Helmholz Zentrum Geesthacht 

Kira Gee

I have a natural sciences background but have always been interested in the social, cultural and political domains of coastal and marine systems. For the past 20 years my main focus has been on marine spatial planning where I’ve worked at the intersection of research and practice in a variety of projects and contexts. In addition to a systems perspective, I’m particularly interested in place attchment and the immaterial values people associate with the sea, using concepts like cultural ecosystem services, landscape or benefits to people as a conceptual framework. I’m also interested in how to include such different types of knowledge in marine decision-making. In Land2Sea, I’m part of WP4 where I contribute to the Elbe case study in Germany, looking at the perceived benefits of biodiversity to different communities. I also look at the conceptual links between different methodologies and how they can be used to analyse the consequences of change in a participatory way.

Andreas Kannen

Jürgen Schaper

I am post doc and part of the Land2Sea project team together with Andreas Kannen and Kira Gee from the Helmholtz Centre in Geesthacht as part of work package 4. In addition to biology, I studied communication management and earned a doctorate at the University of Hamburg on the topic of climate adaptation communication. Since then I have been researching interpersonal communication and transdisciplinary stakeholder participation for regional climate adaptation in the fields of coastal protection, storm surge risk management and fishery. I have been and still am involved in various joint projects in East Frisia, Denmark and the Hamburg metropolitan region. I will support the project work for Land2Sea by, among other things, conducting and evaluating qualitative stakeholder interviews and workshops as well as risk assessments using bow tie analyses.