The Working Group Applied Geography and Environmental Planning congratulates Sabine Wüstemann, a former Student of the master course Sustainability, Economics and Management and member of the group, for the publication of her master thesis about cultural change in the Austrian region Oberpinzgau. 

Students from the bachelors course Environmental Science and the master courses Landscape Ecology and Water and Coastal Management made a trip to Galway from 6th to 19th March, lead by Prof. Dr. Ingo Mose and Dr. Ing. Peter Schaal. The topics was the development of the coastal region and it's management. The students were supported by collegues from the National University of Ireland, Galway, which recently became an ERASMUS partner university to the IBU. The locals reported about town development, tourism, nature conservation, coastal protection and the morphology of the region as well as aspects of planning. 

On 9th February 2017 there was a field trip for the students of the seminar "sustainable tourism" to Bremerhaven lead by Prof. Dr. Ingo Mose. They visisted the Atlantic Hotel SAIL CITY where the hotel manager Tim Oberdiek spoke about the sustainability philosophy of the house management. Afterwards Raymond Kiesbye, the head of the Erlebnis Bremerhaven GmbH, a local organisation for tourism marketing of the city Bremerhaven, gave an overview about the activities of his insitution. The last part of the trip was a tour through the Havenwelten which shows the central hilights of maritim tourism in Bremerhaven. 

On 3rd February 2017 was the last lecture of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grabski-Kieron (Institute for Geography) at the Westfälische Wilherlms University Münster. She held the chair for local, regional and state development/spatial planning. Her work for the working group Rural Spaces of the German Society For Geography including her function as spokesperson together with Prof. Dr. Ingo Mose connected her to the working group Applied Geography And Environmental Planning. During her celebratory farewell Ingo Mose gave a gast lecture about developmental perspectives of rural peripheries in Europe. 

From 9th to 11th november scientists from the University Bergen (Norway), the Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane (Norway) and the Linneuniversitetet (Sweden) visited Oldenburg. They accepted an invitation by the ICBM, ZENARiO and COAST to get some insight on the study opportunities in Oldenburg. The three universities are connected to the university Oldenburg by the ERASMUS partnership. It was agreed with the guests to offer a range of courses in English with a major focus on the wadden sea. The program will start in the summer term 2017.

Within the scope of the module "Applied Nature Conservation" 16 students from the master courses Landscape Ecology and Sustainibility, Economics and Management attendet Prof. Dr. Ingo Mose to a field trip to the Island Hiddensee. The group visited selected destinations of the national park "Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft and Jasmund". The Basis was the biological station of the University Greifswald on Hiddensee.The hilights of the trip were a tour with the head of the national park Dr. Ingolf Stodian around the chalk cliffs and an act of nature conservation maintenance in the dune heath.

In 2015 the Wadden Academy decided to become younger and founded the Junge Waddenacadamie (De Jonge Waddenacademie). In Spring 2016 the selection procedure started. 

On 30th June 2016 the five new members were announced during the 16th conference of the Wadden Academy on the Island Texel. The five young scientists work in different scientific fields and will work on their ideas for the wadden sea region for the next five years. One of them is Nora Mehnen.

A three-year research project started on 1st July 2016. The title "Wat Nu?" is a crossing between the German word Watt (engl. wadden) and the question What now? in the German dialect of the Wadden sea region. The collaborative project is supported by the BMBF programm "Kommunen innovativ" (innpovative municipality). 

The Research Group for applied geography and spatial planning will work together with the Working Group for regional structure and environmental research of the ARSU and the municipality Wangerland. It is aimed to adress demographic change in the wadden sea region and to find and test new approaches of gouvernance, participation and solution. Furthermore the island municipalities Juist and Spiekeroog, the town Norden, the Wattenmeerforum (forum wadden sea) and the university Groningen will take part in the project.