University of Western Hungary – Institute of Environmental Sciences

The Institute of Environmental Sciences was founded within the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Western Hungary in 1998. With the enlargement of the former Chair of Environmental Protection the institute became the host of several educational and research program related to environmental, applied ecological and landscape studies. The institute’s scientific profile is quite broad, concerns environmental and landscape history, forest and landscape ecology, landscape restoration and management, nature conservation, environmental policy and planning. The linking factor between that large scope of the mentioned disciplines is the interdisciplinary landscape approach, which interconnects the natural, cultural and economical aspects and sciences. The scientists of the institutes participate in projects concerning the climate change effects, landscape and environmental monitoring, impact assessment and planning. The basic scientific approach is to harmonize protection with development and interconnect regional and spatial research and planning with landscape and nature conservation. In order to achieve this goal the institute created a Working Group of Environmental Planning and Regional Development with the participation of researcher in different scientific background (landscape architecture, regional geography, GIS, rural development, environmental protection).