Projects & Networks
Network (member): ARL - Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association
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European Working Group (EWG) AlpPlan
Ljubljana, Nov. 27-28, 2023 - current
AlpPlan/PlanToConnect Expert Platform (The Interreg Alpine Space) on green infrastructure, ecological connectivity and spatial planning: “Ecological connectivity and spatial planning: From concepts to implementation” & AlpPlan General Assembly.
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Network (lead): MRI - Mountain Research Initiative
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MGWG - Mountain Governance Working Group
Bern (online), May 27, 2023 - current
Governance of mountainous regions faces pressing challenges that carry implications for the future sustainability of human society. Mountain peoples and environments appear especially vulnerable to negative impacts from global change processes, yet provide invaluable benefits: They generate key ecosystem services, offer instructive examples of sociocultural resilience, and retain high biocultural diversity. This Working Group aims to address the critical need for better understanding and information regarding mountain governance challenges and opportunities. The Mountain Governance Working Group (MGWG) was created in 2017. Building on the research activities of the Working Group and its members, a revised Mission Statement has been produced with expanded objectives and a new list of topics. The Working Group has set short, medium and long-term objectives during the next third phase: 2023 (transitional), 2024-2025, and beyond.
Network (member): ARL - Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association
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European Working Group (EWG) AlpPlan
Vienna, Nov. 6-7, 2022 - current
AlpPlan (alpine spatial planning network) is a European Working Group (EWG) in the Alpine region, resulting from a cooperation of the Interreg Alpine Space project OpenSpaceAlps and the Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL). The realisation of the objectives set by the Alpine Convention and their coordination by means of spatial planning form an important framework for the activities of the network. The overall objective of AlpPlan is to promote cooperation and coordination in the field of spatial planning in the Alpine region, especially from a cross-border perspective. Through mutual exchange and cooperation, the network is committed to contributing to sustainable territorial development from an ecological, economic and social perspective. The benefit of the network is seen particularly in the fact that AlpPlan brings together both scientific expertise and practice-oriented application perspectives. In doing so, the network takes on a role that accompanies political strategies and processes in an advisory function, but generally offers an independent and open exchange between the members. AlpPlan is committed to ensuring close cooperation with appropriate institutions. This includes in particular the working bodies of the Alpine Convention and the action groups of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP).
University of Oxford, School of Archaeology
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Oxford, Dec. 2018 - current
The SAW project is a proactive model for an adequate and sustainable supply of water for the local Bedouin community, which typically re-uses ancient water management structures that constitute heritage sites as well, and which, in turn, attracts tourists to the region. It has high impact value, transcending the usual remit of the discipline of archaeology by focusing explicitly on the active and continued use of heritage sites. An integrated approach will bring archaeological, ecological, social and heritage management (governance) aspects to inform a low-cost representative watershed management model. In particular, it will investigate the ancient agriculture and water harvesting systems across the mountain range in the light of the newly rediscovered (and unique) Sinaitic Qanat (tunnel-wells system) in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula. SAW re-engineers an alternative approach to watershed management for hydrologists and water engineers, which is necessary because of poor meteorological and hydrological data for the area.
Library of the Congress, Prints and Photographs Online Catalog − L0C/PPOC
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Washington, Jan. 2018 - current
Provide the attributions, history and geography description/notes, for Sinai’s 19th and 20th centuries photographic entries.
Royal Geographical Society & Saint Catherine Foundation
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London, Nov. 2-30, 2017
Provided and contributed to the attribution and description of the exhibitions entries.
Palestine Exploration Fund - PEF
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Maps of the 'Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai' and 'Jennings Bramley'
London, Nov. 2015 - Apr. 2016
Catalogued and attributed the 19th and 20th centuries maps of the British Royal Engineers and the Frontier Districts Administration (FDA).
British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Leverhulme Trust (Research Grants) − in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London - BA/LT/QMUL
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A Different Sense of Space: How Bedouins mapped the Sinai
London, Jun. 2014 - Jun. 2016
Provided consultation during the planning, application and early project phase on Sinai's cultural landscape, mapping and map-making and knowledge-making patterns
Arts and Humanities Research Council (Cultural Engagement Fund), Department of Archaeology, Durham University
Tales of the Frontier: Political Representations & Practices inspired by Hadrian's Wall
Durham, Mar. 2013 - Jun. 2013 (publications & follow up until Jun. 2014)
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Maximising the project’s impact and the creation of new connections to Hadrian’s Wall Management Plan and Museums Policy, with regard to themes such as contemporary frontiers, multiculturalism, etc. For example, a discussion has been commenced with the Hadrian’s Wall Trust about the future position of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the UK legislative system, and the possibilities of the future extension of the project’s methodology to the European (e.g. German Limes), Near Eastern (e.g. Eastern Mediterranean) and North African sections of the Roman Frontiers.
EURAC research AlpEnv Institute for Alpine Environment (Research Collaboration Grant)
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Bolzano/Bozen, Italy, Oct. 2011 - Oct. 2012
Integrated Cluster of Centralised Rural-Urban Nano-Economies in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula (Middle East) and Alto Adige-Südtirol (Alps) − in the light of the DIAMONT project.
IMT Institute for Advanced Studies 'Institutions, Markets, Technologies' (Fellowship of the Government of the Republic of Italy)
Sinai Peninsula Research (SPR) − phase II/analysis
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Lucca, Italy, Mar. 2010 - Mar. 2013
Human Occupation Development in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, with Alpine and Himalayan Reflections in the Light of Rural-Urban Development ‘Socio-economy’, Semi-Arid Watershed Management ‘Socio-ecology’ and Land Use Policy ‘Governance’
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