Research themes

Climate change, sea level rise, and the increased human activities associated with a growing blue economy is putting the world’s oceans and coasts under pressure. About 40% of the world’s populations live 100 km from the coast, many of which depend on the marine ecosystems and their services to sustain their lives. This theme addresses these complex challenges by acknowledging the diverse values, needs and experiences that people associate with the ocean and the coast.

More than half of the global population live in cities that are traditionally built without the child, youth or elderly in mind. Children’s independent mobility and their possibility for actualizing environmental affordances are most crucial and the most threatening aspects of environmental child-friendliness of our modern societies. Moreover, one core determinant of health in later life is how and where one lives. In this theme we examine what kinds of environments can support children, youth and older adults’ mobility, physical activity and everyday encounters. We also help researchers and planning practitioners find ways to facilitate and motivate diverse groups to move outdoors and to plan child and age-friendly environments.

Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash.

This theme aims to promote open science in participatory mapping research by making most of our spatial analytical tools and data openly accessible and by developing methods and tools that support the move toward open science. We also facilitate use of open participatory mapping data, while protecting participants’ privacy.
(Photo credit: Viktor Forgacs)

This theme develops participatory mapping techniques for assessing the diverse values of nature, as well as conservation opportunities in urban, regional and rural landscapes. Substantial attention is devoted to advancing participatory mapping to support the design, planning and evaluation of nature-based solutions, and developing novel techniques for comparing and, where possible, integrating socially and ecologically important areas for conservation. We are also interested in advancing important topics related to the effect of global shocks like pandemics on connection to nature in diverse land-use settings.

This theme advances participatory mapping techniques to better understand the effects of exposure to different types of environments on urban lifestyles, health and well-being, and for identifying and predicting health promoting behaviours across space and time. We also examine the effects of policies and spatial planning on people’s lifestyles, physical activity and active mobility in their everyday living environments. Photo by Tamara Menzi on Unsplash.

This theme examines how participatory mapping techniques can be used to combine policies, information, planning, control, and negotiation for multiple land-use objectives, such as agricultural production, rural livelihoods and nature conservation. We also seek to understand how individuals and groups value multifunctional land uses, and how such values can be incorporated into environmental policy and decision-making at various geographic scales.

This theme focuses on the use of online PPGIS methods as a method to enhance public participation. Many countries have legislated to realize participatory planning in all urban and regional planning projects. Despite the legitimacy offered by participatory approaches, challenges remain how to implement participatory planning in practice. Participation is rarely comprehensive enough, while the data produced seldom translates into influential knowledge. Research in this field concentrates e.g. on how the views of participants can (1) smooth the planning and design processes and reduce the number of conflicts, (2) promote adaptation to continuously changing societal conditions, (3) strengthen recognition of the differing values of various actors. (4) support learning and knowledge-building and (5) help to achieve tangible regeneration outcomes It is also important to study what kind of new skills and professional roles planners need to develop more usable and effective participation practices,

This theme aims to present new concepts and methods for spatially representing and analysing issues of social and environmental justice. The theme focuses on challenges related to procedural, recognition and distributional aspects of justice, and how they can enhance inequality among human and more-than-human stakeholders. We are particularly interested in emerging topics like how to meaningfully engage marginalised groups in urban and regional planning using participatory mapping; and how to spatially assess and integrate elements of social and environmental justice in land-use planning protocols.