Kati Vierikko
Research
My research interest has always been connected to human-nature interaction, and especially how human’s understand and interpret nature. In addition, I am interesting in sustainable use of natural resources, how can we identify sustainable use and trade-offs that emerge from management choices made by society. In my doctoral thesis I studied socio-cultural and ecological dimensions of the concept ‘ecologically sustainable forest management’ by examining which elements in the socio-cultural world influence a forest actor’s definition of ‘ecologically sustainable forest management’ and exploring relationships between sustainability components at the regional scale, respectively. My dissertation was transdisciplinary research that took advantages from theories, models and methodological approaches in both environmental, social and natural sciences.
Curently I am working as a postdoc researcher in the project GREEN SURGE, European 7th framework programme. The research will identify, develop and test ways of linking green spaces, biodiversity, people and green economy to find out how to improve resilience, adaption capacity and sustainability of social-ecological systems under demographic and climate changes.
I will work on WP2 in developing the Biocultural diversity (BCD) concept with the colleagues from Wageningen University, Netherlands. The conceptual framwork will be demonstrate and test in five Urban Learning Labs (ULL) around Europe. We will closely cowork with five Urban Lab city projects (Berlin, Edinburg, Malmö). In addition, we will make some analyses on biodiversity and human well-being are interlinked in the city of Helsinki together with WP5 partners. Professor Jari Niemelä is a leader and coordinator of the WP2.
Teaching
I have given regularly lectures about trade-offs between components of sustainable forestry at the Department of Forestry Sciences. I teach landscape ecology to landscape architect students at the Aalto University. In addition, I give occasionally lectures on ecological land-use planning (Östersundom shadow plan as an example). I also supervise master theses.
Leisures
Family is my greatest pleasure. I love running. It is a nice way to run from Viikki to Töölö through Kumpula.
Publications
Projects
Activities
Contact
| kati.vierikko(at)helsinki.fiDepartment of Environmental Sciences
Room 2069 Mobile: + 358 50 318 5073 |