Overview
The Leibniz Institute of Ecological and Regional Development (IOER) situated in Dresden was founded on 1 January 1992 on the recommendation of the Science Council of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a research facility financed jointly by the federal government and the state of Saxony, and has a staff of over one hundred.
The IOER undertakes interdisciplinary research into the requirements for sustainable, environmentally compatible regional, urban, and landscape development. Institute researchers investigate interdependencies between land use and the natural environment, evaluate strategies, and develop approaches to sustainable spatial development in both the national context and on a European and international scale. Climate change and demographic change and their impact on future environmental and spatial development play a major role. The results of this research provide actors in politics and society with an important basis for planning and policy decisions.
The IOER considers itself a partner for science and praxis and an element in the European research space with an international perspective.
Research
The research conducted by the IOER is chiefly concerned with the quality of the environment in towns, cities and regions, with ecologically efficient settlement structures, and with environmental risks in urban and regional development. An important aspect of research at the IOER is the use, analysis, and visualisation of geo data and remote sensing data for spatial science concerns. Issues of European spatial development are addressed by all research areas. Furthermore, IOER research places special emphasis on ecological interests in the development of border regions and on transformation processes in Central, Eastern, and South-East Europe.
