The successful applicant will join the research project The Future Okavango - Scientific support for sustainable land and resource management in the Okavango basin, which is part of the Sustainable Land Management programme funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The Okavango basin with its variety of savannah woodlands and wetland ecosystems linked by the Okavango River is a global hot-spot of accelerating change and land use conflicts. The interdisciplinary research project is dedicated to provide scientific support to a sustainable resource management in the bordering countries of the Basin, Angola, Botswana and Namibia.
The region under investigation, a system of woodland savannas, floodplains and extended wetlands is of crucial global importance for biological diversity. Simultaneously it is threatened by rapid transformation through climate change, population growth and anthropogenic over-utilization of natural resources; potentially causing land- and water conflicts. A central question therefore is to attain an improved understanding of the interlinkages of human action, ecosystem function and -services, and influences of climate.
This understanding will help to evaluate and valorise existing ecosystem services and land uses within a socio-economic context and to discover potentials for improved land management. With an innovative and trans-disciplinary approach TFO aims at supporting the already well established communication between science and decision makers, for instance through the “Permanent Okavango River basin Water Commission (OKACOM), leading to the participatory implementation of research results.
PhD position on the assessment of land-use dynamics and their effects on ecosystem services and functions
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Burse
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2012-06-23, 00:00
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2025-09-29, 17:00
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Maria Dumitru
