First TOPIO Autumn School

Ghent 2024

Topic: Landscape character assessment: why, how, who to involve?

Introduction

The first Autumn School, Specialised Lecture and Workshop of TOPIO will be organised in Ghent from Monday 21 to Thursday 24 October 2024.
The aim of this week is to focus, discuss and exchange experiences and methodological approaches in landscape character assessment, including the introduction of the characterisation methodology that will be applied in TOPIO. As such, the topic of the first intensive week will be dedicated to work package 5 "Landscape Character Assessment”. The main objective of Autumn School, Specialised Lecture and Workshop is that the partners of the TOPIO project can perform the landscape character assessment for the different case studies.
The Autumn School sessions from Monday to Wednesday will focus on the overall theoretical principles and approaches as well as the exchange of lessons to learn from different case studies. On Tuesday, an interactive session is planned where the participants of the Autumn School will take part in two major steps of the characterisation process, including map analysis and field work. The experiences from these interactive sessions will be discussed on Wednesday, including the exchange of further integration of digital technologies and data, after which the main methodological framework for the characterisation process will be designed.
The Specialised Lecture and Workshop on Thursday will tackle challenges in collaborative approaches in landscape character assessments. In the morning, one or two lectures will be given by experts in collaborative and interdisciplinary research. The workshop in the afternoon will provide the participants with the necessary skills to detect, select and contact the different actors and stakeholders to be involved in their case study area. This means that the project partners will go home with hands-on material to start working on the characterisation process in a collaborative manner.

Format

The Autumn School, Specialised Lecture and Workshop will be organised in four consecutive days. Participants can choose to participate in all activities or select one specific activity. The Autumn School has to be seen as one activity (so participants join for the whole program).

• Part 1: Autumn School (Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 October)
• Part 2: Specialised Lecture and Workshop on Thursday 25 October

For the project partners of TOPIO, the project meeting will be organised on Thursday 26 October in the afternoon.

Participants

Members of the TOPIO project team, MSc students, other project partners and interested colleagues (from research, policy and/or practice – if spaces are available).
As the Autumn School and Workshop are designed to be interactive, we aim for max. 40 participants

Registrations need to be completed via this form: registration form

Location

Monday 21 to Thursday 24 October 2024
Sint-Baafshuis, Biezekapelstraat 2, 9000 Gent
Sint-Baafshuis Gent | Kerknet

Travel and Accommodation

Participants will organise travel and accommodation individually.
Suggestions for accommodation in the centre of Ghent:

• Ibis Ghent Centrum St Baafs Kathedraal
• Novotel Ghent Centrum
• As the Autumn School is organised during the academic year, there are no rooms available in the student facilities of the university. Cheap accommodation can be booked in the different hostels in the centre of the city (for example, De Draecke Hostel, Treck Hostel, Hostel Uppelink)