AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Staff Visit University of Hohenheim

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HOHENHEIM, Germany ‒ On June 4-28, 2018, two staff members of the Acopian Center for the Environment (ACE) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) completed a study-tour at the University of Hohenheim. Litta Muradyan, Environmental Education and Outreach Coordinator at ACE, and Aghavni Harutyunyan, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist, attended a month-long graduate-level course in Landscape Change, Resilience and Ecosystem Services taught by Dr. Claudia Bieling.  

The course covered a range of topics, including conceptual foundations: resilience thinking, application of concepts, perceptions of past and future landscape changes, landscape change and human well-being, as well as eliciting cultural ecosystem services in practice.

Parallel to the course, Muradyan and Harutyunyan participated in various departmental events and meetings, in particular, research colloquia, team meetings and Journal Club meetings of the Department of Societal Transition and Agriculture of the Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture at the University of Hohenheim.

The study-tour was made possible through the GAtES project (German-Armenian Network on the Advancement of Public Participation GIS for Ecosystem Services as a Means for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development), implemented by DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

This was the first of others planned in the four years of the GAtES project implementation. Each year, two AUA students or staff are planned to participate in study-tours at the University of Hohenheim. For more information on the GAtES project visit http://ace.aua.am/gates.

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, a research center of the American University of Armenia, promotes the protection and restoration of the natural environment through research, education, and community outreach. AUA Acopian Center’s focus areas include sustainable natural resource management, biodiversity and conservation, greening the built environment, clean energy, and energy efficiency, as well as information technology and the environment.