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Institut
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The worldwide decline of plant and insect species during the last decades has far-reaching consequences for the functionality of ecosystems and their inherent processes. Pollination as one of them is an indispensable ecosystem service for human wellbeing. More than 85% of the worldwide flowering-plant species depend to some degree on pollination by insects (pollinators). Similarly, many pollinators depend on the flowers of the plants, as they need nectar and pollen as food resources for themselves and their offspring. However, an increasing number of pollinator and plant species are threatened by multiple, interacting, and sometimes synergistic causes (habitat loss, fragmentation, diseases, parasites, pesticides, monocultures) that are becoming a growing threat to ecosystem functioning. Given the loss of plant species diversity, it is increasingly difficult for pollinators to find food throughout the year. Therefore, this study analyses the influence of plant diversity on pollinators. The study was conducted in the course of the Jena Experiment, which is a long-term biodiversity experiment (since 2002) with 60 plant species, common to Central European Arrhenatherum grasslands. With a plant diversity gradient of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 60 plant species per plot, time-series data resulted from a wide range of ecosystem processes, ranging from productivity, decomposition, C-storage, and N-storage to herbivory, and pollination. These were studied to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem processes.
Chapter 2 studies the spatio-temporal distribution of pollinators on flowers along an experimental plant diversity gradient. For this purpose, the pollinators were divided into four different functional groups, i.e. honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. In particular, the spatial pollinator behaviour was examined, that is, in which flowering height the flowers were visited within the plant community. In order to study the temporal component, pollinator visits were observed over the course of the day and the season. As a result, an unprecedented high resolution of plant-pollinator interactions was found. For the first time it was possible to demonstrate that the different pollinator functional groups can complementarily use different spatio-temporal niches which was most pronounced in species-rich plant mixtures,. This leads to the conclusion that species-rich plant mixtures provide sufficient resources that can be used by generalists, such as honeybees and bumblebees, as well as other pollinator functional groups, such as hoverflies and solitary bees.
Chapters 3 and 4 continues on the chemical composition of flower nectar (nectar) of various plant species. Nectar is used as food resource for adult pollinators, but is also largely used as a supply for their offspring, making it the most important pollinator reward. The chemical composition of the nectar was analysed for the two most important macronutrients, carbohydrates (C) and amino acids (AA), using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Subsequently, their contents were analysed in terms of concentration, proportional content and the ratio of carbohydrates to amino acids (C:AA).
In Chapter 3, the nectar of 34 plant species from the grasslands of the Jena Experiment was compared. In doing so, similarities and/or differences of the nectar compositions were investigated with respect to the most important macronutrients carbohydrates and amino acids between the individual species but also between the most representative plant families. This should lead to a better understanding about how plant diversity influences consuming pollinators and which factors, e.g. phylogenetics, morphology or ecology, can lead to different nectar compositions. We could show that each plant species differs in terms of carbohydrate content, amino acid content and C:AA-ratio. In addition, there were clear differences between the four representative plant families Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Lamiaceae regarding the proportions of essential amino acids. The proportions of the individual sugars and the C:AA-ratios also differed greatly between the four plant families. Therefore, it can be assumed that these nectar contents are family-specific. The need for differences in carbohydrate content are probably due to the different morphology of the flowers, as plants with open flowers and exposed nectar, as in Apiaceae and Asteraceae, can protect their nectar from evaporation if the nectar has a higher osmolality, which can be achieved by a higher hexose (fructose and glucose) content. Thus, the nectar can remain dilute for a longer time and consequently remain consumable for pollinators, which in turn can contribute to the pollination of plants. Fabaceae and Lamiaceae showed different results. Here the nectar was probably protected from evaporation by closed flowers, which explains the high proportion of sucrose, leading to a lower osmolality that would enhance evaporation for exposed nectar. The metabolic pathways controlling the family-specific C:AA-ratios are yet to be explored. In conclusion, it can be suggested that this study contributes to elucidating the morphological and phylogenetic characteristics that control each plant species’ nectar composition.
In Chapter 4, nectar was investigated in the context of diversity effects on the example of the plant species Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis. It was analysed to what extent the nectar quality (nutrient content) differs between plant individuals of one species. The underlying factors causing these differences in nectar composition have never been studied before. In order to investigate these coherences, plant communities in the Jena Experiment of different plant species richness levels containing the target plant species K. arvensis were used. In particular, we examined whether the nectar of K. arvensis is influenced by other neighbouring plant species, e.g. through competition for pollinators. The carbohydrate and amino acid content in nectar varied both between individuals of K. arvensis and between the different plant species richness levels. However, there were significant non-linear differences in the proportions of certain essential and phagostimulatory amino acids, which were produced proportionally more in the nectar of K. arvensis plants in species-rich plant communities, while histidine, one of the generally inhibiting amino acids tended to be less present. Our findings therefore suggest that the nectar of K. arvensis is more palatable when the plants grow in species-rich plant communities.
Overall, these studies indicate how fragile plant-pollinator interactions are but also how important plant species-rich grasslands are to support plant-pollinator interactions. Increased plant species diversity is essential to ensure the availability of flowering resources throughout the year. Pollinators, such as honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, and hoverflies can use the niches in time and in vertical space complementarily. However, in plant species-poor grasslands there may be more niche overlaps, which is probably due to a reduced availability of resources. This points to the need to include different plant species belonging to different plant families, whose nectar may have evolved in response to morphological flower traits and metabolic pathways. Therefore plant species diversity can supply pollinators with nectar differing in carbohydrate and amino acid content and thus differing in quality. Also C-AA ratios have proven to be a useful measurement to reveal differences between plant species. In addition, C:AA ratios were not differing in nectar of K. arvensis individuals growing in different plant species richness levels, although their nectar seemed to be more attractive in mixtures with 16 plant species, likely due to higher content of essential and phagostimulatory amino acids than in plant species-poor mixtures. Thus further research investigating diversified farming systems, including pollinator-friendly practices to reveal the attractiveness of different plant species. More diversified field margins and grasslands, for the maintenance of pollinator services for sustainable provision of crop pollination.
Increasing objections have been formulated towards broadening the security category. Securitisation is used to bring attention to urgent and existential threats that cannot be resolved through ordinary political decisions. During the time of the state of emergency between 2015 and 2017, France strengthened its security forces and introduced generalised surveillance measures to curb the terrorist threat. The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to problematise the securitisation of terrorism in the French case. To do so, the Just Securitisation Theory by Rita Floyd is used to examine the following research question: Was it just to securitise terrorism in France between 2015 and 2017? Through critical discourse analysis of 54 presidential speech acts and secondary text analysis, this study aims to scrutinise securitising moves and security practices of the French government. The presented results indicate that the justness of securitisation is highly questionable. The analysis shows that the governments set excessive goals of eliminating terrorism and that security measures were misappropriated to fight organised crime instead of terrorism.
Destination websites, which are maintained by destination marketing/management organisations (DMOs), are a key source of information for tourists in the pre-trip phase. DMOs are increasingly applying experiential marketing on their websites to support positive pre-travel online destination experiences (ODEs) and make the vision of the holiday as vivid as possible. Thereby they aim to turn virtual visitors into physical visitors. However, research into technology-driven travel experiences is still in its infancy. In particular, a theoretical understanding of the nature of ODEs arising from destination websites is still lacking. Closing this knowledge gap is of great interest from a theoretical perspective; furthermore, it is of central importance for strategic marketing-controlling of destinations. Therefore, this dissertation is dedicated to an extensive investigation of ODEs on destination websites in the pre-travel phase. The aims were to analyse the influences of experiential design on ODEs, explore the ODE dimensions, and develop and validate a measurement tool for assessing the ODE values of destination websites.
In the first qualitative multi-method study (eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews, and video observations), the objective was to gain an in-depth understanding of the ODE facets in the travel inspiration phase. It was found that the experience dimensions adopted in previous research regarding the product-brand context (sensory, affective, intellectual, social, and behavioural dimensions) also occurred in the ODE context but exhibited some particularities, such as a future-oriented affective component (affective forecasting). Moreover, a supplementary spatio-temporal experience dimension was identified. An online field experiment was subsequently conducted and aimed at assessing the effects of applying experiential marketing on destination websites on ODEs in the travel inspiration phase. Based on the findings of Study 1, an initial attempt at developing an ODE measurement instrument was made and the ODE dimensionality tested. The results showed the theoretically relevant experience dimensions to be less differentiated compared to the product-brand context; instead, they merged into a holistic ODE encompassing several experience facets. Furthermore, it was shown that the application of experiential design enhanced ODEs; however, considering the subjectivity of experiences, the effect was rather small. Accordingly, complex multi-media elements do not automatically increase the experiential effect.
In the third study, a quasi-online field experiment was conducted, simulating the travel information phase (higher involvement than Study 2) to re-assess the ODE dimensions and develop and validate a measurement instrument. The results showed the overall ODE to be reflected by two interrelated dimensions that aligned with the dual process theory: hedonic and utilitarian experiences. The facets identified in the first study were largely reflected in these two overarching components. Moreover, a reliable, valid, and parsimonious second-order measure for assessing ODEs was proposed.
Overall, the results yielded by this dissertation enhance the scientific understanding of the technology-empowered tourist experience in the currently under-researched pre-travel experience phase. In addition, by proposing a new scale for the measurement of ODEs, this dissertation provides useful methodological advancements that can pave the way for further research in this field. The results will also be of great practical value for DMOs, as they yield a tool for controlling the experiential outcomes of websites as a base for strategic marketing decisions.
Rangelands are the most widespread land-use systems in drylands, where they often represent the only sustainable form of land-use due to the limited water availability. The intensity of the land-use of such rangeland ecosystems in drylands depends to a large extent on the climatic variability in time and space, as on the one hand it influences the growth of biomass and therefore the grazing intensity, but on the other hand it can also destroy entire herds through extreme climatic events. Rangeland systems are seriously threatened by climate change, because climate change will alternate the availability of water in time and space. This is dangerous in that we have not yet fully understood how grazing affects vegetation under different climatic conditions. Inadequate rangeland management can quickly lead to serious degradation of the grazing grounds. This dissertation therefore deals with the question which role climatic variability plays for the effects of grazing on vegetation in dry rangelands. The relatively intact steppes in central Mongolia were chosen as a model system. They are characterised by low precipitation and high climatic variability in the south (100 mm annual precipitation), and comparatively high precipitation and low climatic variability in the north (250 mm). The effects of grazing on vegetation on 15 grazing transects were investigated along the climatic gradient. The central elements were the plant species and their abundances on 10 m x 10 m areas, for which functional characteristics such as height, affiliation of functional groups or leaf nutrients were recorded. The main hypothesis of this dissertation is that grazing has a greater impact on vegetation communities with increasing rainfall. To test this hypothesis, three studies were carried out. In a first study, we found that the vegetation communities in the dry area differ strongly along the climatic gradient, while the plant communities in the wetter area differ more strongly along the grazing gradient. The results of the second study suggested that this difference can be explained by a functional environmental filter that becomes weaker from south to north as the niche spectrum increases. The third study has shown that this is likely a function of the higher availability of resources, which at the same time leads to higher grazing pressure, therewith stressing the vegetation especially in years with droughts. In summary, I conclude that the climate gradient also represents an environmental filter that filters species for certain characteristics, thus having a significant influence on the vegetation. Climatic variability influences the effect of grazing on vegetation, which is particularly problematic where the grazing intensity is high and the species are less adapted to strong climatic fluctuations. Future scenarios predict increasing productivity and therefore increasing livestock density. This may lead to an increase in floristic and functional diversity across the climate gradient, but also to increasing grazing effects and therefore threads for overgrazing. Increasing climatic variability is likely to intensify this thread, especially in the moister regions, whereas the dry rangelands are likely to be more resilient due to the adaptation of the plants to non-equilibrium dynamics. The fate of Mongolia’s rangeland systems therefore clearly lies in the hand of the rangeland managers. The sustainable use of Mongolia’s vast steppe ecosystems might depend on a flexible livestock management system which balances the grazing intensity with the available resources, while still considering climatic variability as a key for the management decisions. A potential link-up for future studies might arise from the shortcomings of the studies presented. This dissertation suggests that long-term observations are necessary to better understand the effects of climatic variability. In addition, grazing gradients must be selected more carefully in the future in order to be able to ensure better comparability, and functional analyses should have a stronger relationship to forage quality. With these points in mind, a comparative study of several rangeland ecosystems on a global level must be the ultimate goal. This could be an important step for the sustainable use of drylands in the context of global climate and land use change.
This thesis aims to develop a FE-based model of a dieless wire drawing process for wires made from magnesium alloys. To this end a general material model of pure magnesium and a model of the dieless wire drawing process are developed. Based on the general pure magnesium model an alloy specific model for AZ31 wire is developed. The performance of both models is assessed using experimental data generated on a dieless wire drawing prototype.
The process model is conceptionally split into the thermal and mechanical response of the wire. The thermal model is validated by axial temperature profiles and the mechanical model is vali-dated by CSA-reduction and wire force. Both behaviours are validated separately before combin-ing the thus created models into a thermomechanical model of the dieless wire drawing process. The thermal material model is developed for pure magnesium. An initial assumption of limited correlation between content of alloying elements and thermal behaviour, was disproven. As a results in addition to alloy-specific mechanical data, thermo-electric data is recorded to achieve thermal validity of the model. This is done by identifying the experimental maximum temperature of the drawn wire for a given heating power and calculating the necessary input power of the in-duction heating device to achieve this temperature in simulation. The mechanic material model is based on experimental stress-strain curves recorded for each investigated wire materials in addi-tion to pure magnesium data, based on literature.
Results show the thermomechanical magnesium models to be mostly valid, provided process parameters stay within the range of available data on the mechanic material performance. Where the model is forced to extrapolate material behaviour, simulation quality drops. This ap-plies for wire temperature and CSA-reduction. Estimations of wire force are shown to be invalid. For AZ31 wire the thermal model generated valid temperature profiles of the wire. The thermo-mechanical model for AZ31 is shown invalid as both CSA-reduction and wire force deviate from experimental results.
Transformative learning is increasingly set to become an essential component in sustainability transformation. This type of learning attracts considerable interest in studying and impulsing a paradigm change to transform our world into a more sustainable one, yet its underlying learning mechanisms have remained overlooked. Although there is an apparent relationship between transformative learning and sustainability transformation, little has been done to systematically explore the contribution to sustainability transformation. This learning theory developed decades ago independently of sustainability discourses; however, it provides an analytical framework for understanding the learning processes, outcomes and conditions in individual and social learning towards sustainability transformation. Against this background, the following research question arises: To which extent can transformative learning lead to sustainability transformation?
This doctoral work aims to explore transformative learning processes, outcomes, and conditions occurring and advancing towards sustainability transformation of the textile-fashion industry in Mexico. Taking an exploratory approach, the methods employed were literature reviews to untangle concepts and to construct theoretical pillars to support the empirical research design and data analysis. For data collection, snowball-sampling techniques were used to explore the practice field of the textile-fashion industry in Mexico. Qualitative interviews were employed to gather data about the learning experiences of actors. Qualitative and quantitative methods were required to perform the respective data analysis, the qualitative codification of interviewees’ responses through MAXQDA being the most remarkable one. Analysis of social media content was also utilised to understand the communication and business practices of projects involved in the transformation of the textile-fashion sector. As a result, this work comprises three articles, one a systematic literature review and two empirical research articles, investigating the transformative learning processes of entrepreneurs in the development of sustainability niches.
As for the findings of this doctoral work, the use of transformative learning in sustainability transformation requires a careful study of the theory and its conceptual elements. Regarding the case study, transformative learning is inherent in forming and developing sustainability niches as entrepreneurs venture into them: It is individual prior learning, expectations and actions that initiate the path of sustainability transformation while disorienting dilemmas, critical reflection, and discourse accelerate them. Through these stages, it is when individual learning turns into social learning. On the other hand, based on the multi-level perspective, the interplay between the niche, regime and landscape levels generates a space for sustainability transformation and transformative learning.
This work contributes to deciphering the black box of learning in sustainability transformations. The principal endeavour was to build the theoretical bridges between this emerging area of inquiry and transformative learning theory, as a significant part of this theoretical construction required drawing upon other research fields such as sustainability transitions and sustainability entrepreneurship. The crosscutting feature of learning in those fields enabled the development of an awareness of boundary objects between those fields (e.g., expectations). Furthermore, this study is pioneering in exploring sustainability transformation processes of the textile-fashion industry in Latin American contexts. The findings of this work can also be extrapolated to other sectors in which entrepreneurs participate, such as local food production, sustainable mobility, among others
Algorithmic distribution has fundamentally altered the news industry and has led to conflicts over regulatory issues. Focusing on the introduction of European ancillary copyright, this chapter addresses an earlier international reform around algorithmic news distribution. Based on an in-depth thematic analysis of key documents from the policy formulation phase, the chapter maps the arguments for and against the ancillary copyright reform put forward by Google and news publishers in Germany. While we provide a detailed analysis of the underlying rationales of two key actors primarily affected by the regulation, we also place ancillary copyright in the context of competing private property and public policy visions, which allows for a better understanding of how and why different actors take particular positions on copyright reform and algorithmic regulation.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been established in recent years as an essential component of the economic system, demanded and promoted by a wide variety of stakeholder groups. The present dissertation shows that organizations face major communicative challenges with regard to CSR. CSR is not only determined by organizations themselves, but rather arises in the interplay with economic and social discourses. It is assumed that boundarys of organizational action are under constant change, so that CSR actors inevitably initiate constitutive communication processes. The resulting polyphony requires an understanding of the underlying communication processes. Hence, the performative character of CSR communication is taken up by this dissertation and thus the constitution of both the communicating actors and their relationships in the network is illustrated. The presented scientific papers are united by the overarching assumption that communication does not accompany and describe organizational action, but unfolds its own power.
Woman, Stand Straight: An Integrated Lutheran Feminist Theological Concept of Human Flourishing
(2022)
Beginning with the theology of Martin Luther and drawing on a selection of feminist theologians, this thesis proposes a relational, agential model of human flourishing. It is rooted in Luther’s doctrines of the hiddenness of God and of God’s alien and proper work in the lives of believers. Such an approach gives rise to questions concerning human freedom and agency, sin, and the nature of our relationship with God and with other persons. Many feminist theologies provide an inadequate account of sin and its effects on the person and their relationships. This thesis asserts that taking sin and its effects seriously is essential to developing a secure and healthy self, and a healthy relationship with God and other persons. It therefore proposes a reworked understanding of religious incurvature as a relational model of sin which supports the goal of human flourishing. This concept of the self curved either inwards, or towards another, speaks to the nature of sin in its traditional understanding of sin as pride, as well as addressing feminist criticisms that the notion of sin as pride is not relevant to the needs and experiences of women. The model of human flourishing proposed here is specifically Christian in its assertion that we do not exist as persons, are not fully human, without our being in relationship with the triune God and other created persons. We flourish in community. Further, it supports the idea that true Christian freedom consists of a life dedicated to service of God and others.
The doctoral dissertation deals with the problems of the diagnosis of rolling bearings using recurrence analysis. The main topic is the influence of radial internal clearance on the change of dynamics in a self-aligning double-row ball bearing with a tapered bore, in which the axial preload can control this parameter in a wide range. The dissertation began with an analysis of the state of knowledge, where the works related to the analyzes of the impact of radial clearance on the dynamics of rolling bearings have been cited so far. In the next part of the dissertation, the thesis was formulated and activities related to its proving were defined. The theoretical part was supplemented with the basics related to vibroacoustic diagnostics of rolling bearings and presented methods that can be used for their diagnostics. The research on proving the thesis was started with the preparation of a mathematical model in which a change in the damping coefficient in the field of radial clearance was adopted, a difference in the clearance value for a given row of balls was proposed, and the influence of shape errors and radial shaft endplay on the dynamics of the tested bearing was taken into account. During the dynamics tests, the radial clearance was adopted as a bifurcation parameter, and on the basis of the bifurcation diagram, it was possible to indicate the characteristic areas of bearing operation due to the radial internal clearance. In order to verify the model, experimental tests were carried out with a series of bearings in which the radial clearance was changed in a wide range possible to be physically realized. Recurrence analysis was used for both the dynamic response obtained from model and experimental studies. Owing to the comparative analysis of the dynamic response, recurrence quantificators were selected that are most susceptible to changes in radial clearance to bearing dynamics. Moreover, as a result of the research, it was possible to select a narrow range of radial clearance, ensuring the smoothest operation of the tested bearing.
Detecting and Assessing Road Damages for Autonomous Driving Utilizing Conventional Vehicle Sensors
(2021)
Environmental perception is one of the biggest challenges in autonomous driving to move inside complex traffic situations properly. Perceiving the road's condition is necessary to calculate the drivable space; in manual driving, this is realized by the human visual cortex. Enabling the vehicle to detect road conditions is a critical and complex task from many perspectives. The complexity lies on the one hand in the development of tools for detecting damage, ideally using sensors already installed in the vehicle, and on the other hand, in integrating detected damages into the autonomous driving task and thus into the subsystems of autonomous driving. High-Definition Feature Maps, for instance, should be prepared for mapping road damages, which includes online and in-vehicle implementation. Furthermore, the motion planning system should react based on the detected damages to increase driving comfort and safety actively. Road damage detection is essential, especially in areas with poor infrastructure, and should be integrated as early as possible to enable even less developed countries to reap the benefits of autonomous driving systems. Besides the application in autonomous driving, an up-to-date solution on assessing road conditions is likewise desirable for the infrastructure planning of municipalities and federal states to make optimal use of the limited resources available for maintaining infrastructure quality. Addressing the challenges mentioned above, the research approach of this work is pragmatic and problem-solving. In designing technical solutions for road damage detection, the researchers conduct applied research methods in engineering, including modeling, prototyping, and field studies. They utilize design science research to integrate road damages in an end-to-end concept for autonomous driving while drawing on previous knowledge, the application domain requirements, and expert workshops. This thesis provides various contributions to theory and practice. The investigators design two individual solutions to assess road conditions with existing vehicle sensor technology. The first solution is based on calculating the quarter-vehicle model utilizing the vehicle level sensor and an acceleration sensor. The novel model-based calculation measures the road elevation under the tires, enabling common vehicles to assess road conditions with standard hardware. The second solution utilizes images from front-facing vehicle cameras to detect road damages with deep neural networks. Despite other research in this area, the algorithms are designed to be applicable on edge devices in autonomous vehicles with limited computational resources while still delivering cutting-edge performance. In addition, the analyses of deep learning tools and the introduction of new data into training provide valuable opportunities for researchers in other application areas to develop deep learning algorithms to optimize detection performance and runtime. Besides detecting road damages, the authors provide novel algorithms for classifying the severity of road damages to deliver additional information for improved motion planning. Alongside the technical solutions, they address the lack of an end-to-end solution for road damages in autonomous driving by providing a concept that starts from data generation and ends with servicing the vehicle motion planning. This includes solutions for detecting road damages, assessing their severity, aggregating the data in the vehicle and a cloud platform, and making the data available via that platform to other vehicles. Fundamental limitations in this dissertation are due to boundaries in modeling. The pragmatic approach simplifies reality, which always distorts the degree of truth in the result.
Extracting meaningful representations of data is a fundamental problem in machine learning. Those representations can be viewed from two different perspectives. First, there is the representation of data in terms of the number of data points. Representative subsets that compactly summarize the data without superfluous redundancies help to reduce the data size. Those subsets allow for scaling existing learning algorithms up without approximating their solution. Second, there is the representation of every individual data point in terms of its dimensions. Often, not all dimensions carry meaningful information for the learning task, or the information is implicitly embedded in a low-dimensional subspace. A change of representation can also simplify important learning tasks such as density estimation and data generation. This thesis deals with the aforementioned views on data representation and contributes to them. We first focus on computing representative subsets for a matrix factorization technique called archetypal analysis and the setting of optimal experimental design. For these problems, we motivate and investigate the usability of the data boundary as a representative subset. We also present novel methods to efficiently compute the data boundary, even in kernel-induced feature spaces. Based on the coreset principle, we derive another representative subset for archetypal analysis, which provides additional theoretical guarantees on the approximation error. Empirical results confirm that all compact representations of data derived in this thesis perform significantly better than uniform subsets of data. In the second part of the thesis, we are concerned with efficient data representations for density estimation. We analyze spatio-temporal problems, which arise, for example, in sports analytics, and demonstrate how to learn (contextual) probabilistic movement models of objects using trajectory data. Furthermore, we highlight issues of interpolating data in normalizing flows, a technique that changes the representation of data to follow a specific distribution. We show how to solve this issue and obtain more natural transitions on the example of image data.
The industrial food system is by far the largest greenhouse gas emitting sector. It causes significant damage to terrestrial, aerial and aquatic ecosystems, negative health impacts and an unfair distribution of economic benefits. The call for sustainability transformations is growing, entailing and promoting radical shifts in industrial food systems that lead to new patterns of interactions and balanced social, economic and ecological outcomes. While traditional research has focused on sustainability problems in the food system, it lacks evidence on solutions and desired future states; and more so, on how to practically move from the current to the desired state. Food forests present a promising solution to address multiple sustainability challenges adaptable to local contexts. As biodiverse multi-strata agroforestry systems, they can provide several ecological, socio-cultural and economic services. They sequester carbon, limit soil erosion and regulate the micro-climate; they offer the opportunity for education on healthy diets and ecology, and they produce food and can create livelihood opportunities. However, despite their obvious benefits and a trend in uptake, food forests are still a niche concept rarely known in mainstream culture. To date, research has focused on their ecological and social services; we lack an understanding of food forests as a comprehensive sustainability solution, including their economic dimension, and knowledge on how to develop them. Addressing these gaps, this qualitative research used a solution- and process-oriented methodology guided by transformational sustainability research. In a comparative case study approach, it created an inventory of 209 food forests, followed by interviews and site visits of 14 sites to understand their characteristics and assess their sustainability (Article 1). More indepth, it analyzed the implementation path of seven food forest for success factors, barriers and coping strategies (Article 2). Based on these insights, two experimental case studies were initiated to develop sustainable food forests with practice partners, one based in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. and one in Lüneburg, Germany. Two studies analyzed the cases’outputs and processes highlighting success factors and challenges, including the role of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem (Article 3, Phoenix case) and key features of productive partnerships to understand why one case succeeded and the other failed (Article 4). Findings include key features of existing and sustainable food forests as well as success factors on how to develop them; namely acquiring a complementary skill set that includes specialty farming and entrepreneurial know-how, securing sufficient start-up funds and long-term land access as well as overcoming regulatory restrictions. Supporting institutions are especially needed to integrate and professionalize the planning stage and provide know-how on alternative business practices. Key features of productive partnerships include an entrepreneurial attitude, access to support functions, long-term orientation and commitment to food system sustainability. The synthesis provides a detailed, ideal-typical implementation pathway to develop sustainable food forests and relevant supportive actors. This study provides researchers, food entrepreneurs, public officials, and activists with insights on how to develop and advance food forests as a sustainability solution.
Increased international compliance with human rights and democracy standards is a core issue for both human rights and democratizing actors as well as for victims of human rights abuse. International human rights organizations (IHROs) are expected to make positive contributions to this end, even though they possess low levels of authority. This authority has been renegotiated multiple times in various reform processes. An oversimplified expectation would have us assume that democracies would want to strengthen IHROs, and that autocracies would seek to weaken them. As the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was reformed in 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011, some autocracies strived to abolish parts of the UNHRC. Other autocracies aimed “merely” to weaken them. Democracies displayed an even larger variance. Indonesia and India predominantly favored weakening the UNHRC, whereas Ghana and Spain supported exclusively strengthening of the organization. Additionally, some attitudes towards the UNHRC changed from one year to the next. Autocracies diverge not only in their stances towards the UNHRC, but also across their domestic and international dimensions. Nigeria allows different levels of participation by societal actors than, say, Belarus. Cuba does not have the same domestic institutions as Russia. Iran enters international negotiations from a different position than Thailand. Democracies vary on the domestic and international dimensions as well. The Czech Republic is not the US, and Costa Rica is different from South Africa. The question that drives my research is how we can explain the broad variety of state preferences for strengthening or weakening IHROs. Previous research has mostly concentrated on democracies, leaving autocracies understudied. It also treated countries as black boxes. To account for such shortcomings, first, I systematically test the relationship between the UNHRC and its authoritarian and democratic members by means of inferential statistics. Second, I analyze a bottom-up process inherent to New Liberalism. It scrutinizes the role of domestic societal actors, domestic institutions, as well as pressures on the international stage. The results reveal that societal actors, along with the interplay of wealth and regime type in the international realm, figure as the most important predictors of delegation preferences voiced by autocracies and democracies during the reform of the monitoring bureaucracy Special Procedures of the UNHRC. Societal actors play a more important role in democracies than in autocracies. Institutionalized domestic oversight mechanisms help societal actors to conduct effective lobbying at the domestic level. Oversight mechanisms are more important than the rule of law and electoral institutions. Regarding international coalition building, authoritarian regimes turn out to be better organized than democracies. I conclude that supporters of strong IHROs shall 1. empower domestic societal actors; 2. disrupt cohesive delegation preferences of authoritarian regimes; and 3. invest in independent domestic oversight mechanisms.
Design methods for collaborative knowledge production in inter- and transdisciplinary research
(2022)
The way humans have shaped the world so far has led to various fundamental and complex problems that we are currently facing: climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics. Transdisciplinary sustainability research addresses such complex problems by including a great variety of perspectives, forms of knowing and bodies of knowledge, including non-scientific ones, in the research process. Design, understood in an expanded sense as a creator of transformative processes, also turns to these ‘wicked problems’. Based on their common concern, it is promising to bring both fields of research together productively. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to better understand how design methods facilitate collaborative knowledge production and integration in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research. Through five independent papers, this dissertation contributes to addressing the research question on four levels – conceptual-epistemological, empirical, methodological and practical. By exploring the linkages between design research and inter- and transdisciplinary research, a conceptual basis for the targeted use of design methods in collaborative processes of inter- and transdisciplinary research is laid and their spectrum of methods is expanded. This is followed by the development of a transformative epistemology in and for problem-oriented, collaborative forms of research, such as transdisciplinary sustainability research, called problematic designing. Based on a deeper understanding of integration and collaborative knowledge production, as well as its accompanying challenges, empirical research into applying design prototyping as a method in and for situations of collaborative research was conducted. To this end, the findings provide a fundamental basis for the facilitation of inter- and transdisciplinary research processes when dealing with complex problems. With its inherent openness and iterative approach in addressing the unknowns of complex phenomena, design prototyping contributes to the required form of imagination that enables to anticipate possible futures. Furthermore, by including visual-haptic modes of expression, design prototyping reduces the dominance of language and text in scientific negotiation processes and does justice to the diversity of cognitive modes.
Finally, the empirical findings of this dissertation emphasise the importance of the visual-haptic dimension for collaborative knowledge production and the communication of knowledge, and provide insights into the visual structuring of human thought processes. The results on material metaphors, collaborative prototyping and material-metaphorical imagery contribute decisively to the basic knowledge of the epistemological quality of design and the importance of the visual and haptic for thought processes in general. The extension and adaptation of existing analysis methods in this dissertation add to the further development of analysis of visual-haptic data. The results are once again reflected in the synthesis of this framework paper as cross-cutting issues. With developing design prototyping as a design-based intervention and its integration into the epistemological perspective of problematic designing for inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research, this dissertation makes an important contribution to addressing complex future-related problems and to creating change towards sustainability.
The choice to continue working until or even beyond retirement is a function of the interplay of factors on micro, meso, and macro levels. Research within this area has grown significantly over the last years. I contribute to this line of research with the studies conducted within the scope of this cumulative habilitation thesis. More specifically, the aim of the research presented here is to add to the literature on later life work with the investigation of individual (micro level) as well as job and organizational (meso level) factors that have the potential to contribute to prolonged working lives. I was guided by the general research interest on how individual, job, and organizational factors contribute to later life work, and more specifically to retirement timing and work-related activities beyond normal retirement age. My research was directed by the following research questions: (1) What is the work activity potential of older people in Germany and what characterizes different types of later life work potential? (2) Which role do individual psychological factors such as personality, values, and beliefs play in the context of later life work? (3) How do specific job characteristics interact or align with individual psychological factors with regard to later life work? (4) What characterizes a holistic organizational approach to later life work that helps the alignment of the work environment to older workers’ (individual) needs and abilities?
Following an introduction, I give an overview on the theoretical framework of my research in Chapter 2 (“Theoretical Background”). I describe the conceptualization of later life work before I go into multilevel antecedents of later life work and present key theoretical approaches to a person-environment fit perspective of later life work. In the following four chapters, I present ten studies corresponding to the ten scientific publications that constitute the basis of the cumulative habilitation thesis.
In Chapter 3 (“Later Life Work: Work Activity Potential”) I present research on the extent as well as different types of later life work potential in Germany to describe the context for most of my research. With the two studies presented here (Büsch, Zohr, Brusch, Deller, Schermuly, Stamov-Roßnagel, & Wöhrmann, 2015; Mergenthaler, Wöhrmann, & Staudinger; 2015), I also intend to provide answers to the research question on the later life work potential in Germany and the characteristics of different later life work potential constellations. In Chapter 4 (“Later Life Work: Individual Psychological Factors”) the role of stable as well as malleable individual psychological factors for later life work is explored in two studies (Fasbender, Wöhrmann, Wang, & Klehe, 2019; Wöhrmann, Fasbender, & Deller, 2016). Thus, with the studies presented in this chapter, I contribute to the research question on the role of individual psychological factors in the context of later life work. In Chapter 5 (“Later Life Work: Job Characteristics Corresponding to Older Workers’ Needs and Abilities”) I present three studies exploring the interplay of individual factors and job characteristics for later life work to address the research question on the interaction or alignment of specific job characteristics with individual psychological factors with regard to later life work (Pundt, Wöhrmann, Deller, & Shultz, 2015; Wöhrmann, Brauner, & Michel, 2020; Wöhrmann, Fasbender, & Deller; 2017). Chapter 6 (“Later Life Work: A Holistic Organizational Approach”) reports the development of the Later Life Workplace Index (LLWI) as a multidimensional tool to holistically assess organizational practices and working conditions targeted at the promotion of later life work through the maintenance and enhancement of older employees’ health, work ability, and motivation (Wilckens, Wöhrmann, Adams, Deller, & Finkelstein, 2020; Wilckens, Wöhrmann, Deller, & Wang, 2020; Wöhrmann, Pundt, & Deller, 2018. With the LLWI, I intend to provide an answer to the research question on the characteristics of a holistic organizational approach to later life work that helps the alignment of the work environment to older workers’ (individual) needs and abilities. Finally, in Chapter 7 (“General Discussion”) I discuss the contributions, implications, and limitations of my research presented here.
This doctoral thesis deals with the topic of organizational misconduct and covers the three salient research streams in this area by addressing its performance outcomes, antecedents, and preventive measures. Specifically, it is concerned with the question of how different forms of misconduct are reflected in the stock performance of related organizations, thereby, covering the three pillars of corporate sustainability environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Furthermore, it aims to conceptualize how individual cognitive biases may lead to misconduct, therefore, potentially representing an antecedent and how existing management control systems can be enhanced to effectively address specific forms of misconduct, respectively.
To these ends, I first review the research stream of stock price reactions to environmental pollution events in terms of the underlying research samples, methodological specifications, and theoretical underpinnings. Based on the findings of the systematic literature review (SLR), I perform three stock-based event studies of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal (Dieselgate), workplace sexual harassment (#MeToo accusations), and the 2003 blackout in the US to cove the three ESG dimensions, respectively. In line with the SLR, my event studies reveal substantial stock losses to firms involved in misconduct that are eventually even accompanied by a spillover effect to uninvolved bystanders.
Then, I review the extant literature conceptually to develop a framework outlining how moral licensing as an individual cognitive bias might lead to a self-attribution of corporate sustainability, a consecutive accumulation of moral credit, and a later exchange of this credit by engaging in misconduct afterward.
Finally, I assess existing workplace sexual harassment management controls, such as awareness training and grievance procedures critically in another conceptual analysis. Based on the shortcomings stemming from management controls’ focus on compliance and negligence of moral duties, I introduce five specific nudges firms should consider to enhance their existing management controls and eventually prevent occurrences of workplace sexual harassment.
Based on the six distinct articles within this doctoral thesis, I outline its limitations and point at directions for future research. These mainly address providing further evidence on the long-term performance effects of organizational misconduct, enriching our knowledge on further cognitive biases eventually leading to misconduct, and conceptualizing nudging beyond the use-case of workplace sexual harassment.
Consisting of three articles and a framework manuscript, this cumulative dissertation deals with sustainable compensation of chief executive officer (CEO) with a focus on climate-related aspects. Against the backdrop of the European action for sustainability and the EU Green Deal, the dissertation pays special attention to the consideration of climate-related aspects of corporate performance in CEO compensation. In this context, sustainable compensation is characterized by the consideration of long-term interests and sustainability of the company as well as by the inclusion of financial and non-financial aspects of environmental, social and governance performance (ESG) in compensation agreements. While this novel instrument of corporate governance aims to incentivize the implementation of sustainability-oriented corporate strategy, it is particularly important to unfold this incentive effect at the individual CEO level in view of their managerial discretion. The framework manuscript discusses the research objectives, the regulatory and theoretical background, the results of the dissertation and their implications in the context of regulation, research, and business practice. The essence of the dissertation are the three articles. The first article, "Determinants and effects of sustainable CEO compensation: a structured literature review of empirical evidence," examines the current state of empirical research based on 37 articles that were published between 1992 and 2018. Based on a multidimensional research framework, the structured literature review compiles past research findings, identifies contentual and methodological foci in the research area, and derives questions for future research. The second article, "Mapping the determinants of carbon-related CEO compensation: a multidimensional approach," addresses the topic from a conceptual perspective. Taking the existing work as a starting point, a conceptual framework is derived, which organizes the determinants of carbon-related CEO compensation at societal, organizational, group and individual levels of analysis. On this basis, eight propositions are presented that seek to distinguish between the determinants which support and challenge the implementation of carbon-related CEO compensation. The third article, "Climate change policies and carbon-related CEO compensation systems: an exploratory study of European companies," focuses on the use of CO2-oriented performance indicators in CEO compensation. The empirical-qualitative study analyzes corporate disclosure of the 65 largest companies in the EU for the years 2018 and 2019. The study addresses the use of CO2-oriented performance indicators in corporate strategy and CEO compensation. It also examines which compensation components are determined with the help of CO2-oriented performance indicators, which type of performance indicators are used, and whether CO2-intensive and less CO2-intensive companies differ in this regard.
This research report presents a transdisciplinary student research project on the development of climate resilience of communities on the Caribbean Island Dominica.
The research was conducted through a partnership between the Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Sustainable Marine Financing Programme (SMF) of the GIZ.
For the GIZ, the research project aimed at improving the understanding of the socio-ecological resilience framework for tackling problems of Marine Managed Areas and Marine Protected Areas. Also, it enabled new thoughts on how the GIZ and other development agencies can more effectively assists island states to better cope with the challenges of climate change.
The role of the students from the “Global Environmental and Sustainability Sciences” programme of Leuphana University included the design of four transdisciplinary research projects to research aspects of resilience of Caribbean communities.
The developing island states in the Caribbean are extremely vulnerable to more frequent and intense natural hazards while relying on the ecosystem services that are also at risk from extreme weather events, in particular Hurricanes. Low economic stability leads to a dependency of the states on international assistance. To decrease the vulnerability to shocks, counteracting measures that encourage learning and adaptation can increase the resilience against extreme weather events and their consequences.
Concepts that were considered during the design of the transdisciplinary research projects were the adaptation of systems, diversity and stakeholder participation and resilience-focused management systems. Also, the students critically assessed the concept of foreign aid and how it can be successful, mitigating the risk of introducing neo-colonial structures. Flood Management, Biodiversity, Small-Scale Agriculture and Foreign Aid on Dominica were the topics of the transdisciplinary projects. The research methods of a literature review, stakeholder mapping, interviews, scenario development and visioning were used in the projects.
In four scenarios developed in the ‘Flood Management’ project, it became evident that a broad as well as coordinated stakeholder engagement and a variety of measures are required for community resilience. A key finding of the ‘Biodiversity’ project was the identity dimension of community resilience, underlining the importance of the relationship between individuals and nature. The interlinkage of social identity processes and a resilient disaster response was also stressed by the project ‘Foreign Aid’, which highlighted that financial support is similarly important to inclusivity and reflexivity in the process of resource distribution. To recover from extreme weather events, the social memory also plays an important role. The project on ‘Small-scale Agriculture’ concluded, that the memory-making of local communities is as vital to community resilience as formal plans and trainings.
The research project was based on the research approach of transdisciplinarity because of its solution-orientation. It links different academic disciplines and concepts, and non-scientific stakeholders are included to find solutions for societal and related scientific problems. In the four projects, principles of transdisciplinary research were party applied, but some challenges arose due to the geographical distance, time constraints and a strong focus on the scientific part in some phases. Nonetheless, the findings of the projects provide valuable learning lessons to be applied in practice and that can prove useful for future research.
Understanding that entrepreneurship can be better modeled from a systemic point of view is a primordial aspect that determines the important role of universities in entrepreneurial ecosystems. What makes the ecosystem approach a valuable tool for understanding social systems is that, from a holistic perspective, their behavior seems to have emerging characteristics. The impact of this “research object” can only be revealed through interrelated causal chains similar to the behavior of natural ecosystems (Mars et al., 2012). Therefore, the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept provides a unique perspective that complements previous studies on networked economic activity with a clear focus on the systemic elements that support entrepreneurship, and an emphasis on policy that promote the entrepreneurial process.
This dissertation presents a dual scientific account of the entrepreneurship phenomenon in universities. The work is divided into two equal parts, each of which is composed of two research papers. The narrative of the first half takes on a macro perspective view, consisting of one theoretical and one empirically-based conceptual case study. This part conceptually depicts a systematic approach to entrepreneurialism in higher education, namely an ecosystems perspective. The second half concentrates on the meso- and micro levels of study from the university’s point of view, comprising of a case study as historical account for the emergence of the entrepreneurial university, and of a metasynthesis of empirical case studies in entrepreneurial universities, which serves as the basis for the development of entrepreneurial university archetypes.
This doctoral work contributes to an in-depth understanding of Entrepreneurship in universities regarding its systemic qualities and archetypal characteristics of entrepreneurial universities. It argues for an ecosystem’s perspective on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial activity, highlighting the fundamental role that universities play as the heart of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Furthermore, this research expands on the novel concept of the entrepreneurial university by using extensive case study literature to empirically identify distinct archetypes that better reflect the diverse reality of how universities engage as entrepreneurial actors by way of differentiated entrepreneurial structures, systems, and strategies.
Undertaking local actions, such as implementing public (sustainability) policy, plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable development (SD) at the municipal level. In this regard, indicator-based assessment supports effective implementation by measuring the SD process, based upon evidence-based outcomes that indicators produce. Over the last decade, using subjective indicators, which rely on an individual’s self-perception to measure subjects, has gained its significance in sustainability assessment, in line with the increasing importance of signifying individual’s and community’s well-being (WB) in the context of SD. This study aims to discuss and clarify the scope and functions of subjective sustainable development indicators (SDIs) conceptually and theoretically while examining the usability of such indicators employed in the practice of assessing sustainability policy and action process in a Japanese municipality. Furthermore, the potential usability of using subjective SDIs in monitoring a municipal initiative of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is also explanatorily examined. The present paper consists of a framework paper and three individual studies.
In the framework paper, Section 1 introduces the global transition of SD discourse and the role that local authorities and implementing public policy play in achieving SD while outlining how WB positions in the SD context. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the major scope of overall SDIs at the conceptual and theoretical levels. Section 3 defines WB in the study’s own right while exploring the scope of indicators measuring WB. In addition, this study strives to further clarify the peculiar scope of SDIs, measuring WB by synthesising the findings. Section 4 overviews how SD at the municipal level in Japan is practiced while acknowledging the extent to which residents perceive WB and SDGs in policymaking. Section 5 provides a brief yet extensive summary of the three individual studies. Section 6 discusses the findings while presenting implications for further study and practices of subjective SDIs.
Furthermore, the three individual studies provide a thorough and in-depth discussion of the study subject. Study 1 illustrates the SD trend at the municipal level in Japan and the growing recognition of using subjective SDIs in public (sustainability) policy assessment in exploring comparative SDI systems to municipality groups. The findings, in turn, raise the need for a further study on subjective SDIs. Study 2 extensively discusses the concept of WB as the overarching subject to be measured while examining varying approaches and scopes of SDIs. It identifies three differentiated WB (i.e., material and social objective WB as well as subjective WB) and distinctive approaches of subjective SDIs (i.e., expert-led and citizen-based approaches) alongside objective SDIs. The findings suggest that these SDIs identified are, conceptually, most capable of measuring associated WB; for instance, citizen-based subjective SDIs can most optimally measure subjective WB. Finally, Study 3 examines the usability of (citizen-based) subjective SDIs in a practice of assessing public policy, aiming at municipal SD, and the potential usability of using such indicators in monitoring a municipal SDG initiative. The findings highlight the determinants and obstacles of using subjective SDIs as well as signifying WB in measuring progress of a municipal SD practice.
Companies increasingly use social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) to measure, manage, and report their influence on ecological and social issues, i.e., climate change and human rights violations. One reason for the increased use of SEAR is that companies aim to support sustainable aspects in their business decision-making.
Nowadays, there are many different tools, frameworks, and standards for SEAR that companies can use. Beyond the content presented in the tool itself, e.g., social and/or ecological information, these tools differ, among others, by the language used and the type of data collected (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, or monetary data). One the one hand, the range of different approaches for SEAR allows industry- and company-specific monitoring and reporting of sustainable issues. On the other hand, this variety as well as the lack of a common reference framework can lead to uncertainty of corporate decision-makers and stakeholders regarding the use and comparability of these approaches. While numerous previous scholars present advantages and opportunities of the use of SEAR for companies and society, there is a rising number of scholars criticizing the way (social and environmental) accounting and reporting is used today and its impact on a company’s environmental orientation and decision-making. Further, there is only limited literature on the question of which approach to use and how to use and introduce the particular approach for supporting sustainable decision-making within companies.
This dissertation aims to expand previous literature by clarifying the effects of SEAR on corporate decision-making and its influencing factors. Additionally, antecedents for implementation and use of SEAR in regard to supporting sustainability decision-making are discussed. For this purpose, the given dissertation investigates public sustainability reports by companies with different environmental orientation, conducts two survey-based case studies on the effects of different types of SEAR and one qualitative case study on the antecedents of institutionalizing management accounting change through SEAR.
The results lead to seven criteria that practitioners and researchers should recognize for supporting successful SEAR regarding a company’s environmental orientation, the role of employees and leadership as well as the specific SEAR tool itself. Additionally, this dissertation leads to several contributions to the scientific discussion and its influences on corporate environmental orientation and decision-making.
Globalization with its increasing emergence of global value chains is one of the main driving forces behind persisting unsustainable production and consumption patterns. The global coffee market provides a fitting example, as it is connected to many sustainability issues like the persisting poverty of coffee farmers, and degrading ecosystems. Many interventions, from state-led regulation to industry-led certification processes, exist, that try to change global value chains to shift societies back on more sustainable trajectories. However, due to the complexity and manifold connections between social and ecological factors, global value chains pose a wicked problem. To this date, it is still under debate if these interventions are an effective means to change global value chains. With climate change and persisting issues of social justice as strong accelerators, calls are increasingly made for a radical transformation of global production and consumption patterns. Many frameworks try to inform research and real-world policies for a transformation of global value chains. In this dissertation, I use the framework of the practical, political and personal sphere proposed by O’Brien and Sygna (2013). The authors highlight that the interactions between these three spheres bare the greatest potential for a transformation towards sustainability. however, in this dissertation, I argue that it is exactly at the nexus between the three spheres of transformation where barriers towards a fundamental shift of systems occur. I, therefore, use three perspectives to bring empirical nuance to the problems that arise on the interplay between the different spheres of transformation. These perspectives are: (1) the scientific perspective: using a systematic review of alternative trade arrangements; (2) the producer perspective: facilitating a participatory network analysis of social-ecological challenges of Ugandan coffee farmers and their adaptive management practices; (3) the consumer perspective: through the use of a German consumer survey and a structural equation model to investigate into the Knowledge-Doing-Gap end-consumers are facing. These three perspectives bring empirical nuance to the interplay between the different spheres as they highlight the real-world barriers that arise within and at the nexus of the three spheres. Through the results from the scientific perspective, I am able to show that most of the research is investigating the certified market and that the effectiveness of labels rarely exceeding the practical sphere. My empirical research on the producer perspective highlights that Ugandan coffee farmers facilitate a variety of on-farm crop management (practical sphere) but their support structures rarely exceed informal exchange with neighboring communities (political sphere). Exchange with governmental actors and global traders is happening but has been assessed as not sufficient to cope with the social-ecological challenges the producers are facing. Through the results of the consumer perspective, I am able to highlight that even though end-consumers have pro-sustainable attitudes (personal sphere) they are facing situational constraints (political sphere) that create a gap between their attitudes and the respective behavior. Using these empirical insights about drivers and barriers for a transformation I propose that frameworks, aiming to inform research and policies, need to include two aspects: (1) the notion of a forced transformation as one of the major influencing factors for a deliberative transformation; and (2) the translational capacity of the frameworks to create meaningful interdisciplinary discourses in different contexts. I, therefore, propose two approaches that should function as a starting point for further development of transformation frameworks (1) a fourth sphere, called the “planetary force” to include the notion of a forced transformation that is already happening in different contexts, highlighted by the producer perspective in this dissertation; and (2) the consequent use of methods that create interdisciplinary exchange and rigorous testing.
This dissertation presents an analysis of the relations to self and technology that emerge from and in the use of self-tracking technologies. The ethnographical study, combined with the Grounded Theory approach and a media analysis, demonstrates the complex intertwining or duality of control and care towards oneself that emerge or become possible in and through the application of ST technologies. ST devices assist in strengthening one's health and well-being in a playful way, building and maintaining a positive self-feeling, self-image and agency, and discovering unknown abilities and potentials within oneself. The ST technologies used provide orientation through complexity-reducing visualizations, highlighting patterns, and trend progression. They challenge through self-overload, dissatisfaction when not achieving goals, self-deception and distraction, narcissism and even loss of control - internally through compulsion to control as well as externally through loss of data otection and exploitation of private data by third parties, as well as handing over responsibility (in the form of decisions) to technology (algorithms) instead of self-responsibility. These two seemingly opposed yet concurrently existing self-relations reflect the dynamic between today's demands for self-responsibility (in health and performance terms) and the need for self-care and guidance for the many relevant, sometimes daily, decisions. They balance possibly existing tensions and ambiguities between the modes of self-relations that at first glance seem to be opposed and yet ultimately are jointly oriented towards the same goal, namely to master one's life (life maintenance) and to be in balance. The self-relations described in this thesis are supported, reinforced, or enabled by ST technology (and practice). Three different roles that ST technology can take in self-care and self-control were elaborated: technology as a means, a counterpart, and a promise. In relation to technology, another dialectic is visible, which shows the apparent contrast between its conception as a tool and means to achieve something and the approach to technology as an intimate counterpart (partner, nanny, coach) and a promise of salvation. The relationship with technology seems to intensify in and through the ST experience and takes on or is assigned a partner-like role by the users. Finally, the results indicate that the concept of (self-)optimization, contrary to its etymological meaning of a logic of increase, can also be understood differently, namely balancing. In this context, optimization does not necessarily mean the fastest, the highest, the strongest, but something that is achievable and satisfactory for the self - within the framework of the given and the desired. At the same time, the optimization understood as harmonizing and balancing in self-tracking becomes a lifelong task that, in principle, can never be completed because with the addition of new vital areas in life and throughout a lifetime also the individually understood and conceived balance often shifts.
Assessment of forest functionality and the effectiveness of forest management and certification
(2021)
Forest ecosystems are complex systems that develop inherent structures and processes relevant for their functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem services that contribute to human wellbeing. With increasing climate change impacts, especially regulating ecosystem services such as microclimate regulation are ever more relevant to maintain forest functions and services. A key question is how forest management supports or undermines the ecosystems’ capacity to maintain those functions and services. The main objective of this thesis is the development of a concept to assess the functionality of forests and to evaluate the effectiveness of forest ecosystem management including certification. An ecosystem-based and participatory methodology, named ECOSEFFECT, was developed. The method comprises a theoretical and an empirical plausibility analysis. It was applied to the Russian National FSC Standard in the Arkhangelsk Region of the Russian Federation - where boreal forests are exploited to meet Europe's demand for timber. In addition, the influence of forestry interventions on temperature regulation in Scots pine and European beech forests in Germany was assessed during two extreme hot and dry years in 2018 and 2019. Microclimate regulation is a suitable proxy for forest functionality and can be applied easily to evaluate the effectiveness of forest management in safeguarding regulating forest functions relevant under climate change. Thus, the assessment of forest microclimate regulation serves as convenient tool to illustrate forest functionality. In the boreal and temperate forests studied in the frame of this thesis, timber harvesting reduced the capacity to self-regulate forests’ microclimate and thus impair a crucial part of ecosystem functionality. Changes in structural forest characteristics influenced by forest management and silviculture significantly affect microclimatic conditions and therefore forest ecosystems' vulnerability to climate change. Canopy coverage and the number of cut trees were most relevant for cooling maximum summer temperature in pine and beech forests in northern Germany. The Russian FSC standard has the potential to improve forest management and ecological outcomes, but there are shortcomings in the precision of targeting actual problems and ecological commitment. It is theoretically plausible that FSC prevents logging in high conservation value forests and intact forest landscapes, reduces the size and number of clearcuts, and prevents hydrological changes in the landscape. However, the standard was not sufficiently explicit and compulsory to generate a strong and positive influence on the identified problems and their drivers. Moreover, spatial data revealed, that the typical regular clearcut patterns of conventional timber harvesting continue to progress into the FSC-certified boreal forests, also if declared as "Intact Forest Landscape". This results in the need to verify the assumptions and postulates on the ground as it remains unclear and questionable if functions and services of boreal forests are maintained when FSC-certified clearcutting continues.The analysis of satellite-based data on tree cover loss showed that clearcutting causes secondary dieback in the surrounding of the cleared area. FSC-certification does not prevent the various negative impacts of clearcutting and thus fails to safeguard ecosystem functions. The postulated success in reducing identified environmental threats and stresses, e. g. through a smaller size of clearcuts, could not be verified on site. The empirical assessment does not support the hypothesis of effective improvements in the ecosystem. In practice, FSC-certification did not contribute to change clearcutting practices sufficiently to effectively improve the ecological performance. Sustainability standards that are unable to translate principles into effective outcomes fail in meeting the intended objectives of safeguarding ecosystem functioning. Clearcuts that carry sustainability labels are ecologically problematic and ineffective for the intended purpose of ecological sustainability.The overexploitation of provisioning services, i.e. timber extraction, diminishes the ecosystems' capacity to maintain other services of global significance. It also impairs ecosystem functions relevant to cope with and adapt to other stresses and disturbances that are rapidly increasing under climate change.
Global environmental changes and the subsequent biodiversity loss has raised concerns over the consequences for the functioning of ecosystems and human well-being. This thesis provides new mechanistic insights into the role of tree diversity in regulating forest productivity and forests’ responses to climate change. The thesis also addresses the overlooked functional role of ecological continuity in mediating ecosystem processes in the context of multiple global environmental changes. The findings of the thesis emphasize the need to retain the functional integrity of forest ecosystem by preserving biodiversity and acknowledging the ecological memory forests.
Maximizing the value from data has become a key challenge for companies as it helps improve operations and decision making, enhances products and services, and, ultimately, leads to new business models. While enterprise architecture (EA) management and modeling have proven their value for IT-related projects, the support of enterprise architecture for data-driven business models (DDBMs) is a rather new and unexplored field. The research group argues that the current understanding of the intersection of data-driven business model innovation and enterprise architecture is incomplete because of five challenges that have not been addressed in existing research: (1) lack of knowledge of how companies design and realize data-driven business models from a process perspective, (2) lack of knowledge on the implementation phase of data-driven business models, (3) lack of knowledge on the potential support enterprise architecture modeling and management can provide to data-driven business model endeavors, (4) lack of knowledge on how enterprise architecture modeling and management support data-driven business model design and realization in practice, (5) lack of knowledge on how to deploy data-driven business models. The researchers address these challenges by examining how enterprise architecture modeling and management can benefit data-driven business model innovation. The mixed-method approach of this thesis draws on a systematic literature review, qualitative empirical research as well as the design science research paradigm. The investigators conducted a systematic literature search on data-driven business models and enterprise architecture. Considering the novelty of data-driven business models for academia and practice, they conducted explorative qualitative research to explain "why" and "how" companies embark on realizing data-driven business models. Throughout these studies, the primary data source was semi-structured interviews. In order to provide an artifact for DDBM innovation, the researchers developed a theory for design and action. The data-driven business model innovation artifact was inductively developed in two design iterations based on the design science paradigm and the design science research framework.
This cumulative dissertation investigates food policy councils (FPCs) as potential levers for sustainability transformation. The four research papers included here on this recent phenomenon in Germany present new insights regarding the process of FPCs' emergence (Emergence paper), the legal conditions which affect their establishment (Legal paper), the different roles of FPCs in policy-making processes (Roles paper) and FPCs' potential to democratise the food system (Food democracy paper). Drawing on and contextualizing the results of the four individual studies, the framework paper uses the leverage points concept originally developed by Meadows (1999) and adopted by Abson et al. (2016) as a lens to discuss FPCs’ potential as levers for sustainability transformation. This conceptual background includes three so-called realms of leverage, which are considered to be of particular importance in transformational, solution-oriented sustainability science: first, the change, stability and learning in institutions (re-structure), second, the interactions between people and nature (re-connect) and third, the ways in which knowledge is produced and used (re-think). Framing the findings of the four research papers in terms of these three realms, the framework paper shows that FPCs could serve as cross realm levers, i.e. as interventions that simultaneously address knowledge production, institutional reform and human-nature interactions.
The dissertation consists of three scientific papers and a synopsis. The synopsis addresses the relevance of the dissertation and lists the key factors for the sustainability transition in the electricity system as a common denominator of the three papers. The relevance of the dissertation results, on the one hand, from the urgency of the sustainability transition in the electricity system and an insufficient transition willingness of the eastern European Member States. On the other hand, the Multi-Level-Perspective as one of the most important scientific frameworks to grasp transitions does not provide a sufficient explanation of its mechanisms. Moreover, Demand Response aggregators as new enterprises on the European electricity market and potential reform initiators are still under researched. The following key factors for the sustainability transition of the electricity system have been identified: supply security concerns, Europeanisation, policy making and the dominance of short-term oriented economic evaluation. Paper#1 sheds light on the roots of this problem in the context of Poland. It suggests that unfavorable regulation is symptomatic of the real, underlying barriers. In Poland, these barriers are coal dependence and political influence on energy enterprises. As main drivers, supply security concerns, EU regulatory pressure, and a positive cost-benefit profile of DR in comparison to alternatives, are revealed. A conceptual model of DR uptake in electricity systems is proposed. Applying a social mechanisms approach to the Multi-Level Perspective, paper#2 conceptualizes mechanisms of socio-technical transitions and of gaining legitimacy for transitions as co-evolutionary drivers and outcomes. Situational, action-formational, and transformational mechanisms that operate as drivers of change in a socio-technical transition require corresponding framing and framing contests to achieve legitimacy for that transition. The study illustrates the conceptual insight with the case of the coal dependent Polish electricity system. Paper #3, a qualitative study reveals Demand Response (DR) aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs that struggle to reform the still largely supply-oriented European electricity market. Unfavourable regulation, low value of flexibility, resource constraints, complexity, and customer acquisition are the key challenges DR aggregators face. To overcome them they apply a combination of strategies: lobbying, market education, technological proficiency, and upscaling the business. The study highlights DR aggregation as an architectural innovation that alters the interplay between key actors of the electricity system and provides policy recommendations including the necessity to assess the real value of DR in comparison to other flexibility sources by taking all externalities into account, a technology-neutral approach to market design and the need for simplification of DR programmes, and common standards to reduce complexity and uncertainty for DR providers.
This dissertation, entitled “How to Embed Sustainability in the Core of Higher Education Institutions: Drivers of, Barriers to, & Patterns behind the Implementation Processes of Sustainability Curricula – Insights from a Quantitative Meta-Study with Data from around the Globe,” addresses the question of how sustainability curricula1 can be implemented and established in higher education institutions2. This research question is based on the assumption that sustainable development requires new ways of thinking and acting in the world. Accordingly, universities – as hubs for knowledge generation, innovation, and education – provide a central leverage point for sustainably developing society at large. Therefore, the institutionalization of sustainability curricula is not only socially demanded, but also stipulated in numerous political statements from the international community (e.g., those of the UN and UNESCO) and operationalized via Sustainable Development Goal No. 4: “Quality Education”. Previous findings on how such implementation can be successful and what factors support or inhibit the process have come primarily through case studies of individual higher education institutions. These studies provide important insights but have been largely descriptive rather than analytical and leave open questions about the generalizability of their findings – for example, the extent to which other universities can be guided by the experiences of the respective higher education institutions. The present dissertation addresses this research gap. Through a meta-study (i.e., an analytical comparison of existing case studies), generalizable findings on the implementation processes of sustainability curricula are explored. In the first step, a case universe was collected in order to provide a database for deeper analyses. In two further analysis steps that built on the case universe from Step 1, certain factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of sustainability curricula (Step 2) and specific implementation patterns (Step 3) were examined. The following paragraphs provide greater details and an overview of the respective findings. In the first step, a database of peer-reviewed English-language case studies from around the globe that report on such processes was created. A total of 230 case studies were identified, 133 of which focus on the implementation processes of sustainability curricula.3 A bibliometric analysis of the 230 case studies revealed that this field of research is growing, although the discourse is primarily dominated by authors from North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia, with South America and Africa being underrepresented. In addition, a citation analysis demonstrated that some universities incorporate findings from other countries whereas other universities act in isolation. This observation leaves open the question of the extent to which universities learn from one another in order to advance the implementation of sustainability curricula. In the second step of the analysis, the qualitative data of the collected case studies (sample of 133 case studies) were compared using the case survey method, which is a specific type of a meta-1 Sustainability curricula include courses, programs, and certificates from all fields of study that deal in some form with sustainability topics. For a more-detailed discussion of what education for sustainable development (ESD) entails, see Section Error! Reference source not found..
2 Higher education institutions (HEIs) include universities, universities of applied sciences, and other institutions that offer at least a bachelor’s degree.
3 A detailed explanation of the case sample and subsamples can be found in Section Error! Reference source not found..
analysis. The focus of the comparison lay on the drivers of and barriers to the processes of sustainability curriculum implementation at higher education institutions. Driving- and inhibiting factors have been thoroughly examined theoretically in the discourse on education for sustainable development (ESD), especially those pertaining to higher education institutions. However, no large body of data has yet been created to empirically test these hypotheses. The present meta-study found that the following factors lead to the deep-rooted and comprehensive establishment of sustainability curricula: strong leadership support; the establishment of sustainability curricula in the areas of education, research, campus operations, and outreach activities; formal participation of internal (including students) and external stakeholders; and engagement by sustainability champions (change agents), who are often the first to implement sustainability curricula and can face strong resistance. Other enabling factors include strategic planning, coordination, communication, having a vision, external political influence, the presence of a window of opportunity (e.g., an environmental disaster, a change in presidency), and the availability of interdisciplinary meeting spaces. On the other hand, the strongest cited barriers to the implantation of sustainability curricula were found to be the lack of interdisciplinary meeting spaces, the lack of a vision, the lack of incentives, the lack of resources, an overly full curriculum, and an unsupportive / overly bureaucratic organizational structure. The third step of the analysis also built on data from the 133 case studies and explored whether certain types or patterns of implementation processes occur. Through the analysis, six implementation patterns were identified that share similar driving- and inhibiting factors. The respective interplay between factors leads to various degrees of sustainability curriculum implementation in terms of how deeply rooted and comprehensive this implementation is. As discussed in greater detail below, in descending order of the level of achieved deep-rooted change, these patterns are (1) a collaborative paradigm shift, (2) bottom-up institutional change, (3) top-down institutional change, (4) the presence of many barriers that hinder institutional change, (5) externally driven initiatives, and (6) initiatives that are scattered due to a lack of coordination. Across all patterns, two phases could be identified: First, the impetus to implement ESD may be initiated not only by internal actors, but also by external ones. This initiation can take hold from the “bottom-up” (i.e., by students or faculty), from the “top-down” (i.e., at the presidential level), or in both directions simultaneously. The following key factors appear to be important in driving the initial implementation forward: a culture of open communication between all stakeholders in which feedback and reflection are welcome and even actively solicited, the development of a shared understanding and vision that further create a sense of ownership and long-term success, a high level of collaboration among all stakeholders, and existing initiatives that lead to knowledge sharing and other resources. In this regard, informal collaboration and cooperation can partially compensate for a lack of presidential-level support and/or a formal communication structure. Furthermore, developing a strategy with individual steps and shared responsibility leads to more-successful implementation of ESD at higher education institutions. The presented findings add a complementary empirical perspective to the discourse on the establishment of ESD at higher education institutions. First, the case studies that specifically address the implementation processes of sustainability curricula are reviewed and analyzed here for the first time as part of a research landscape. This research landscape reveals where research on such implementation processes has been or is being conducted. On this basis, both researchers and funders can reflect on the status quo and plan further research- or funding endeavors. Second, this dissertation offers the opportunity to compare a multitude of individual case studies and thus to develop new and generalizable insights into the implementation of sustainability curricula. The empirical analysis uses 133 case studies to identify key factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of sustainability curricula and to add a complementary perspective to the discourse, which has thus far been dominated by theoretical considerations and individual case studies. The analysis thereby offers a new perspective on generalizable influencing factors that appear to be important across different contexts. Thus far, specific patterns of implementation processes have been infrequently studied, and with few datasets. This dissertation analyzes the complex interplay between over 100 variables and provides one of the first research attempts at better understanding the processes that lead to the deep-rooted and comprehensive implementation of sustainability curricula. Internal and external practitioners of higher education institutions can find examples and evidence that can be useful in planning the next steps of their sustainability curriculum implementation. In the future, higher education institutions will play an even greater role in the journey toward sustainable development. This dissertation offers generalizable empirical findings on how universities can succeed in recognizing their own responsibility to that end and in realizing this transformation through the implementation of ESD.
TIME for REFL-ACTION: Interpersonal competence development in projectbased sustainability courses
(2021)
This dissertation investigates interpersonal competence development in project-based sustainability courses. Visions of a sustainable, safe, and just future cannot be reached by one individual alone. Thus, future change agents need to be able to collaborate and engage with stakeholders, to approach the manifold crises, challenges, problems, and conflicts we are facing together, and to promote and push forward sustainability transitions and transformations. Therefore, this research investigates three project-based sustainability graduate courses by comparing and contrasting teaching and learning outcomes, processes, and environments. A comparative case study approach using a Grounded Theory-inspired research design which triangulates several qualitative methods and perspectives is applied to allow for generalizable insights. Thereby, this dissertation provides empirically-informed insights which are further discussed in relation to selected teaching and learning theories. This leads, first, to a discussion of practical implications within (and beyond) sustainability higher education; and second, provides a theoretical foundation for interpersonal competence development in project-based learning settings – so that educating future change agents can gain momentum.
Findings of this research show that embracing conflicts when they occur (i.e. before they provoke cascading effects in the form of further conflicts down-the-road) is an effective strategy to help further develop interpersonal competence. This requires a conflict-embracing attitude. Attitude, in general, seems to be key in interpersonal competence and competence development overall. Self-reflection, if not explicitly required by outside influences (such as instructors), arises naturally from a self-reflective attitude, and is shown to provide the basis for developing interpersonal competence. This research introduces the term ‘Refl-Action’ which stresses the importance of pairing ‘learning by doing’ (as is often the focus in project-based learning settings) with conscious moments of ‘reflecting about the doing’.
More specifically, the research presented here identified four learning processes for interpersonal competence development: receiving input, experiencing, reflecting, and experimenting. Based on the empirical data, when the four processes are purposefully combined, following a meaningful sequence attitudes, knowledge, and skills in collaborative teamwork and impactful stakeholder engagement, are fostered (two facets of interpersonal competence). Each of the four learning processes is set in motion through various interactions students engage in during project-based sustainability courses: student-student (labeled ‘peer’), student-instructor (labeled ‘deliberate’), student-stakeholder (labeled ‘professional’), and student-mentor (labeled ‘supportive’) interactions. When these interactions are made explicit subjects of inquiry – i.e. the (inter-)action is linked with (self-)reflection – different learning processes complement one another: Interpersonal competence facets (collaborative teamwork and impactful stakeholder engagement) and domains (attitudes, knowledge, skills) are fostered. While, overall, interactions, processes, and conflicts have been identified as supportive for interpersonal competence development, trust has emerged as another variable inviting further investigation.
The findings of this thesis can be useful not only to support more conscious course design and facilitation, but should also be taken into consideration in other project-based (sustainability) settings. Both, sustainability novices and experts are regularly required to engage in teams and with stakeholders. Applying a conflict-embracing and self-reflective attitude allows to actively deal with differences encountered where diverse people interact, and to move forward on sustainability problems and visions in collaboration.
Mental health is an important factor in an individuals' life. Online-based interventions have been developed for the treatment of various mental disorders. During these interventions, a large amount of patient-specific data is gathered that can be utilized to increase treatment outcomes by informing decision-making processes of psychotherapists, experts in the field, and patients. The articles included in this dissertation focus on the analysis of such data collected in digital psychological treatments by using machine learning approaches. This dissertation utilizes various machine learning methods such as Bayesian models, regularization techniques, or decision trees to predict different psychological factors, such as mood or self-esteem, dropout of patients, or treatment outcomes and costs. These models are evaluated using a variety of performance metrics, for example, receiver operating characteristics curve, root mean square error, or specialized performance metrics for Bayesian inference. These types of analyses can support decision- making for psychologists and patients, which can, in turn, lead to better recommendations and subsequently to increased outcomes for patients and simultaneously more insight about the interplay between psychological factors. The analysis of user journey data has not yet been fully examined in the field of psychological research. A process for this endeavor is developed and a technical implementation is provided for the research community. The application of machine learning in this context is still in its infancy. Thus, another contribution is the exploration and application of machine learning techniques for the revelation of correlations between psychological factors or characteristics and treatment outcomes as well as their prediction. Additionally, economic factors are predicted to develop a process for treatment type recommendations. This approach can be utilized for finding the optimal treatment type for patients on an individual level considering predicted treatment outcomes and costs. By evaluating the predictive accuracy of multiple machine learning techniques based on various performance metrics, the importance of considering heterogeneity among patients' behavior and affect is highlighted in some articles. Furthermore, the potential of machine learning-based decision support systems in clinical practice has been examined from a psychotherapists' point of view.
This dissertation focused on the nature and role of organizational practices for the employment of older people and the extension of their working lives. The set of four articles is driven by the objective to further deepen our understanding of how organizations can facilitate ageing at work to the benefit of both, employees and employers. Findings are empirically based on qualitative expert interview data from Germany and the U.S. and several quantitative field studies among older employees in Germany. To bridge gaps in measurement of organizational practices related to aging at work, this dissertation proposes a new comprehensive, multifaceted, and thoroughly conceptualized measure of organizational practices related to aging at work, the Later Life Workplace Index (LLWI). Through the course of the four articles the LLWI is conceptually developed based on qualitative interview data, operationalized, validated based on multiple field studies among older workers, and applied in a multi-level study among older employees of 101 organizations. Results suggest that organizational practices are not uniform, but multifaceted in their presence within organizations and their effects for the employment of older workers. The LLWI distinguishes nine domains of practices including an age-friendly organizational climate, work design, individual development, and practices tailoring the retirement transition. Thus, it may lay the foundation for more granular organizational level research in the field. Further, this dissertation's fourth article applies the LLWI and argues based on person-environment fit and socio-emotional selectivity theory that organizational practices address different individual needs and, thus, affect employment depending on employees' individual characteristics. Results suggest that older employees' retirement intentions are effected by individual development, transition-to-retirement, and continued employment practices depending on their health resources. Application of the new measure in practice to improve organizations' response to the aging workforce and opportunities for future research based on the LLWI are discussed.
Since the early 2000s, ecosystem services strongly gained significance as a research topic. However, the temporal dimension of ecosystem services has not been taken into consideration, although this should be the basis for a sustainable long-term management of ecosystems and their services. Therefore, the author presents three articles in this thesis that deal with temporal aspects of ecosystem services. In two of them she also present a proposal for a framework for the classification of ecosystem services based on their temporal dynamics. In this dissertation she differentiates between two types of temporal aspects, both of which have in common that change takes place over a certain period of time. The concepts of transformation, transition and regime shift are used to describe changes in social or ecological systems as a whole, for example the transformation towards a more sustainable society. The temporal dynamics, on the other hand, relate to the temporal changes in ecosystem services themselves. The first article focuses on how the literature on ecosystem services incorporates social and ecological change. The second and third articles deal with the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services. While the second article presents a preliminary framework for categorizing the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services, the third article uses this framework to test how the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services are represented in the literature. Based on the insights from the three articles, the author concludes that most of the studies on ecosystem services only focus on one point in time. One reason for this is that most studies are conducted over a maximum of a four-year time span which does not allow to monitor dynamics over longer time spans.
Misophonia in the workplace
(2021)
This paper uses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’ inclusion of human well-being and disability rights as a base to examine the work experiences of individuals with the syndrome misophonia who have been employed in white-collar office jobs in the Global North, and how these experiences fit into the current discourse on making offices more inclusive and sustainable. It reports on common workplace triggers, coping mechanisms, and the condition’s perceived effects on misophonics, as well as the perceived barriers and carriers to making workplaces more accommodating to those with the condition. A mixed-methods approach was used to address these points. First, a survey was distributed virtually and 203 responses from misophonics who work(ed) in white-collar office jobs in the study region were collected. Next, ten of these survey takers participated in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, which were then analyzed using qualitative text analysis. The results showed that many misophonics frequently encounter intense triggers (such as mouth sounds) at the office and that self-perceived levels of productivity, well-being, and workplace sociability can be adversely affected. Though opinions on bans of certain behaviors and items and on certain terminology were diverse, there was consensus on desiring more flexible policies, understanding from others, and quiet or private working spaces, including working from home. Lack of misophonia awareness within the general populace, human resources (HR), upper management, and to some degree, the medical community was identified as a persistent barrier to misophonic employees disclosing or asking for reasonable accommodations even when they felt their misophonia was severe, negatively affected them, and there were provisions that could support them. These experiences were similar to those of other invisible conditions and pointed to the need for workplaces striving to be more sustainable and inclusive to adapt their policies and office design decisions.
Transforming the International Food Supply – Sustainable Practices in Small Intermediary Businesses
(2021)
The global food system faces many complex challenges, and there is general agreement that a transformation is needed. While localizing food has been proposed as a means to this end, changing global food supply chains may also lead to sustainable food systems. Because most food systems today have an international dimension and are likely to remain connected, on one way or another, to other ones across the globe, it is necessary to find solutions to problems such as exploitation or environmental degradation. Addressing this challenge and the related gap in the literature, this study examines the emerging practices of small intermediary food businesses, which act between agricultural producers and consumers, and may have the potential to advance sustainability in international food supply. Including a systematic review of the literature on food systems change (Study#1), this dissertation adopts a transformational sustainability research methodology, which is solution-oriented, aims to integrate system, target and transformation knowledge, and is characterized by a transdisciplinary research practice. It conceptualizes challenges of international food supply and empirically investigates entrepreneurial solution approaches to address these challenges (Study#2). Two transdisciplinary research projects with small coffee businesses located in Germany, Mexico, and the U.S. were conducted to examine how these approaches could be implemented (Study#3, Study#4, Workshop reports 1+2). Overall, this study shows that challenges in international food supply chains can be conceptualized as negative effects of large geographical and relational distances. It also identifies five entrepreneurial solution approaches specified by twelve sustainability-oriented design principles to address these negative effects. Creating relational proximity between supply chain actors, that is, strong relationships based on knowledge and care, seems to be a key factor to advance sustainability in international food supply.The results also suggest that by building such strong relationships and changing the fundamental principles of international food trade, small intermediary businesses could be important agents in food system transformations.
In this dissertation, advanced nonlinear control strategies and nonlinear minimum-variance observation are combined, in order to improve the estimation and/or tracking quality within control and fault detection tasks, for several types of systems from the fields of electromobility and conventional drivetrain technology that have some potential for sustainability or performance improvements.
The application-specific innovations in terms of nonlinear Kalman filter methods are:
* Improved state of charge estimation for Lithium-ion battery cells, powered by a novel self-adaptive EKF that uses a high-order polynomial curve fit as a decomposition of the uncertain nonlinear output equation with intentionally redundant bases, and with a reduced number of polynomial parameters that are adapted online by the EKF itself.
* Online estimation of the time delay between two periodic signals of roughly the same shape that have pronounced uncorrelated noise, based on a fractional-order approximation of the transcendent transfer function of the time delay which is used as a model in a novel kind of EKF.
* Using two (E)KFs (one for the linear subsystem and one for the nonlinear subsystem of a new kind of multi-stage piezo-hydraulic actuator) in a cascaded loop structure in order to reduce the computation load of the estimation, by appropriate 'interfacing' between the two observers (using one shared system model equation, among other aspects).
The innovations in terms of nonlinear control methods are powered by observation, as well:
* Sliding mode velocity control of a DC drive that is subject to nonlinear friction and unknown load torques, enhanced by an equivalent control law, and with a new intelligent switching gain adaptation scheme (for reduced control chattering and, thus, less energy consumption and actuator wear), which is powered by Taylor-linearized model predictive control, which in turn requires observer-based disturbance compensation (by a KF with a double-integrator disturbance model) for model-matching purposes in order to function correctly.
* Direct speed control of permanent-magnet three-phase synchronous motors that have a high power-to-volume ratio, based on sliding mode control in a rotating d,q coordinate system, with a new equivalent control method that exploits both system inputs and with a secondary sliding surface to ensure compliance with the current-trajectory of maximum efficiency for the required torque, and which works without measurement of the rotor angle (thanks to a new kind of EKF that estimates all states in the stationary α,β coordinate system, as well as the disturbance/load torque and its derivative).
In all instances, improvements (compared to methods existing in the literature) in terms of control and estimation performance have been achieved and confirmed using simulation studies or real experiments.
One of the Colombian strategies to diversify and decarbonize the energy sector is encouraging the use of non-conventional renewable resources (NCRR). This thesis measures the environmental rebound effect (ERE) when increasing the shares of wind power into the Colombian power grid in the residential (household) sector. For doing so, a process-based Life Cycle Assessment (P-LCA), an environmental extended input output (EEIO) model and re-spending models (almost ideal demand system AIDS) were applied. Direct rebound effect was measured thought the elasticity price of the electricity demand; furthermore, the environmental savings for increasing the shares of wind power into the grid were calculated via P-LCA. For doing so, a P-LCA for a wind farm in Colombia was performed, whereas the information for other energy resources (Hydro, Coal, Gas, Solar and Thermal) where collected from Ecoinvent 3.4 database. To calculate the environmental indirect rebound effect the monetary savings obtained for the environmental efficiency were calculated. For doing so, an AIDS was applied to obtain the marginal budget shares (MBS). Combining the MBS obtained with the EEIO model the monetary savings were translated into environmental indicators. The ERE is presented for ten impact categories (climate change (CC), acidification (A), ecotoxicity (E), marine eutrophication (MEUT), terrestrial eutrophication (TEUT), carcinogenic effects (CE), non-carcinogenic effects (NCE), ozone layer depletion (OD), photochemical ozone creation (POC), and respiratory effects, inorganics (RES)). Moreover, a sensitive analysis was conducted to measure the variability of the ERE to different values of the direct rebound effect and different percentages of price efficiency. The results show that the inclusion of the environmental rebound effect has generally a non-negligible impact on the overall environmental indicators across all studied years. Such impacts ranging across impact categories from 5% (eutrophication) and 6,109% (photochemical oxidant creation) for the combined model, whereas for the single model the values fall on the ranges of 1% (eutrophication) and 9,277% (photochemical oxidant creation). Further, a sensitivity analysis of the elasticity price of the electricity and the price of the electricity reveals that the ERE varies in different ways, specifically, changes in these parameters could vary the impacts, respectively, by up to about <1% and 38%. Backfire effects are present for 8 of the 10 environmental impacts studied in different magnitudes across the years, depending meanly of the savings available to re-invest.
Exploring artful possibilities: a transdisciplinary research on culture, arts and sustainability
(2021)
The texts gathered in this manuscript offer a largely congruent set of insights on the cultural dimension of sustainability and on the important functions of the arts in relation to the cultural dimension of sustainability, not only in society – more particularly in cities – but also more self- reflexively in transdisciplinary sustainability research itself. The introduction paper (original text for the Cumulative Habilitation) presents all the published texts included in the cumulative habilitation manuscript, and discusses the challenges of transdisciplinary research, differentiating two schools of transdisciplinarity (the so-called the ‘ETH’ and ‘CIRET’ approaches) to which the author’s postdoctoral research relates. The four texts in the first part (PART 1 - Culture(s) and Aesthetics of sustainability)articulate the relations between culture and sustainability. They focus on a theoretical dimension of the author’s postdoctoral research that further developed an understanding of “cultures of sustainability” and of “aesthetics of complexity” that was initiated in the author’s PhD, bringing them in a dialogue with other ongoing and emerging discourses about “cultural sustainability” and “queer ecologies”. The four texts in the second part (PART 2 - The Arts in Relation to Culture(s) and Aesthetics of Sustainability) represent the part of the author’s research that constituted a closer examination of specific artistic practices: ecological art, musical practices, and contemporary interdisciplinary arts in urban arts organizations.
The ten texts in the third part (PART 3 - Creative Sustainable Cities) share the insights gained in the parts of the author’s research work that focused on urban cultural and arts-related phenomena in their relationships to urban sustainability. Several of the texts lay out a critique of the “Creative City” and demonstrate an effort to develop an alternative understanding of the Creative City that would deserve to be also named a “Sustainable City”. Later texts share the insights from the author’s co-leading of the “Stadt als Möglichkeitsraum” (“City as Space of Possibilities”) research project (2015-2018).
The nine texts collected in the fourth part (PART 4 - Towards Artful Sustainability Research)reflect how the author’s ongoing research work included a transdisciplinary reflection and development in terms of epistemology and methodology, incorporating increasingly more elements of arts-based research and of phenomenology and integrating them with systems thinking and qualitative social-scientific research. This development brought the author to reflect further upon the imaginaries and research practices of sustainability researchers, and to advocate for an “artistic turn” in sustainability research (including the more specific field of sustainability science).
The conclusion paper (original text for the Cumulative Habilitation) summarizes the insights from all the published texts included in the cumulative habilitation manuscript, and suggests ways to address the transdisciplinary challenges presented in the introduction paper, suggesting ways to articulate the ‘ETH’ and ‘CIRET’ approaches to transdisciplinarity.
This doctoral dissertation aims to contribute to clarification of the potential of learning for water governance. The goal is to trace and understand the environmental impacts of learning through participation (research aim 1) and adaptive management (research aim 2), and the effect of learning on participation as a governance mode (research aim 3). For this goal, the researcher engages in a predominantly qualitative research design following the case study method. For every specific research aim cases are selected and analysed qualitatively according to conceptual categories and mechanisms which are defined beforehand. Quantitative studies are used to corroborate the results for research aim 1 and 2 in a mixed-method approach to enhance the validity of results. The empirical research context is European water governance, the implementation of the EU Water Framework and EU Floods Directive (WFD, FD) specifically. Eight cases of participatory decision-making across three European countries and five cases of adaptive management in Northern Germany for WFD implementation are examined to identify whether learning in these processes enhanced environmental outcomes. To detect whether governance learning by public officials occurred, the design of participatory processes for FD implementation in ten German federal states is assessed. The findings of research aim 1, understanding learning through participation and its effects on water governance, reveal that participatory planning led to learning through improved understandings at an individual and group level. Learning did, however, hardly shape effective outcomes. In the AM cases (research aim 2) managers and participants of implementing networks improved their knowledge as well as capacities, and spread the results. Nonetheless, environmental improvement was not necessarily linked to ecological learning. Regarding learning about participation as a governance mode (research aim 3) all interviewed public officials in German federal states reported some degree of governance learning, which emerged not systematically but primarily drawing on own experiences and intuition. These findings are condensed into three overarching lessons for learning in water governance: (1) Interactive communication seems to form the overall frame for participant and group learning. Framing of learning experiences turned out to play an important and potentially distorting role, for which professional facilitation and structured knowledge aggregation methods might be an im-portant counterbalance. (2) Learning did not automatically enhance environmental outcomes. It may thus not be an explanatory variable for policy outcomes, but a conditioning or intervening variable related to collective action, motivation for participation, and situating the issue at hand at wider societal levels. (3) The concepts of puzzling and powering might help understand learning as a source for effectiveness in the long-term when complemented with interest-based debates for creat-ing sufficient political agency of policy issues. Learning seen as puzzling processes might instruct acceptance and legitimization for new powering efforts. The perpetuation of learning in systematic ways and structures appears to characterize an alternative to this reflexive and strategic interplay, for which the water-related EU directives provide the basis.
Uganda has been plagued by political instability in the past and wide spread abuse of human rights coupled with failed economic policies. However, the country has witnessed increased economic growth and the government has embarked on several poverty eradication programmes despite rising income inequalities and poverty in the country. The task of ensuring poverty as a human right in the country has not been an easy one for those charged with the duty of ensuring the right to freedom from poverty. This research examines the complexity of attaining the right to freedom from poverty in a country like Uganda. This study will also give a philosophical view on poverty and human rights and those responsible for ensuring the implementation of this right. Through the analysis, the research examined the key challenges faced in attaining the right to freedom from poverty in Uganda, discussed how poverty was defined through different perspectives. The information provided in the analysis is further examined by putting the theoretical findings in correspondence with the gathered empirical information for more definitive results of the study. The fundamental results and conclusion of this research revealed the overall challenges faced in regarding poverty as a human right which include how poverty is defined, the mindset, the political history of Uganda and so on. However, the study has recommended extensive research into the role of the family in ensuring poverty as a human right and further research in the effectiveness of the laws in Uganda in ensuring poverty as a human right.
Pre-service teachers need to develop professional competence to be able to provide students with the best possible learning environment. Professional competence manifests itself when teachers combine theory with practice productively. Professional competence encompasses dispositions (i.e., knowledge, beliefs, motivational components, and self-regulatory skills), situation-specific skills (e.g., professional vision), and actual performance.
Professional competence can be fostered productively by authentic, practice-based learning opportunities. Teaching practicums can offer practice-based learning opportunities. Educational research has shown that reflection and feedback are crucial for substantial development of pre-service teachers’ professional competence. However, reflection and feedback sessions are not a standard element of teaching practicums due to time- and location-constraints. Digital practicum environments can lift these constraints. Digital reflection and feedback environments have typically applied either textual accounts or video sequences of classroom practice, with varying effects.
Consequently, the studies presented in this cumulative dissertation are focused on how the use of text- or video-based digital reflection and feedback environments during a practicum influence specific components of pre-service teachers’ professional competence (i.e., beliefs about teaching and learning, self-efficacy, professional vision of classroom management, feedback competence).
All studies followed a quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test design. Pre-service teachers at the fourth-semester bachelor level in a German university took part in the studies. Pre-service teachers participated in a four-week teaching practicum at local schools.
During the teaching practicum, pre-service teachers were divided into five different groups. The control group (CG) took part in a traditional practicum with live observations and face-to-face reflection and feedback with peers and experts. Pre-service teachers of the intervention groups (IG 1, IG 2, IG 3, IG 4) reflected and received feedback in highly structured text- or video-based digital environments. Intervention groups 1 (IG 1) and 2 (IG 2) participated in a text-based digital reflection and feedback environment. While IG 1 participants only received feedback from peers, IG 2 pre-service teachers also received expert feedback. Intervention groups 3 (IG 3) and 4 (IG 4) took part in a video-based digital reflection and feedback environment. IG 3 pre-service teachers only received peer feedback, whereas IG 4 participants also received expert feedback.
Mixed methods were applied by generating quantitative and quantitative-qualitative data was with questionnaires, a standardized video-based test and content analysis.
The studies demonstrated that classroom videos and video-based digital reflection and feedback environments can effectively enhance pre-service teachers’ professional competence. This finding can be predominantly attributed to two characteristics of the application in the digital reflection and feedback environments: (a) being able to revisit a multitude of authentic teaching situations without time pressure and (b) the degree of decomposition by deliberate, focused practice and scaffolding elements.
Furthermore, expert feedback seemed to be of better quality and entailed more substantial effects than peer feedback. The results of our studies on professional vision of classroom management, beliefs about teaching and learning and feedback competence showed that expert feedback can be seen as a lens reducing and focusing classroom complexity, enabling pre-service teachers to perceive crucial teaching situations that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and to benefit from expert modelling of high-quality feedback.
Consequently, video-based digital reflection and feedback environments with expert feedback can significantly improve pre-service teachers’ professional competence during teaching practicums and, thus, better prepare pre-service teachers for future classroom challenges, leading to better learning environments for school students.
This dissertation includes an introduction and five empirical papers focusing on the educational and career decision-making process of individuals in Germany. The five papers embrace different determinants of educational and career decisions including school performance, social background, leisure activities as well as professional expectations, and contribute to the existing literature in this research area. Chapter 2 of this dissertation begins by analysing the nexus between students’ time allocation and school performance in terms of grades and satisfaction with their own performance in mathematics, the German language and a first foreign language, as well as overall achievement. This chapter looks at the heterogeneity of three important extracurricular activities: student jobs, sports and participation in music. Moreover, the heterogeneity of each activity is addressed by accounting for different types of the particular activity and differences in the number of years the activity has been pursued. For this purpose, data from the German SOEP, as a representative panel survey of private households and people in Germany, in particular cross-sectional survey data of 3388 students who are about 17 years old and enrolled in a German secondary school, were used. The main findings are that having a job as a student is negatively correlated with school performance, whereas participation in sports and music is positively correlated. However, the results reveal heterogeneity in each activity, especially with respect to intensity. Chapter 3 addresses the concrete post-school decision of school students, in particular whether to study or to enter the German VET system (Vocational Education and Training). It focuses on individual risk preferences and the social background of individuals and how these determinants affect the ultimate decision to enrol in university or to start an apprenticeship given the same level of qualification. For the empirical approach data from the German SOEP were used, in particular information on individuals' educational decisions between 2007 and 2013. The results indicate that (i) individual risk preferences do not have an overall effect on the real transition; (ii) privileged individuals are more likely to take up higher education; and (iii) compared to highly educated parents, parents without an academic background are less likely to guide their children into tertiary education, regardless of how much they support their children with their school work. Chapter 4 deals with the reconsideration of educational decisions in terms of early contract cancellations in VET. In particular, the effects of a second job on the intention to cancel a VET contract early are analysed for apprentices in Germany. For the empirical approach the representative German firm-level study "BIBB Survey Vocational Training from the Trainee's Point of View 2008", conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), is used. The survey contains 5901 apprentices that were interviewed during their second year of apprenticeship (205 schools, 340 classes, and 15 common occupations). Furthermore, it includes the design, procedures, basic conditions, and quality criteria of apprenticeships. The applied probit regressions show a higher intention to quit if apprentices require a secondary job to cover their living costs. In Chapter 5, new data on 191 apprentices from a vocational school, located in a northern German federal state, are used to validate the empirical results of Chapter 4. This chapter presents new insights into secondary-job-related burdens during apprenticeship. Due to limitations in the data, the applied empirical approach in Chapter 4 lacks to analyse how holding multiple jobs increases the intention to leave an apprenticeship early. Therefore, Chapter 5 includes the investigations of burdens related to the second job. The results indicate a lower intention to quit the apprenticeship if an apprentice holds a second job to cover living costs. However, secondary jobs are linked to lower quality of training, which, on the other hand, increases the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. Furthermore, the probability of secondary-job-related burdens increases with the number of working hours. Chapter 6 concludes the thesis by investigating subjective determinants of early contract cancellations in VET. It examines ten questions on what apprentices want to achieve and how unfulfilled expectations affect the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. The findings of this investigation contributes to the existing research on early contract cancellation. The questions considered include information on the performance, personal development, career development and prospects or position in society and their meaning to apprentices. For the research approach, the "BIBB Survey Vocational Training from the Trainee's Point of View 2008" is considered again. The probit and ordered probit regressions applied show significant effects of job characteristics that represent job security. The expectation of being retained after an apprenticeship and the encouragement to consistently train further decrease the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. Furthermore, women appear to be more affected by job security signals than men, but they also sort more often into occupations with lower retention probabilities. Consequently, this result may be an indication of occupational segregation rather than a sign of differences between sexes.
A Matter of Connection: Competence Development in Teacher Education for Sustainable Development
(2021)
Based on a dual case study, this cumulative dissertation investigates how individual "education for sustainable development" (ESD) courses, as part of the teacher education programs at Leuphana University in Lüneburg/Germany and Arizona State University (ASU)/USA, actually foster students' ESD-specific professional action competence. Furthermore, this work sheds light on the link between learning processes and outcomes, to reveal which factors actually affect the achievement of ILOs and competence development. The findings of this study indicate that both courses under investigation eventually live up to their role and increased student teachers' competence and commitment to implement ESD in their future careers; yet, mainly due to their different thematic foci, to varying degrees. Additionally, the four Cs (personal, professional, social, and structural connections) were revealed as significant factors that support students' learning and should be considered when planning and designing course offerings in TESD, with the goal of developing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
The Macro Polity Revisited
(2021)
This dissertation includes six articles tied together by the overarching question of how changes in public opinion, economics and public policy co-evolve in mature democracies, with a focus on redistributive (in seven European democracies) and secessionist preferences (in Catalonia and Scotland). The theoretical inspiration derives from three sources: 1. the Macro Polity model by Erikson, MacKuen/Stimson, 2. the Thermostatic Responsiveness model by Soroka and Wlezien, and 3. the literature on representation gap models by Gilens, Elsaesser and others. The Macro Polity and Thermostatic Responsiveness models come with an optimistic undertone, emphasizing that public policies adapt to public opinion, producing the policy-opinion congruence that defines responsive government. The Representation Gap model, by contrast, is more pessimistic in highlighting that the preferences of low-income groups are generally worse represented in public policies than the preferences of middle-income and especially high-income groups. While there is evidence in favor of these models for the majoritarian political systems in the US, Canada and the UK, less is known about the validity of these models in proportional democracies of continental Europe. The contributions in this dissertation address this research gap by integrating the three models and combining nearly 500 surveys to study the evolution of European public opinion at the national and subnational level.
The principle of this thesis was to study the environmental fate of three highly used psychotropic drugs and this achieved through: 1) examining the biodegradability of TMI, DMI and CPTX, 2) studying the behaviour of TMP, DMI and CPTX in photodegradation tests using Xe and UV lamps with studying the effect of different environmental conditions on their UV-photodegradation behaviour, 3) monitoring the primary elimination of TMP, DMI and CPTX during photodegradation and biodegradation tests using HPLC, and measuring their degree of mineralization by means of dissolved organic carbon analyser (DOC), 4) elucidating the structures of the transformation products (TPs) which formed during the degradation of TMI, DMI and CPTX by using LC-MS/MS analysis, 5) analysing the biodegradability of their TPs by laboratory tests and in-silico assessments in order to determine the fate and persistence of these TPs in the aquatic environment, 6) conducting in-silico toxicity predictions for the selected psychotropic drugs and their TPs in human (carcinogenicity, genotoxicity and mutagenicity) and in eco-system (toxicity to microorganisms and toxicity in rainbow trouts). As an overall conclusion, the present work demonstrates that a combination of laboratory simulation tests, LC-MS/MS analysis and in-silico tools result in valuable new information regarding environmental fate of three important psychotropic drugs and their TPs. This dissertation also highlights that different environmental conditions such as temperature, initial drug concentration and pH can differently affect the degradation behaviour of pharmaceuticals even when they are highly structurally related. Therefore, one cannot conclude from one pharmaceutical to another but each one needs to be investigated individually and this present a great challenge for risk assessment kinetics of chemicals in the aquatic environment. The results presented here showed that the investigated pharmaceuticals and their TPs can negatively affect the environment which may be harmful to the ecosystem as they might have been present for decades in the aquatic environment without any knowledge of their environmental fate or connected risk. Therefore, further work needs to be done including analysis of environmental samples (e.g., surface waters), as well as laboratory toxicity tests to further expand knowledge on their exact environmental impact.
"Sustainable development: enough for everyone, forever" is the definition of sustainability. Sustainable landscape development is the main goal of decision makers worldwide. Achieving this goal in the long term leads to achieving social, economic and environmental sustainability. Remote sensing has been playing an essential role in monitoring remote areas. This study has employed part of the role of remote sensing in supporting the direction of decision makers towards sustainable landscape development. The study has focused on some of the main elements affecting sustainable environment as stated in Agenda 21. These elements are land uses, specifically agricultural land uses, water quality, forests, and water hazards such as floods.
Three research programs were undertaken to investigate the role of Terrasar-x imagery, as a source of remote sensing data, in monitoring the environment and achieving the previous stated elements. The investigation was intended to investigate the effectiveness of TSX imagery in identifying the cropping pattern of selected study areas by employing a pixel-based supervised maximum likelihood classifier, as published in Paper I, assessment of the efficiency of using TSX imagery in determining land use and the flood risk maps by applying an object-based decision tree classifier as published in Paper II, and determination of the potential of inferential statistics tests such as the two samples Z-test and multivariate analysis, for example Factor Analysis, for identifying the kind of forest canopy, based on the backscattering coefficient of TSX imagery of forest plots, as presented in Paper III. Papers I and II covered two pilot areas in the Lower Saxonian Elbe Valley Biosphere Reserve “das Biosphärenreservat „Niedersächsische Elbtalaue„ around Walmsburger Werder between Elbe-Kilometer 533 - 543 and Wehninger Werder between Elbe-Kilometer 505 - 520. Paper III focused on the Fuhrberger Feld water protection area near Hanover in Germany. The inputs for this research were mainly SAR Imagery and the ground truth data collected from field surveys, in addition to databases, geo-databases and maps.
The study presented in Paper I used two filters to decrease speckle noise namely De-Grandi as multi-temporal speckle filter, and Lee as an adaptive filter. A multi-temporal classification method was used to identify the different crops using a pixel-based maximum likelihood classifier. The classification accuracy was assessed based on the external user accuracy for each crop, the external producer accuracy for each crop, the Kappa index and the external total accuracy for the entire classification. Three cropping pattern maps were produced namely the cropping pattern map of Wehninger Werder in 2011 and the cropping pattern maps of Walmsburger Werder in 2010 and in 2011. The study showed that image filtering was essential for enhancing the accuracy of crop classification. The multi-temporal filter De-Grandi enhanced the producer accuracy by about 10% compared to the Lee filter. Furthermore, gathering and utilizing large ground truth data greatly enhanced the accuracy of the classification. The research verified that using sequence images covering the growing season usually improved the classification results. The results exposed the effect of the polarization, where using VV-polarized data enabled on average 5% higher classification accuracy than the HH-polarized data, however using dual polarized data enhanced the classification accuracy by 3%. The study demonstrated that the majority of the classifications produced according to the crop calendar had higher total producer accuracy than using all acquisitions.
The study demonstrated undertaken in Paper II applied the decision tree object-based classifier in determining the major land uses and the inundation extent areas in 2011 and 2013 using the Lee-filtered imagery. Based on the maps produced for the land uses and inundation areas, the hazard areas due to the floods in 2011 and 2013 were identified. The study illustrated that 95% of the inundated area was classified correctly, that 90% of vegetated lands were accurately determined, and around 80% of the forest and the residential areas were correctly recognized. The study demonstrated that the residential areas did not experience any hazards in both pilot areas, however some cultivated lands were fully or partially submerged in 2011. These fields are in the high flood zone and therefore are expected to be entirely submerged during future high floods. Although, these fields were flooded in January 2011, they were cultivated with maize and potatoes in summer 2011 and in subsequent years and consequently were inundated in June 2013 with high economic losses to the owners of these fields.
The research undertaken in Paper III statistically analyzed the backscattering coefficient of the Lee-filtered TSX in some forest plots by the Factor Analysis and two sample Z-test. The study showed that Factor analysis tools succeeded in differentiating between the coniferous forest and the deciduous forest and mixed forest, but failed to discriminate between the deciduous and the mixed forest. On one hand, only one factor was extracted for each sample plot of the coniferous forest with approximately equal loadings during the whole acquisition period from March 2008 to January 2009. On the other hand, two factors were extracted for each deciduous or mixed forest sample plot, where one factor had high loadings during the leaf-on period from May to October, and the other one had high loadings during the leaf-off period from November to April. Furthermore, the research revealed that the two sample Z-test enabled not only differentiation between the deciduous and the mixed forest against the coniferous forest, but also discrimination between deciduous forest and the mixed forest. Statistically significant differences were observed between the mean backscatter values of the HH-polarized acquisitions for the deciduous forest and the mixed forest during the leaf-off period, but no statistically significant difference was found during the leaf-on period. Moreover, plot samples for the deciduous forest had slightly higher mean backscattering coefficients than those for the mixed forest during the leaf-off period.
Tropical forests worldwide support high biodiversity and contribute to the sustenance of local people’s livelihoods. However, the conservation and sustainability of these forests are threatened by land-use changes and a rapidly increasing human population. In this dissertation, I focused on the effects of land-use change on forest biodiversity in the rural landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia, against a backdrop of human population growth. These landscapes are being progressively degraded, encroached and fragmented as a result of different pressures, including the intensification of coffee production, farmland expansion, urbanization and a growing rural population. Understanding the drivers of biodiversity loss and the responses of biodiversity to such pressures is fundamental to direct conservation efforts in these tropical forests.
This dissertation aimed to characterize biodiversity patterns in the moist Afromontane forests of southwestern Ethiopia and to examine how biodiversity patterns are affected by land-use and land-use changes (mediated by coffee management intensity, landscape attributes and housing development) in a context of a rapidly growing rural population. To achieve this goal, I take an interdisciplinary approach where, first, I examined the effects of coffee management intensity on diversity patterns of woody plants and birds, spanning a gradient of site-level disturbance from nearly undisturbed forest interior to highly managed shade coffee forests. Results showed that specialized species of woody plants (forest specialists) and birds (forest specialists, insectivores and frugivores) were affected by coffee management intensity. The richness of forest specialist trees and the richness and/or abundance of insectivores, frugivores and forest specialist birds decrease with increasing levels of disturbance. Second, I investigated the effects of landscape context on woody plants, birds and mammals. Community composition and specialist species of woody plants and birds were sensitive to landscape context, where woody plants responded positively to gradients of edge-interior and birds to gradients of edge-interior and forest cover. Further results showed that a diverse mammal community, with 26 species, occurs at the forest edge of shade coffee forests and that the leopard, an apex predator in the region depended on large areas of natural forest. A closer examination of leopard activity patterns revealed a shift in the diel activity as a response to human disturbance inside the forest, further highlighting the importance of natural undisturbed forests for leopards in the region. Together, these findings demonstrate the value of low managed shade coffee forests for biodiversity, and importantly, emphasize the irreplaceable value of undisturbed natural forests for biodiversity. Third, I investigated the effects of prospective rural population growth (mediated by housing development) on the forest mammal community. Here, population growth was projected to negatively influence several mammal species, including the leopard. Housing development that encroached the forest entailed worse outcomes for biodiversity than a combination of prioritized development in already developed areas and coffee forest protection. Fourth, to understand the motivations behind high human fertility rates in the region, I examined the determinants of women fertility preferences, including their perceptions on social and biophysical stressors affecting local livelihoods such as food insecurity and environmental degradation. Fertility preferences were influenced by underlying social norms and mindsets, a perceived utilitarian value of children and male dominance within the household, and were only marginally affected by perceptions of social and biophysical stressors. Results further indicated a mismatch between the global discourse on the population-environment-food nexus and local perceptions of this issue by women. My findings suggest the need for new deliberative and culturally sensitive approaches that engage with pervasive social norms to slow down population growth.
Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the key value of moist Afromontane forests in southwestern Ethiopia for biodiversity conservation. It indicates the need to promote coffee management practices that reduce forest degradation and highlights that high priority should be given to the conservation of undisturbed natural forests. It also suggests the need to integrate conservation goals with housing development in landscape planning. A promising approach to achieve the above conservation priorities would be the creation of a Biosphere Reserve and to promote the ecological connectivity between the larger forest remnants in the region. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of placed-based holistic approaches in conservation that consider both proximate and distal drivers of forest biodiversity decline.
Excessive fertilizer use leads to nutrient imbalances and losses of these to the environment through leaching, runoff and gaseous emissions. Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) in agriculture is often low and improving it could increase the sustainability of agricultural systems. The main aims of this thesis were to gain a better understanding of plant-soil-microbe interactions in order to improve agricultural NUEs. The studies included experimentally tested how crops respond to addition of high carbon amendments, fertilizer application rates and timing, and crop rotations. Furthermore, methods for measurement of roots were compared and a protocol for measurement of roots was developed. The first experiment simulated an agricultural field using mesocosms. In this setting, the researchers tested the effect of 4 previous crops (precrops), which either had or did not have a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)/rhizobia, on the focal crop (winter barley). They also tested the addition of high carbon amendments (wheat straw/sawdust) for immobilization of residual soil nitrogen (N) at harvest of the previous crop. Overall, the findings were that non-AMF precrops had a positive effect on winter barley yield compared to AMF precrops. Wheat straw reduced N leaching, whereas sawdust addition had a negative effect on the yield of winter barley. The second experiment tested the effect of different fertilizer (N/phosphorus (P)) application timings on plant traits grown in rhizoboxes. Overall, delaying N application had a more detrimental effect on plant biomass than delaying P application. The root system increased its root length initially due to N-deficiency, but was quickly thus N-limited that root length was relatively lower than the control group. Because of the many root related measurements in the second experiment, a step-by-step method for measuring root traits under controlled and field conditions was developed and included in this thesis. This method paper describes precisely how root traits of interest can be measured, and helps with deciding which approach should be taken depending on the experimental design. Additionally, the authors compared the bias and accuracy of several popular root measurement methods. Overall, these results highlight the importance of crop choice in crop rotations and the plasticity of root systems in relation to nutrient application. The results show high carbon amendments could reduce nitrate leaching after the harvest of crops, especially those with high risk of nitrate leaching, although they had only small impacts on yield.
The aim of this paper is to determine how a carbon footprint label for grocery products can be designed to facilitate a sustainable consumption behaviour. Therefore, a mixed-method approach was used consisting out of a review of relevant literature and an explorative quantitative survey with n=158 participants. It was found that consumers generally have a positive attitude towards carbon labelling, but they lack understanding of the term, its underlying concepts and the emissions caused by grocery products. In regard to the design criteria of a carbon label, labels with a coloured scale are preferred most by consumers. Also, the mechanisms of consumer behaviour imply that not all parts of the behaviour are visible and controllable for individuals themselves. The concluding concept proposal summarises important criteria of a carbon labelling system that has the goal to educate consumers and facilitate a lower carbon consumption behaviour, such as a simple visual design, the use of a colour scale, a design enabling a comparison, the provision of a link to further information, the public enforcement of the system and overall uniformity.