Dr Flurina Wartmann

Biography

• Since July 2020: Lecturer in Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
• 2018 - 2020 PostDoc at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape on further developing the Swiss Landscape Monitoring Programme for the Federal Office of the Environment
• 2017 -2018 PostDoc at the Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, UK. Project on mapping tranquillity as a landscape quality in a Scottish national park using interviews and social media data. Funded by SNSF.
• 2016 -2017: PostDoc at the Geography Department, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Project on combining quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing cultural landscape values from bottom-up descriptions. Funded by the cogito foundation.
• 2012 -2016: PhD in Geography at the University of Zurich. Title: From Space to Place in the Bolivian Amazon – Representing Landscape Perceptions with Ethnographic and GIS Approaches.
• 2009-2012 Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Development and Cooperation at nadel, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• 2009-2012 Programme Coordination at the NGO Biovision Foundation: coordination and monitoring of sustainable development projects in East Africa
• 2009 Master in Geographic Information Science at the University of Zurich, Switzerland

Research Overview

Broadly, my research interests revolve around the relationship between society and nature, including nature conservation, protected area management, landscape assessment, cultural landscape values, sense of place, landscape restoration and rewilding.

In my research I use interdisciplinary approaches and a variety of data sources, including interviews, public surveys, social media photographs, digitised text sources (e.g. hiking blogs) and participatory GIS.

Recently, I have also worked on developing interdisciplinary approaches for mapping tranquillity. This research was recently featured in the Geovisualisation blog by the Royal Geographical Society. 

Current Research

I am currently working on research projects commissioned by the Swiss Ministry for the Environment on: 

• analysing the national public survey data on landscape perception (LABES)
• investigating the relationship between sound/noise in public green spaces, sense of place and recreation in densifying peri-urban areas

Furthermore, I'm involved in an EU Horizon project on investigating pathways towards sustainable agriculture in different European agricultural contexts. 

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach on nature-society relations, social aspects of conservation and participatory GIS and mapping, as well as principles of cartographic design across undergraduate and Master's level (see course list).

Supervision

I am interested to supervise students pursuing UG/PG and PhD dissertations on a range of topics, including, but not limited to: cultural landscape values, integrated landscape assessments, use and perception of urban green spaces, public attitudes on landscape change, rewilding, and conservation.

I was student-nominated as best undergraduate dissertation supervisor in 2022.

Im currently seeking UG/PG students to work on the following topics (but come and talk to me if you have other ideas not listed here):

• Improving our understanding of place-based cultural values within existing Marine Protected Areas (in collaboration with Prof. Tavis Potts, Geography & Environment
• Public perception of renaturing and rewilding urban green spaces - case studies

Previously supervised:

• McLennan, C. (2021): Perceptions of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) reintroductions in Scotland. Dissertation for the Master in Land Economy, University of Aberdeen. Main supervisor.
• Cumming, S. (2021): Investigating the relationship between new entrants to agriculture and diversification: a focus on Scotland's agritourism. Dissertation for the Mater in Land Economy, University of Aberdeen. Main supervisor.
• Smith, J.A. (2021): The role of green spaces in Aberdeen City during an ongoing pandemic. Dissertation for MA in Geography, University of Aberdeen. Main supervisor.
• Leafstedt, E. (2021): Identity, Sustainability, and the Growth Machine - Discourse Analysis of Urban redevelopment– A Case Study of the 2015 Aberdeen City Centre Masterplan. Dissertation for MA in Geography, University of Aberdeen. Main supervisor.
• Arnet, H.T. (2021): Forest boundaries. Where does the forest start and where does it end? A case study on forest policy and forest delineation in the Canton of Aargau, Switzerland. MSc in GIScience, University of Zurich, Co-supervisor.
• Komossa, F. (2020): Outdoor Recreationists and Where To Find Them: Quantifying Outdoor Recreation Preferences In European Landscapes. PhD Thesis. Environmental Geography, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Co-supervisor.
• Hartmann, M. (2019): Automated recognition of outdoor recreation activities from social media photographs. MSc environmental and forest management, MSc Forest management ETH Zurich and WSL. Main supervisor.
• Henzi, M. (2017): Mapping and GIS analysis of Seri place names along the Sonora coast in Mexico. MSc in GIScience, University of Zurich. Main supervisor.
• Bär, M. (2017): Real-time Multiplayer Online Location-based Game for Geographic Information Mining. MSc in GIScience, University of Zurich. Co-supervisor.
• Huldi, R. (2015): Automatically Extracting Landscape Descriptions from Trip Reports. Introducing a Method based on Sentiment Analysis and Valency Grammar. MSc in GIScience, University of Zurich. Co-supervisor.