Amin Rastandeh

I work for the Division of Strategic Sustainability Studies in the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science & Engineering at KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, where I collaborate with my colleagues in the project Mistra Sport & Outdoors (MSO) – Theme 3: Sustainable Use of Land and Water. I am the study leader of Recreation Ecology of Norra Järvafältet – Data Collection and Geospatial Modeling. The aim of this study is to develop a new method of Public Participatory GIS to understand how, where, when, and why people use peri-urban landscapes for outdoor recreation in areas of ecological importance for biodiversity conservation. As part of my research, I am interested to learn about public attitudes toward land-sharing and land-sparing for biodiversity conservation in peri-urban landscapes, where interaction effects among recreation, conservation, and other human activities are complex and multi-dimensional.

I received my PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where I modeled and measured the potential role of landscape composition and configuration in safeguarding indigenous wildlife species against the impacts of climate change in urban New Zealand.

Before joining KTH, I worked as a researcher and educator in Iran, New Zealand, and the United States. In particular, I served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of South Dakota to map, model, and analyze the relationship of landscape social values to anthropogenic and biophysical factors across rural and urban landscapes of the Upper Missouri River Basin.

My research is at the nexus of spatial planning/design, biodiversity conservation, climate change, and GIS. I integrate field-collected data with geo-spatial modeling tools, methods, and approaches to better understand pattern-process relationships in the face of the climate crisis across various spatial scales, from small towns to ecoregions.

My teaching is research-led. I have worked with a variety of students of different backgrounds and have used a wide spectrum of learning tools and methods, accordingly. I have experience in teaching in-person, online, and hybrid courses, including field-based and large-scale studio classes. I am available to supervise and provide mentorship to undergraduate and postgraduate students whose research interests are related to the following topics:

1. Reconciliation Ecology (Conservation vs. Food-Water-Recreation-Urbanization Nexus)

2. Landscape-level Analysis for Biodiversity Conservation

3. Land-Use Preferences and Landscape Social Values

4. Alternative Futures for Complex Landscapes

Keywords: Reconciliation Ecology ● Landscape Architecture ● Green-Blue Infrastructure ●Human-Environmental Interactions ● Biodiversity ● Land-sharing ● Land-sparing ● Citizen Science ● Geographic Information Systems ● Climate Change

SDGs in Research: Climate Action; Sustainable Cities & Communities; Life on Land

SDGs in Teaching: Quality Education; Gender Equality