COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: LANDSCAPE RESEARCH

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
ARCH 415	D	9	3	0	0	3	6

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	NA
Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Artan Hysa , Monday, 14:30-16:30
Second Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Elective
Classroom and Meeting Time:	TBD
Course Description:	The still existing approach in architectural and urban design is aiming to provide more efficient, more aesthetical, and safer buildings and urban environments for people. While, this approach is not sustainable enough in the long-run. The goal of this course is to divert the research interest of young professionals towards the landscape approach, in which the built environment is considered complementary to the natural systems of the territory. Landscape approach, fundamentally relies on the most specific local properties of the context at local scale, while being aware of the prevailing challenges of global scale.
Course Objectives:	The main objective of this course is to enable students (future architects & urban planners) to think beyond the built environment. Thus, the goal of this course is to divert the research interest of young professionals towards the landscape approach, in which the built environment is considered complementary to the natural systems of the territory.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introduction to Landscape Research
2	On Landscape, Landscape Research, and Landscape Approach
3	Landscape Research and Ecosystem Services [ES] and Nature Based Solutions [NBS] for Urban Challenges
4	Landscape Infrastructure [LI] and Urban Green- Blue Infrastructure [BGI]
5	Landscape Fragmentation [LI], Connectivity, and Landscape Metrics/ Indices
6	Land Use Land Cover [LULC] Assessment for BGI Mapping Data Gathering and Archiving techniques
7	Midterm Workshop[open-book]
8	Launching the Term project : Blue-Green Factor (BGF) of Tirana
9	Discussion on the results of the "DEMO study area"
10	Data Production on specific study areas/ Individual work
11	Comparative pair discussion between results of two specific study areas/ group work
12	Map Delivery Standards / Graphical Presentation
13	Inter-group discussions/ Reporting the Results
14	Final Discussion and Task Distribution for the common Report

Prerequisite(s):	None
Textbook:	(1) Europe, C. O. (2000, October). European landscape convention. In Report and convention. (2) McHarg, I. (1992 [1969]). Design with nature. Washington, D.C.: Wiley. (3) Horvath, P., Barton, D. N., Hauglin, E. A., & Ellefsen, H. W. (2017). Blue-Green Factor (BGF) mapping in QGIS. User Guide and Documentation.
Other References:	(4) Strang, G. L. (1996). Infrastructure as landscape [infrastructure as landscape, landscape as infrastructure]. Places, 10(3). (5) Nijhuis, S., & Jauslin, D. (2015). Urban landscape infrastructures. Designing operative landscape structures for the built environment. Research in Urbanism Series, 3, 13-34. (6) Juhola, S. (2018). Planning for a green city: The Green Factor tool. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 34, 254-258. (7) Dennis, M., Barlow, D., Cavan, G., Cook, P., Gilchrist, A., Handley, J., ... & Lindley, S. (2018). Mapping urban green infrastructure: A novel landscape-based approach to incorporating land use and land cover in the mapping of human-dominated systems. Land, 7(1), 17. (8) Kabisch, N., Frantzeskaki, N., Pauleit, S., Naumann, S., Davis, M., Artmann, M., ... & Zaunberger, K. (2016). Nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas: perspectives on indicators, knowledge gaps, barriers, and opportunities for action. Ecology and Society, 21(2). (9) Daily, G. C. (1997). Nature’s services (Vol. 19971). Island Press, Washington, (10) DC.Bolund, P., & Hunhammar, S. (1999). Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecological economics, 29(2), 293-301. (11) da Silva, J. M. C., & Wheeler, E. (2017). Ecosystems as infrastructure. Perspectives in ecology and conservation, 15(1), 32-35.
Laboratory Work:	Yes
Computer Usage:	Yes, QGIS
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	The student is expected to become aware of the potentials of landscape research and approach in finding holistic solutions to current complex global challenges
2	Being able to relate the global scale problems like climate change, global warming, and socio-economic crisis with the local scale consequences of specific territories.
3	Understanding the basics of Geographic Information Systems [GIS] and its utility in territorial analysis, planning, and management.
4	Understanding the importance of the Blue-Green infrastructure [BGI] and its connectivity in order to supply diverse ecosystem services [ES] as nature based solutions [NBS] for current urban challenges.
5	Be able to map in GIS [QGIS] in order to quantify the land use land cover of a specific study area.
6	Delivering tangible/ measurable assessment on BGI of Tirana
7	Student will experience a research based learning and problem oriented research process.

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Integrated second cycle study program in Architecture (5 years) Program

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Homework	4	5
Project	1	20
Term Paper	1	50
Attendance		10
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	3	48
Mid-terms	1	6	6
Assignments	4	3	12
Final examination	1	36	36
Other			0
Total Work Load:			150
Total Work Load/25(h):			6
ECTS Credit of the Course:			6