Research Areas
ZALF derives its research questions from societal questions which are of high relevance in agricultural landscapes. They are addressed in four interdisciplinary Research Areas (RA), which are closely interlinked via topical and methodological interfaces. While
Research Area 1 "Landscape Functioning" deals with processes, feedbacks and cause-and-effect relationships in agricultural landscapes,
Research Area 2 "Land Use and Governance" focuses on the interactions between agricultural use, ecosystem services and biodiversity as well as on suitable governance approaches for the sustainable development of agricultural landscapes. Taking into account the results from Research Areas 1 and 2 as well as external data and knowledge sources,
Research Area 3 "Agricultural Landscape systems" develops methods and applications to synthesize the analytical understanding of natural and socio-economic processes in landscapes into action-relevant knowledge, thereby making it available for comprehensive impact assessments and decision support for actors in business, politics, science and society. Research Area 4 "Simulation and Data Sciences" is developing a coherent concept for the integration of data, models and simulation methods for landscape research, including a landscape theory. At ZALF, the focus is particularly on the interactive and user-friendly application of models and methods for analysing processes in agricultural landscapes.
Innovation Centre for Agricultural System Transformation
The
Innovation Centre for Agricultural System Transformation (IAT) will be established as a new research and service unit of ZALF in cooperation with the Justus Liebig University Giessen, the University of Kassel and Hochschule Geisenheim University. The focus will be on the joint development of sustainable and context-related solutions for agricultural and food systems in co-design processes. From 2026, five Living Labs are to be established in Brandenburg and Hesse in cooperation with regional stakeholders. Long-term, multi-decade cooperation structures will be developed with relevant stakeholders in land use and policy, both locally and at the landscape scale.
Research and Infrastructure Platforms
The thematic work in the Research Areas is reinforced and interlinked by infrastructure platforms that combine research and services. The "Computation and Data Service Platform" (CDP) provides specialized services for the provision, management and use of research data as well as model and simulation infrastructures. The platform's service working groups collaborate to support ZALF's research data management and modelling activities. The numerous ZALF research infrastructures at the field and landscape scale are clustered in the
"Experimental Infrastructure Platform". CDP and EIP therefore play a special role in integrating the thematic research activities across the Research Areas. They enable ZALF to efficiently collect, provide and evaluate research data and modeling results from modern agricultural landscape research in a goal- and user-oriented manner.
