In advance of our 2025 ialeUK Conference on environmental monitoring we are bringing together a working group to conduct an evidence-based synthesis on landscape monitoring for sustainability.
The working group is aimed at early career researchers; those currently studying at postgraduate level or within 5 years of their last degree, and we welcome contributions from others working in practice and policy at a similar career stage.
We plan to meet once a month from October 2024 until the ialeUK conference in July 2025 to define the aims, questions and approach to the research. Working group participants will be invited to attend the ialeUK conference where they will have the opportunity to collate further evidence from talks and survey responses from conference delegates.
The group will aim to communicate their findings as a perspectives piece in the Landscape Ecology journal.
We are looking to form an interdisciplinary group so do not feel limited by your current field of study; we are open to hearing from anyone interested in the environment, including and beyond those who identify as landscape ecologists, from social scientists and economists to meteorologists.
We will broadly focus on how current landscape-scale monitoring initiatives support and track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, but the defined research questions will depend on the interests of the group.
Examples of topics or approaches we could explore include, but are not limited to:
- The use of environmental monitoring data for the development of indicators of sustainability (e.g. soil & biodiversity indicators)
- Integrating sustainability indicators into environmental monitoring frameworks
- Drawing upon our understanding of ecosystem processes from environmental monitoring to design resilient landscapes for people and nature
- Connecting landscape environmental monitoring and socio-economic observations to better manage contradictions between sustainable development goals.
Benefits of joining the working group:
- Conducting a policy and practice-relevant review to support future job applications.
- Working together with other ECR’s breaks the isolation of postgraduate study and builds connections and networking opportunities.
- Involvement in the development and authorship of an academic paper
Please contact early career representative, Caitlin, on students@iale.uk to join the working group.