Portrait

Dr. Michael Strauch

Acadamic staff

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research GmbH - UFZ
Department Computational
Landscape Ecology
Working Group Integrated Modelling
and Optimization
Permoserstrasse 15
04318 Leipzig - Germany

Tel.: ++49 341 235 1464
Fax.: ++49 341 235 1939
michael.strauch@ufz.de

Research interests

I am a Geographer with specialization in integrated process-based watershed modeling and multi-objective optimization of land-use allocation. My research is mainly about the impacts of land use (i.e. land use intensity, but also landscape composition and configuration) on water related ecosystem services, agricultural production, and biodiversity. I am particularly interested in (1) exploring the landscape potential for multifunctionality, (2) investigating trade-offs and synergies among important ecosystem functions/services, and (3) disentangling preferable and feasible land use strategies in collaboration with stakeholders. Therefore, I couple simulation models with heuristic search algorithms using a generic model integration and optimization tool (CoMOLA). I also utilize and further develop the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT).

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2012 Department of Computational Landscape Ecology, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig: Academic Staff
2009-2012 Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology, TU Dresden, research project IWAS (model region Brazil), Ph.D. thesis (finished in 2014): “Integrated watershed modeling in Central Brazil – Toward robust process-based predictions”
2008-2009 Institute of Geography, TU Dresden: Academic Staff
2002-2008 Studies of Geography (Dipl.) with major focus on Physical Geography, Geoinformatics, Landscape Planning and Forest Ecology

Teaching

  • Integrated Watershed Modelling (as part of MSc. Module 'Introduction into Ecosystem Modelling' at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, from 2013 onwards)
  • HIGRADE: 'Handling spatial data using R' (UFZ Leipzig, 2019)
  • Soils & Soil Protection (TU Dresden, 2011/12)
  • Field training in Soil Science (TU Dresden, 2011/12)
  • Climate & Hydrogeography (TU Dresden, 2008/09)

Publications

See articles listed in Scopus or Google Scholar.