IBA Thüringen

Landscapes are not just natural or economic spaces, but also cultural assets. Land, however, is subject to many competing demands: it is used for energy and food production, for use as commercial sites, for logistics and road infrastructure, for nature conservation, flood protection, for its natural resources or its special landscape characteristics, not to mention for tourism. At the same time, climate change is imposing new conditions. What does this mean for the future of the landscape and the future of agriculture?

The Landwirtschaft Kannawurf Betriebsgesellschaft mbH and agrar-GmbH Oldisleben worked together with the IBA Thüringen and the Künstlerhaus Thüringen to carry out a feasibility study for 1,500 hectares of agricultural land in the vicinity of Kannawurf. The study was undertaken by Green4Cities GmbH in cooperation with SEKEM Energy GmbH and resulted in a model for ‘Climate-responsive landscape typologies using inter-farm crop rotation management’.

Three specific climate-landscape typologies were identified for Kannawurf in response to their different local climatic effects. They include concrete measures to minimize wind and water erosion, heat island and surface temperature effects as well as strategies for adapting to continuing climate change.

Aside from the climate, however, farmers are also highly dependent on global capital markets, EU agricultural subsidies and also increasingly monopolization of the seed and food production sector. One approach to addressing this problem is to establish new regional cooperative net- works. The climate-landscape typologies make suggestions for cultivating crops that are in high demand among regional processing companies in Thuringia, both today and in the future.

With a view towards developing a holistic climate-responsive (agri-)cultural landscape, the IBA will continue to work with all partners on the next steps of implementation until 2023.