The aim of the department's regional environmental research is to describe and gain an understanding of the environment of a regional entity, gathering together elements from all the traditional branches of physical geography and establishing links with human and regional geography.
The mapping and description of spatial and functional phenomena on various scales and the modelling of their dynamics and interactions forms the basis for framing the actual questions to be resolved, the areas chosen for study being predominantly South-Western Finland, Lapland, or more extensive regions such as Northern Europe or various areas in the tropics. Themes include land use, landscape transformation and biogeography, fluvial activity and floods, local climates, glaciers, soil erosion, sediments and sedimentary processes. Important conditions for this work are the adoption of a problem-centred approach to the phenomena and processes to be studied, and the existence of connections with and applications to human communities.
The methodology of regional environmental research comprises a wide range of fieldwork techniques together with remote sensing and georeferencing approaches, with support from the laboratory of physical geography, the UTU-LCC laboratory and a wide range of field equipment for the benefit of both research and teaching. This branch of study also gains immensely from multidisciplinary international cooperation and the broad general geographical education received by its researchers.
Contact person for regional environmental research:
Professor Jukka Käyhkö, jukka.kayhko@utu.fi, +358 2 333 5593
FI-20014 Turun yliopisto, Finland. Puh. +358 2 333 51