Student research projects

Waddenthesis

For a number of years now the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen, has focused one of the themes for their Bachelor thesis projects specifically to the Wadden Sea area. As a result, several Bachelor thesis exploring key issues surrounding the Wadden Sea have been written.

The reasons for the Bachelor projects to be focused on the Wadden Sea theme are twofold: first, in terms of the content, the theme offers a variety of topics on the intersection of ecology and human behavior, it is easily accessible, and thus very suitable for student research.

Second, the more practical reason is the annual trilateral students research workshop that the universities of Groningen, Oldenburg and Bremen organize. During that workshop, selected students from all three universities get an opportunity to present and discuss their work. In order to have fruitful discussions a common theme is chosen. And what is more obvious than choosing a theme that is related to the region where the three universities are located. Starting from 2013 the workshop was extended with a common research project, where students of the three universities work closely together. The workshop is not restricted to Bachelor level students, also a number of Master students, with a thesis which relate to the general theme of the workshop, are invited.

One this page, you will find a selection of some of the Bachelor theses with particularly interesting research ideas or results which we decided to make available to the wider public. Be aware, however, that these theses have had an educational purpose, and do not automatically meet the standards that are applicable to professional scientific and peer-reviewed publications. In that sense, it can best be viewed as ‘work in progress’.

From the study year 2012-2013 we selected the following theses:

Myrthe Leijstra: ‘Is coastal tourism ready for the next generation’. This thesis focuses on the impact of income from tourism for the local economy and uses Landal park Esonstad near Lauwersmeer as a case-study.

Wessel van Vliet: ‘Duister toerisme op de Friese Wadden?’. In Dutch. Over het gebruik van militair erfgoed in het toeristisch product, en in het bijzonder over de vraag waarom er tot nu toe zo weinig gebruik van gemaakt is.

Neeltje Westra: ‘Blijven ze op Terschelling of zullen ze het eiland verlaten?’. In Dutch. Over de plaatsverbondenheid van jongeren op Terschelling.

Titia Leutscher: ‘Is the tourism industry in the Wadden area aware of and adapting to the possible effects of climate change? ‘. Comparing the situation in Lauwersmeer and in Greetsiel.

Tjibbe Hartholt: ‘Wind energy and tourism’. Focuses on whether wind turbines have a negative influence on tourism industry. The thesis compares the areas of Harlingen-Makkum-Bolswart and Greetsiel.

Anne Boer: ‘Beelden van Terschelling’. In Dutch. Over de ‘destination image’ van Terschelling.

Loes Dragt: ‘The impacts of the RWE coal plant in the Eemshaven on tourism on Borkum’.

Relevant student research related to resilience:

Below is a selection of relevant student research focusing on to following resilience-related topics / keywords: self-organization; self-governance; adaptive capacities; adaptive governance; flood resilience; community resilience; climate adaptation; citizen initiatives and new collectives in planning for vulnerable places; resilient energy landscapes.