interested in joining the walk, please meet at the Maybush at 10am. Following the walk, there will be a light lunch at 1pm. You can find more information on the event series at the project’s website.

We are pleased to announce that the Landscape Decisions Programme has been awarded funding by NERC to invite proposals for  Landscape Decisions policy interface fellowships. The submission deadline for these exciting new fellowships is 12 noon on 14 March 2022

Join us for this innovative workshop series

Using research being undertaken by LDP projects as examples and catalysts for discussion and shared learning, Workshop 1 will explore balancing acts integral to land-use decision-making. Workshop 2 will investigate ways of thinking about how humans make decisions. Workshop 3 will consider effective ways of facilitating good land-use decisions. The last Workshop was informed by participant suggestions made in the initial registration process and will be centred around forecasting innovative methods and tools

Register on the microsite

Can you think of a moment where being ‘in’ or ‘with’ landscape/nature guided you in some way, transformed the way you thought about something, or changed your direction (for work, or otherwise)?

We would love for you to share your transformational moments. Share your story in any way you like, verbally, through music, a PowerPoint presentation, dance, illustrations, photographs, or a combination! If you wish to contribute, please add your name to the spreadsheet in this folder and upload any high res material. You can also share material on the day in our open sessions.

We’re making our ‘moments’ into a short film and web content, but we’ll only highlight your work with your consent. If you can’t make the event but still wish to contribute, no problem, contact Anna at ahicks@bgs.ac.uk and we can set up a 1:1 chat.

Find out more about the LOTM network at the beginning of each of the sessions

Our network is working towards ways we can elevate creative practice to broaden the dialogue, and influence decisions if possible, about how landscapes are remembered, preserved or changed.

In the article Christopher mentions an occasion when he ‘watched a group of photographers, poets and artists talking about their different approaches to modernist industrial architecture, the subject of a Manchester School of Architecture research project supported by the UK Research and Innovation Arts and Humanities research Council (AHRC) and Natural Environment Research Council. ‘The Landscapes of Post-War Infrastructure’ thought creatively about powerful infrastructure like motorways, reservoirs and power stations. Photography, poetry and film were married with archival research and a broader understanding of the social forces which drove this innovation. This helped the team assess the quality of original planning decisions and made me understand these interventions across the breadth of human intervention in the environment. It is just one example of how attending to a problem through the same processes, but different methodologies and practices, leads to deeper, richer understanding’.

The main output from the MUDMAT project – a webtool developed by The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), and Forest Research Agency (FR) is live. The tool offers farmers, planners and tree planters guidance and a way of calculating how they can maximize the benefits of planting tree shelterbelts for ammonia recapture.

The tool includes information on a number of important aspects of planting, such as recommended planting distances and configurations, species which are better at ammonia capture and other aspects of design so that new planting for this purpose can optimize potential benefits and units located near existing woodland can be situated to capitalize on potential benefits.

Special Edition of Co-Design

Call for abstracts

Follow the links to find out more!

The Design Innovation and Land-Assets Landscape Heritage Research Network and associated sister project Design Innovation and Land-Assets: Towards New Thinking & Communities are leading a call for abstracts for a Special Issue of CoDesign – International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts.