Jesper Brandt

Teaching

Current teaching areas:

• Regional development and demography
• Cultural landscape dynamics
• Landscape Ecology (incl. several international Ph.D.-courses, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005)

Research

The landscape in the transition towards sustainable development. Different landscape concepts and models have been in focus in my studies, mostly empirically founded in detailed studies of structure and dynamics of land use, land cover and landscape system. 

A main research area has been the structure and development of ‘small bio-topes' in agricultural landscapes through field surveys combined with farmer-interviews in a number of test areas. Since the start in the end of the 1970's the scope and extent of these studies have changed towards a monitoring system for agricultural landscapes. From 1995-2002 I have been a leader of the interdisciplinary project: ‘Value, landscape and biodiversity' (in a co-operation between the Danish Agricultural University, The academy of Art, Copenhagen University and Roskilde University), sponsored by four different Danish state research councils. These activities has been followed by an interest in combining the landscape monitoring with research in landscape aspects of trends in counterurbanisation processes.

Another part of my landscape studies has covered the history of the Faeroese sheep farming system, where vegetation surveys and interview-based surveys of the territorial structure of the grazing system has been used to uncover the landscape ecological as well as social conditions constituting the carrying capacity of the grazing system and the agricultural system in which it has been embedded.

Curriculum

MSc in geography from Copenhagen University in Jan. 1974. Substitute mastership and Copenhagen University andassistant at  Roskilde University until August 1974, Mastership at RUC 1974-78, Ass. Prof. at RUC 1978-96. Ass. Prof. at Dept. of Forest and Natural Resources (Section for Landscape) at the Agricultural University, Copenhagen 1994-95. Oct. 1996 Full Prof. at Dep. f. Geogrpahy and International Development Studies, RUC, from 2006 at ENSPAC