Werner RolfTechnische Universität München | TUM · Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management
Werner Rolf
Dr. / PhD in Landscape Management
About
61
Publications
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430
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Introduction
Werner Rolf is landscape ecologist and environmental planner with interest in integrated landscape and ecosystem management, geoinformatics for landscape and ecosystem modelling, cooperative and collaborative research approaches. He is lecturer and researcher at the Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management at TUM, currently executive committee member of IALE-Europe, IALE-Germany, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Landscape Online.
Additional affiliations
September 2012 - October 2020
October 2000 - December 2012
Education
October 2017 - September 2020
Field of study
- Landscape Management, Faculty of Science, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography
October 1994 - February 2000
Field of study
- Land Stewardship with specialisation on environmental development and landscape conservation
Publications
Publications (61)
In recent years, Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) has gained broad political support and has evolved to become a new research topic in the area of sustainable urban development. The focus has been largely on green urban structures, such as parks and urban forest. The role and contribution of farmland has often been neglected. This work wants to scr...
During the last years Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) has evolved as a research focus across Europe. UGI can be understood as a multifunctional network of different urban green spaces and elements contributing to urban benefits. Urban agriculture has gained increasing research interest in this context. While a strong focus has been made on functio...
In this paper, we discuss the potential of incorporating algorithmic landscapes in Geodesign to enhance Green Infrastructure (GI) planning. In the first part of the paper, we identify the matches among all three subjects and how the methods may benefit from each other. GI planning is an ecological framework for environmental, social and economic su...
Urbanization and agricultural land use are two of the main drivers of global changes with effects on ecosystem functions and human wellbeing. Green infrastructure is a new and promising approach in spatial planning contributing to sustainable urban development, but rarely considers spatial and functional potentials of utilizable agricultural land a...
It has been 15 years by now that the International Association for Landscape Ecology – Chapter Germany (IALE-D) launched the e-journal Landscape Online. At the time of its first publication in 2007, to the best of our knowledge, it was one of the first open access peer-reviewed scientific e-journals in the field of Landscape Ecology. Over the last...
Green (and blue) spaces receive attention as important components of cities that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, support biodiversity and improve public health. Green space planning aims to transform cities towards urban sustainability and resilience. In a longitudinal study, representatives from eleven European municipalities t...
Significance Statement: This work addresses a research gap that exists when it comes to Green Infrastructure planning as a new spatial planning approach to develop multifunctional green networks. I introduce a typology for spatial planning to integrate peri-urban farmland in Green Infrastructure, supporting the development of a multifunctional open...
The current Deliverable 3.4.2 “Solution strategies for GI maintenance and development in the Alpine Space – Stakeholder specific recommendations” is the third report from WP3 and builds upon and completes the previous reports by Schrapp et al. (2020) and Hübner et al. (2021) and has two main foci:
- Different factors of success in relation to chal...
Orchards, forests, rivers, green paths… There is a great variety of spaces connecting mountain ecosystems and urban centres. Each of these natural or semi-natural spaces, also referred as green infrastructures, brings environmental, economical and societal benefits: supply of food, water, materials, recreation areas, pollination, climate regulation...
As different governance approaches applied within the LUIGI case study areas, four of them are depicted as in-depth cases studies. The variety of governance structures, differences of involved stakeholders, their interaction, goals and the network between them are highlighted. The differing landscapes and the socio-economic contexts result in a dis...
As different governance approaches applied within the LUIGI case study areas, four of them are depicted as in-depth cases studies. The variety of governance structures, differences of involved stakeholders, their interaction, goals and the network between them are highlighted. The differing landscapes and the socio-economic contexts result in a dis...
This book stems ffrom the research activities carried out throughout the LUIGI project (EU Interreg Alpine Space). It thoroughly illustrates various ecological, economic, governance, political and educational challenges related to Green Infrastructure, paying particular attention to the geographic area of the Alpine Space.
Being a collective effort...
Orchard meadows are traditional agroforestry systems in Europe and important elements of the biotope network, home to more than 5,000 animal and plant species, over 3,000 fruit varieties, which makes them rescue islands for the conservation of biological and genetic diversity. While being an actively used component of the cultural landscape, orchar...
Orchard meadows are traditional agroforestry systems in Europe and important elements of the biotope network, home to more than 5,000 animal and plant species, over 3,000 fruit varieties, which makes them rescue islands for the conservation of biological and genetic diversity. While being an actively used component of the cultural landscape, orchar...
As part of the LUIGI project, this report contributes to one of the five specific objectives of the EUSALP AG7; to strengthen, improve and restore biodiversity, as well as Ecosystem Services (ESS) by Green Infrastructure (GI), by improving GI-governance approaches. To address participatory and governance approaches for spatial development of GI in...
AVAILABLE AS OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
Concepts such as green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and ecosystem services gained popularity in recent discourses on urban planning. Despite their recognition as innovative concepts, all of them share a degree of ambiguity. Fuzziness can be a weakness but also an opportunity to shape novel concepts togeth...
The first activity (Activity 3.1) will result in report DT3.1.1 to show-cast the potpourri of promising concepts across the Alpine countries. The scope of the first report DT3.1.1 covers three aspects:
I. Put the selected pilot-regions from the six participating Alpine countries on display, summarize their characteristics, that gave reasoning for...
A concept that has had considerable influence on the potential of greenspace to help meet urban challenges is that of green infrastructure, which emerged in the USA in the 1990s as a way to help combat uncontrolled urban sprawl. The concept of green-space-as-infrastructure only strengthened as it began being promoted by the US Environmental Protect...
Le green infrastructure urbane (Ugi) rappresentano un nuovo approccio allo sviluppo di reti di spazi verdi e blu che offrono molteplici vantaggi alla società. Le Ugi offrono il potenziale per affrontare con successo le principali sfide dell’urbanizzazione, per migliorare la qualità della vita e promuovere la trasformazione verso la sostenibilità e...
Urbanization and agricultural land use are two of the main drivers of global changes with effects on ecosystem functions and human wellbeing. Green Infrastructure is a new approach in spatial planning contributing to sustainable urban development, and to address urban challenges, such as biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, green e...
Urbanization and agricultural land use are two of the main drivers of global changes with effects on ecosystem functions and human wellbeing. It is believed that due to the long development history of ‘mature’ cities and to their existing infrastructure, the resulting path dependencies are difficult to change. Nevertheless, urban agglomerations are...
Grüne Infrastruktur ist ein neuartiger Ansatz für die Landschaftsplanung. Seine Innovationspotenziale bestehen in der umfassenden Sicht auf Natur und Landschaft, die ökologische, sozio-kulturelle, ästhetische und ökonomische Aspekte beinhaltet und vielfältige gesellschaftspolitische Ziele wie den Klimawandel oder sozialen Zusammenhalt aufgreift. Da...
With increasing visitor numbers and the diversification of recreational activities in protected areas (PAs), careful visitor management is required to avoid potential visitor conflicts as well as exceeding the carrying capacity of an area (Meijles et al., 2014). To preserve the area’s resources and to ensure a positive visitor experience, detailed...
The European landscape has been suffering a significant loss of natural habitats because of landscape fragmentation due to intensive human activities and scattered grey infrastructure. Such processes, resulting in an alarming increase of environmental threats and social conflicts, are likely to jeopardize even more in the future social integration,...
Available here: https://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/BfN/service/Dokumente/skripten/Skript_498.pdf
The concept of ‘urban green infrastructure’ captures an appreciation of urban green as essential infrastructure that is as important to a good quality of urban life as technical or social infrastructures. The approach emphasises the multitude of services and functions performed by urban green, all of which impact on the quality of life and on susta...
The focus of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) research for sustainable urban development has been largely on green urban structures, such as parks and urban forest. The role and contribution of farmland has often been neglected. This presentation wants to scrutinise the potential of farmland’s contribution to the basic conception of UGI. First it r...
This presentation will give insights in the research process of two projects on urban green infrastructure strategy development-the European FP7 project GREEN SURGE (2014-2017), and the German "Green Infrastructure in Urban Areas", funded by the German Federal Agency of Nature Conservation (2016). Both projects aimed on the development of urban gre...
Urban green infrastructure (UGI) plays an important role in the many urban challenges of the 21st century. This report summarizes and integrates the main findings which are presented in the GREEN SURGE deliverables and scientific papers. With this, our work contributes to important debates around UGI. This includes debates around which benefits are...
This guide aims to provide a tools for navigating through important urban green space governance principles and issues. The guide synthesises results from the European research project GREEN SURGE about the current state-of-art of knowledge and innovative practice of UGI governance (see also: www.greensurge.eu). The guide is aimed at a broad range...
Urban green infrastructure (UGI) aims for the strategic development of networks of green and blue spaces to respond to major urban environmental and social challenges such as reducing the ecological footprint, improving human health and wellbeing and climate change adaptation. In an urban context, UGI has been interpreted in different ways ranging...
Urbane grüne Infrastruktur steht für eine Wertschätzung von Stadtgrün als eine essenzielle Infrastruktur, die für ein gutes Leben in der Stadt ebenso wichtig ist wie technische oder soziale Infrastruktur. Der Ansatz betont die vielfältigen Leistungen und Funktionen von urbanem Grün, die Einfluss auf die Lebensqualität und Nachhaltigkeit
haben. Er b...
Urbane grüne Infrastruktur steht für eine Wertschätzung von Stadtgrün als eine essenzielle Infrastruktur, die für ein gutes Leben in der Stadt ebenso wichtig ist wie technische oder soziale Infrastruktur. Der Ansatz betont die vielfältigen Leistungen und Funktionen von urbanem Grün, die Einfluss auf die Lebensqualität und Nachhaltigkeit
haben. Er b...
The complexities inherent in planning for green infrastructure necessitate a broad range of stakeholders for its planning and implementation. This includes policymakers and practitioners from different disciplines but also scientists, among other stakeholders.
Transdisciplinarity is now also encouraged or even stipulated by European and national fu...
This report presents the findings of the GREEN SURGE Work Package 5 research on good practices
of green infrastructure (UGI) planning and implementation in European urban areas. Four
research questions guided the study:
-What are innovative strategies and approaches for UGI planning, especially in regard to
challenges European cities are facing?
-W...
GREEN SURGE Deliverable 5.2 “Advanced approaches and strategies for UGI planning
and implementation”. The contents of this report outline the results of the second
phase of research on green infrastructure planning and implementation in Europe as
part of the EU FP7 project GREEN SURGE (ENV.2013.6.2-5-603567; 2013-2017)
Our work follows the hypothesis, that light land use management practice is crucial for balancing food production, the maintenance of biodiversity and ES, and is an essential component to provide multifunctionality in agricultural production systems on a regional scale. The presentation will be held in German.
Rationale:
The linkage between land...
A map of ecosystem distribution is an essential reference for assessing ecosystem services. We will present test runs of a quantitative analysis approach based on a gradient data model to develop a map that reflects the distribution of ecosystems. In the first phase we use a pure biogeographical approach. We select biologically relevant environment...
In the last years the valorisation of local food products has been focus of many initiatives. This presentation will focus on positive effects of this approach from the landscape perspective:
Local food has been focus of many initiatives as an alternative to the conventional food system, focusing on rural development as well as to meet the growing...
In der heutigen Zeit sind im alltäglichen Schäfereibetrieb geklärte Triebwegeverhältnisse eine wichtige Voraussetzung für einen reibungslosen Ablauf des Arbeitsalltags. Die Triebwegesituation zählt mit zu den dringlichsten Problemen der Schäfereibetriebe. Untersuchungen legen nahe,, dass ein funktionierendes Triebwegenetz für die Beweidung ebenso w...
The article describes the outcome of the course development „Geodatenmanager Umwelt“ at Nuertingen Geislingen University, which is part of the advanced education programme „U3 – Umweltinformatik Unterricht für Umweltplaner“. Target group of this programme are professionals of the so called “green” jobs as well as students of landscape planning and...
A map of ecosystem distribution is an essential reference for assessing ecosystem services. We suggest that a map of the natural distribution of species assemblages is an ecosystem map and that multiple ecological niche models can be used to create it. As the biogeographical context is understood to be a driving force of the character of a landscap...
At our University we developed a course for further training and professional education in landscape and environmental planning,
commenced in 2001 [1]. The main content are Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Data Management Systems, and Visualisation.
We introduce relevant software, but apply and teach them from a landscape planning point of v...
The article describes the outcome of the course development "Geodatenmanager Umwelt" at Nurtingen Geislingen University, which is part of the advanced education programme "U3 - Umweltinformatik Unterricht fur Umweltplaner". Target group of this programme are professionals of the so called "green" jobs as well as students of landscape planning and n...
New approaches in science, research and in the international nature conservation policy as well, demand the protection of whole ecosystems and species comunities. To develop ecosystem oriented planning instruments a GIS method will be presented which allows to execute an extensive data analysis under biogeographical criteria. This method, developed...
Projects
Projects (7)
By recognising the pressures on Alpine ecosystems and the services they deliver to wider areas beyond mountain regions, the project aims to strengthen the link between mountain ecosystems and urban centres at the foot of the Alps, based on sound economic and social exchanges.
The project aims to recognise and valorise the joint benefits deriving from a GI network between mountain/rural and urban areas as well as their potential for sustainable economic development, based on natural capital and ecosystem services that participate in assuring higher quality of life & better urban environments to people living in urban centres.
Based on sound experience on ESS, GIs and town-networks, the project aims at:
a) making policy makers aware of alpine ecosystems, GIs & the services they deliver to urban areas;
b) identifying & assessing the economic, environmental and social benefits delivered by alpine ESS through GIs to urban centres and metropolitan areas;
c) developing business models to seize the market potential of conserving & enhancing rural ESS/GIs & mobilise financial resources (e.g. through public-private partnerships) in their support;
d) sharing on the transnational level knowledge on alpine/rural ecosystems/GIs & effective techniques for their maintenance & enhancement;
e) providing tools to match demand & supply of alpine ESS in regional, metropolitan & urban markets.
Results are achieved by running tests & implementing actions in pilot-regions in 6 Alpine countries, where different GIs linking urban to mountain/rural areas are addressed, by also considering GIs’ identity & cultural values LUIGI aims to implement the EUSALP political declaration of Alpine States and Regions on “Alpine GIs” (2017) calling for setting up transnational pilot projects addressing EU-relevant GIs. LUIGI also aligns to the thematic actions of the Green Economy Action Plan of the Alpine Convention, adopted by the 15th Alpine Conference (2019)
Urban green infrastructure has emerged as a concept for innovative green space planning and governance. In 2014, the European research project GREEN SURGE gathered data on the state of affairs in green space planning and governance in 20 European cities, revealing the diversity of European cities and their activities but also commonalities such as struggles to protect green spaces from densification, to combat the effects of climate change or for more inclusive and just decision-making processes.
In 2020, public awareness of environmental challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss has risen, increasing the popularity of urban greening and giving tailwind to concepts such as green infrastructure. Against this background, it could be assumed that green space planning and management is also gaining in importance within the municipal system. However, path dependencies, budget and staff shortages, competing spatial claims, and other constraints may prevent stakeholders responsible for urban greening to gain sufficient public support for translating into real changes on the ground.
By reinvestigating the GREEN SURGE case study cities, we will shed light on the question if and how green space planning and governance have changed. The results from the GREEN SURGE project provide a unique opportunity for such a comparison as this study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth information on green space planning and governance of European urban areas to date. Moreover, we address the deficit of longitudinal studies in planning research.
A team of international researchers contribute to project which is coordinated by Hochschule Geisenheim University, Technische Universität München and Wageningen University.
Duration: 07/2020-06/2021
The objective of the Landscape Planning working group is to provide a forum for a continuous debate and exchange of landscape planning scientists and practitioners concerning emerging challenges, topical issues as well as the further development of landscape planning theory and methods. The members of the working group meet regularly, share experiences, and jointly advance landscape planning for the benefit of people and nature. To achieve its objective, the working group undertakes the following activities:
- Regularly organizes symposia and workshops at IALE’s world or regional conferences,
- Identifies topical challenges, trends and current developments of landscape planning,
- Engages in joint publications, and
- Explores options for further collaboration in joint research projects.
