Wilhelm Windhorst

• Kiel University

Environmental stressors and population growth have significantly affected terraced rice ecosystems, such as in the Sapa district in northern Vietnam. The question arises how natural and socio-economic components determine the amount of rice yields. This study combines a hybrid neural-fuzzy inference system (HyFIS) with GISbased methods to generate...

Rice production and related ecosystem services provision are strongly dependent on environmental characteristics and socio-economic factors. There are still various knowledge gaps among decision makers for the development of sustainable agriculture strategies and to improve food security. Farmers can often not clearly understand issues related to r...

The complex interactions between environmental and anthropogenic components have significantly influenced rice cultivation. The clear understanding of these interactions is important to (i) optimize rice provisioning ecosystem service (ES) supply, (ii) minimize negative impacts on other ES and (iii) choose suitable strategies for sustainable agricu...

Marine aquaculture is facing a variety of competing uses in densely populated coastal areas such as the coast of Kiel Bay. Thus, a major barrier for extending the marine aquaculture business could be the lack of suitable space for “offshore farming”. Moreover, in public opinion the aquaculture sector is often associated with a negative image derive...

The Durowskie Lake situated in Wągrowiec (Poland) is the postglacial lake, used for recreation and sport fishing activities. Its surface is 143.7 ha and the maximum depth is 14.6 m. Few years ago it was strongly eutrophic with cyanobacterial water blooms. Restoration measures started in 2009 using three methods: oxygenation of hypolimnetic waters u...

Nach der EU-Richtlinie 2001/18/EC (European Community 2001) soll eine Koexistenz zwischen konventionell, ökologisch und mit Mitteln der Gentechnik erzeugtem Mais (GV-Mais) gewährleistet werden. Für den Anbau und für die Weiterverarbeitung soll die Entscheidungsfreiheit der Landwirte und Verbraucher offen gehalten werden. Somit muss in der Agrarland...

In Verbundvorhaben GeneRisk war es Aufgabe des Arbeitsbereichs „Wirkungsanalyse, Raumbezug Schleswig-Holstein, GIS-Modellkopplung und -anwendung Mais“, Betroffenheitskulissen, die sich durch den Anbau von GVP (gentechnisch veränderte Pflanzen) ergeben würden, über räumliche Analysen darzustellen und zu quantifizieren. Vor dem Hintergrund einer räum...

Das Modell MaMo kann je nach Datenverfügbarkeit für Räume mit mehr als 70.000 Feldern angewendet werden. Das Potenzial der Modellanwendungen umfasst damit Skalen von mehreren Quadratkilometern bis zu mehreren 10.000 Quadratkilometern. Modellläufe können sowohl ausgewählte Regionen und Landkreise, aber auch größere Bundesländer abbilden. Im Rahmen d...

In today’s world the urge for economic growth overwhelms the need to consider sustainable development. In order to ensure the sustainable use of the coastal resources, it is important to facilitate alignment of interests of the many stakeholders over the issue. Several studies stress the importance of applying traditional knowledge in the implement...

Ecohydrology is a relatively new and rapidly growing subject area in the hydrology curriculum. It is a trans-disciplinary science derived from the larger earth systems science movement and examining mutual interactions of the hydrological cycle and ecosystems. It is also an applied science focused on problem solving and providing sound guidance to...

Ecohydrology is a relatively new and rapidly growing subject area in the hydrology curriculum. It is a trans-disciplinary science derived from the larger earth systems science movement and examining mutual interactions of the hydrological cycle and ecosystems. It is also an applied science focused on problem solving and providing sound guidance to...

Ecological indication is the most relevant way to approximate the implications of cause–effect networks which go beyond spatio-temporal extents of direct experimental accessibility. Risk analysis and risk management of genetically modified plants are an application field where indication of potential effects on the landscape and regional scale is r...

Potential environmental as well as socio-economic effects of the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape (OSR) may be caused by large-scale dispersal of transgenes. We present an up-scaling approach that was based on scenario assumptions concerning the percentage of GM cultivation and took into account natural and anthropogenic variat...

Coastal and marine areas experience physical and ecological as well as social and economic change, caused by pressure from climate change and globalization related processes. This change may include changes in species composition, hydrodynamic and morphological patterns, but also new patterns of land and sea use, all together translating into chall...

In the not too distant future several power plants throughout Europe will have to be replaced and the decision has to be made whether to build coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS). In a study for the city of Kiel in northern Germany only an 800 MW coal power plant reaches a required minimum for rentability. This study looks...

Marine and coastal uses have been growing almost everywhere in the world. Manifold human activities like fishery, shipping, military, raw material exploitation, nature protection or, since recent times, offshore wind power are competing for limited resources and space. The development and implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)...

Landscapes differ in their capacities to provide ecosystem goods and services, which are the benefits humans obtain from nature. Structures and functions of ecosystems needed to sustain the provision of ecosystem services are alte-red by various human activities. In this paper, a concept for the assessment of multiple ecosystem services is propo-se...

Driven by a range of global developments, marine and coastal areas are faced with profound change. In Germany, the emergence of offshore wind farms is a new permanent large-scale activity which is much debated as a symbol for the increasing 'industrialisation' of coastal and marine waters.Within the research project 'Zukunft Küste - Coastal Futures...

The GeneRisk research consortium analysed the implications of the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The risks involved transcend the borders of very different systems. Therefore, they need to be analysed using interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. One central scientific issue was the assessment of the spatial implic...

Human exploitation and use of marine and coastal areas are apparent and growing in many regions of the world. For instance, fishery, shipping, military, raw material exploitation, nature protection and the rapidly expanding offshore wind power technology are competing for limited resources and space. The development and implementation of Integrated...

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) promises to allow for low-emissions fossil-fuel-based power generation. The technology is under development; a number of technological, economic, environmental and safety issues remain to be solved. CCS may prolong the prevailing coal-to-electricity regime and countervail efforts in other mitigation categories. Give...

This paper takes the move from the uncertainty surrounding ecosystem thresholds and addresses the issue of ecosystem-state assessment by means of ecological integrity indicators and ‘ecological risk‘. The concept of ‘ecological risk‘ gives a measure of the likelihood of ecosystem failure to provide the level of natural ecological goods and services...

Offshore wind power generation represents a chance to supply energy in a more sustainable way; however, the ecological risks associated with the construction and operation of offshore wind farms are still largely unknown. This paper uses the concept of ecological risk for analysing ecological changes during construction of offshore wind farms. “Eco...

This paper represents an overview of feasible modelling approaches concerning the habitat suitability as well as the development of "biological quality components", which are to be consulted as indicators of reaching the "good ecologically state" within the implementation of the European water framework directive. An analysis of the coherent litera...

Today’s society is concerned with a multitude of events affecting the ecosystems of our planet, ranging from natural processes such as weather anomalies and climate changes to man-made phenomena such as the impact of environmental chemicals or occupational and outdoor noise. To better understand and assess the importance of these events and to reso...

Economic cost–benefit appraisal (and its sub-set cost-effectiveness) of ecosystem conservation and/or pollution abatement strategies have proved to be powerful decision-making aids. But the monetary economic valuation of ecosystem goods and services (gains and losses) can only provide a good indication of social welfare impacts under certain condit...

The definition of a good ecological status of coastal waters requires a close cooperation between sciences (natural and socio-economic) and decision makers. An argument is presented for the use of ecosystem integrity assessment based on indicators of function and state. Ecosystem integrity is understood to be reflected in exergy capture (here expre...

This group report gives an overview of applications of and issues in integrated assessment (IA) applied in the coastal zone area in Europe. We conclude that there are various reasons why IA is sometimes not successful. For instance, integrated assessment tends to be highly specific, dialogues are seldom an integral part and environmental thresholds...

This paper presents a holistic strategy on the interaction of activities in the Elbe river basin and their effects on eutrophication in the coastal waters of the German Bight. This catchment–coastal zone interaction is the main target of the EUROCAT (EUROpean CATchments, catchment changes and their impact on the coast) research project, with the El...

This chapter outlines the basic features and innovative aspects of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Particular emphasis is given to problems and issues arising from the technical implementation of the environmental objectives set by the Directive. The difficulties of interpretation of key concepts such as ecological status, indicators and refer...

Im vorliegenden Text werden einige Grundlagen für die Konzeption einer Ökosystemschutz-Strategie vorgestellt, und es werden Möglichkeiten für eine ganzheitliche Indikation des Ökozustandes diskutiert. Dabei werden zunächst die gesellschaftlichen Erfordernisse für die Eignung des Ökosystemansatzes abgeleitet.

Sustainable Development stresses the relevance of ecological systems for fulfilling social and economic development objectives. It demands a risk-averse treatment of the global life-support systems in environmental decision-making, e.g., in sustainable landscape management. While specific sustainability guidelines exist for many facets of the human...

Ecosystem Research at the Ecology Center studies the structure and dynamics of representative ecosystems in dependence of natural constraints and human influences. The main research area is the Bornhoved Lakes region about 30 km south of Kiel in northern Germany. Mapping, intensive measurements, and modelling, as well as integrated studies of local...

Looking at the expected results, as they have been formulated by Jan Rotmans, the conceptual model Targets aims to serve researchers, policy analysts and policy makers as an integrated assessment framework for questions connected with Global Change and Sustainable Development. Targets therefore shall cover quantitative and qualitative linkages amon...

On example of Osterau, we show the advantages of digital compared to manual methods of calculating hydrological catchment areas - as a hierarchical level of evaluating regional environmental situations - as it was usually done in the 'Gewasserkundlichen Flachenverzeichnis Schleswig-Holstein'. In general the advantages of the digital method are the...

In diesem Beitrag wird der Gl-Arbeitskreis “Umweltdatenbanken — Entwurfs- und Implementierungsaspekte” vorgestellt: die Motivation, aus der heraus wir diesen Arbeitskreis gegründet haben, das, was wir bisher getan haben und die Ergebnisse, die daraus entstanden sind. Aus den Beiträgen verschiedener Arbeitskreismitglieder werden die Forderungen abge...

Ziel des Vortrages ist die Darstellung der Anforderungen und derzeitigen Lösungswege bei der Erfassung, Sicherung, Verwaltung und Auswertung der im Projektzentrum Ökosystemforschung erfaßten Daten. Zur Z eit beteiligen sich ca. 50 Wissenschaftler, 15 Techniker und über 100 Studenten von mehr als 20 verschiedenen Lehrstühlen der Universität Kiel, de...

While eutrophication creates impacts on coastal ecosystems and can result in negative impacts on coastal eco-system services, its source is often located far away from the coast, related to nutrient emissions from river catchments. Within the EU funded EUROCAT project a chain of tools and models were applied to assess these catchment-coast interact...

Coastal zones are areas where high future conflicts between environmental, social and economic targets are expected. Multiple stakeholders with different fields of interests are involved in the process of conceiving sustainable land-and sea-use strategies in coastal zones. To support the upcoming management and decision processes educated actors ar...

These and other questions were the reason for developing a range of methods including computer modelling and spacial analysis. The methods aim at a small-scale description of processes involved and a large-scale transfer of results. The work is carried out within the joint research project 'Generic Methods of Investigation and Extrapolation of Oils...

Using the German North Sea coast and large scale development plans for offshore wind farms as examples for changing use patterns, the article describes the scenario approach used in the BMBF funded research project "Zukunft Kueste – Coastal Futures" as a tool for an integrated assessment of potential coastal developments. The approach examines a ra...