Spatial Sciences

Climate and energy

Starting with basic knowledge on the topic of climate and weather, dealing with the spatial demands of the energy transition and climate protection strategies, and ending with the topic of climate adaptation, you have the opportunity to comprehensively deal with this topic area in the minor in Spatial Sciences.

In addition to Leuphana researchers working on this subject area, in this minor focus you will meet people who are known throughout Germany and who can not only report on the current state of research on these topics but who are also committed to them on a daily basis in business and society. In addition to theoretical input, excursions are offered.

Nature conservation and landscape planning

In this focus you will learn about the basics and instruments of nature conservation and deal with functions, legal bases and management concepts of protected areas. In practice-oriented courses with a high proportion of excursions, you will deal with the topics of landscape planning and protected area management in case studies and not just abstractly.

Several lecturers in this focus come from the field and have worked for many years as landscape planners or in management functions of protected areas. A course on biodiversity and nature conservation rounds off this thematic focus.

Social-ecological systems

You deal with social-ecological system dynamics and especially with relationships of people with their environment at the landscape level. You will study how people use landscapes and how, in turn, biodiversity and ecosystem services are affected. You will learn to examine ecological and social elements in case studies and to represent and analyse them in maps. This data can then be used to develop recommendations for policy or to develop assessment and adaptation strategies.

An annual practical project on the restoration of biodiversity in urban areas enables you to take practical action.

You will begin your studies of the minor in Spatial Sciences in the second semester. In the Introduction to Spatial Sciences module, you will receive a broad introduction to the fundamentals of spatial sciences and an overview of the specialisation options that await you in the rest of your studies.

In the third semester, in the Fundamentals of Spatial Systems module, you will deal with the complexity and interrelationships of the biophysical shaping of environmental space and its use by humans on a global, regional and local level.

In the fourth semester, you will practise spatial thinking in the analysis of environmental systems and their changes in the module Spatial Approaches in the Analysis of Environmental Systems.

Building on this, the module Assessment and Adaptation of Spatial Systems is about examining, weighing up and assessing interventions in spatial systems and estimating their effects.

In the compulsory modules you will find courses on the various thematic focal points mentioned above, so that you can decide for yourself which area is most interesting for you in terms of content.

In the fourth and fifth semesters, you will take one elective module in addition to the compulsory modules. You can choose between the following elective modules: In Methods of Spatial Sciences I you learn to work with geographic information systems. You can deepen this knowledge in Methods of Spatial Sciences II. In this module, you also have the opportunity to get to know other methods used in spatial sciences. In the module Spatial Planning in Practice, the focus is on assessing practical interventions in spatial planning - based on what you have already learned in the previous semesters. This module is very practical and often includes one or more field trips.