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Prof. Dr. Kristine Kern
Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (Germany) and Åbo Akademi University (Finland), Flakenstr. 29-31, 15537 Erkner, Germany

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Sustainable cities and regions
0 Environmental and climate governance
0 Upscaling of local experiments
0 Water and marine governance
0 Science-policy interfaces

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Journal article
Published: 15 August 2021 in Sustainability
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Developing sustainable, carbon-neutral, and climate-resilient districts seems to be particularly challenging with respect to historic city centers. However, barriers posed by legal requirements for historical buildings are counterbalanced by opportunities because historic cities have not undergone urban modernization and did not embrace the concept of functional cities, which nowadays impedes urban sustainability transformations. Thus, this paper focuses on the relationship between cultural heritage, urban sustainable development, and climate policy. We study continuity and change in the mid-sized UNESCO World Heritage cities Potsdam (Germany) and Bern (Switzerland). These matching forerunner cities share many characteristics, which enables them to transfer policies and jointly create new solutions for common problems. We find that national context matters, but we also identify functional equivalents like referenda and active citizen participation. Despite many similarities, Potsdam is ahead of Bern with respect to the institutionalization and integration of climate mitigation and adaptation. The comparative analysis (interviews and document analysis) identifies innovations that can be transferred between the two cities (e.g., Potsdam’s integrative climate policy or Bern’s efforts to become a role model for stakeholders and citizens). Moreover, the challenge to coordinate heritage management and climate governance offers chances for cooperation between matching cities like Bern and Potsdam.

ACS Style

Kristine Kern; Janne Irmisch; Colette Odermatt; Wolfgang Haupt; Ingrid Kissling-Näf. Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9131 .

AMA Style

Kristine Kern, Janne Irmisch, Colette Odermatt, Wolfgang Haupt, Ingrid Kissling-Näf. Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (16):9131.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristine Kern; Janne Irmisch; Colette Odermatt; Wolfgang Haupt; Ingrid Kissling-Näf. 2021. "Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern." Sustainability 13, no. 16: 9131.

Journal article
Published: 07 July 2021 in Climatic Change
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Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are crucial tasks for urban areas and can involve synergies as well as trade-offs. However, few studies have examined how mitigation and adaptation efforts relate to each other in a large number of differently sized cities, and therefore we know little about whether forerunners in mitigation are also leading in adaptation or if cities tend to focus on just one policy field. This article develops an internationally applicable approach to rank cities on climate policy that incorporates multiple indicators related to (1) local commitments on mitigation and adaptation, (2) urban mitigation and adaptation plans and (3) climate adaptation and mitigation ambitions. We apply this method to rank 104 differently sized German cities and identify six clusters: climate policy leaders, climate adaptation leaders, climate mitigation leaders, climate policy followers, climate policy latecomers and climate policy laggards. The article seeks explanations for particular cities’ positions and shows that coping with climate change in a balanced way on a high level depends on structural factors, in particular city size, the pathways of local climate policies since the 1990s and funding programmes for both climate mitigation and adaptation.

ACS Style

Antje Otto; Kristine Kern; Wolfgang Haupt; Peter Eckersley; Annegret H. Thieken. Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities. Climatic Change 2021, 167, 1 .

AMA Style

Antje Otto, Kristine Kern, Wolfgang Haupt, Peter Eckersley, Annegret H. Thieken. Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities. Climatic Change. 2021; 167 (1-2):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Antje Otto; Kristine Kern; Wolfgang Haupt; Peter Eckersley; Annegret H. Thieken. 2021. "Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities." Climatic Change 167, no. 1-2: 1.

City tour
Published: 02 October 2019 in disP - The Planning Review
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The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the importance of cities for sustainable development globally. With SDG 11 a specific urban goal exists and also many of the other SDGs have strong ties to urban areas. However, implementing the SDGs on an urban level is not a straightforward process. This article wants to shed light in the relationship between cities and SDGs and builds up on existing literature, the practical experiences of the authors in SDG implementation as well as the work carried out by the DKN Future Earth working group on Urban Sustainability transformations. The article consists of two main parts: Firstly, we explain some challenges concerning SDG implementation in German Cities such as indicators and data availability, tradeoffs, the role and limits of urban planning and the difficulties of city-wide integration of sustainability policies. Secondly, we present potential solutions to overcoming these challenges. Prioritizing so-called impact chains, developing SDG implementation governance mechanisms and transparent negotiation processes as well as a new definition of system borders can facilitate SDG implementation. The aim of this article is also to discuss similarities and differences between the SDGs and alternative approaches such as the Local Agenda 21 and to evaluate if and how global sustainability agendas such as the SDGs can actually lead to a more sustainable development locally. In the conclusion, we acknowledge the potential of the SDGs for sustainable urban development but emphasize, that many obstacles need to be overcome on this way.

ACS Style

Florian Koch; Kerstin Krellenberg; Klaus Reuter; Jens Libbe; Katharina Schleicher; Klaus Krumme; Susanne Schubert; Kristine Kern. Wie lassen sich die Sustainable Development Goals umsetzen? disP - The Planning Review 2019, 55, 14 -27.

AMA Style

Florian Koch, Kerstin Krellenberg, Klaus Reuter, Jens Libbe, Katharina Schleicher, Klaus Krumme, Susanne Schubert, Kristine Kern. Wie lassen sich die Sustainable Development Goals umsetzen? disP - The Planning Review. 2019; 55 (4):14-27.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Florian Koch; Kerstin Krellenberg; Klaus Reuter; Jens Libbe; Katharina Schleicher; Klaus Krumme; Susanne Schubert; Kristine Kern. 2019. "Wie lassen sich die Sustainable Development Goals umsetzen?" disP - The Planning Review 55, no. 4: 14-27.

Research article
Published: 21 November 2018 in Environmental Politics
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The success of local climate governance in Europe depends not only on leading cities but also on the dynamics between leaders, followers, and laggards. Upscaling local experiments helps to close the gap between these actors. This process is driven by the increasing embeddedness of cities and their networks in EU multilevel governance. Embedded upscaling combines horizontal upscaling between leading cities with vertical upscaling between leaders and followers that is mediated by higher levels of government, and hierarchical upscaling that even reaches the laggards. Various types of upscaling, their combinations, and their impacts are analyzed. Networks have become denser and networking has intensified. City networks and their member cities have become embedded in national and EU governance, lost authority and depend more and more on regional, national, and European authorities.

ACS Style

Kristine Kern. Cities as leaders in EU multilevel climate governance: embedded upscaling of local experiments in Europe. Environmental Politics 2018, 28, 125 -145.

AMA Style

Kristine Kern. Cities as leaders in EU multilevel climate governance: embedded upscaling of local experiments in Europe. Environmental Politics. 2018; 28 (1):125-145.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristine Kern. 2018. "Cities as leaders in EU multilevel climate governance: embedded upscaling of local experiments in Europe." Environmental Politics 28, no. 1: 125-145.

Journal article
Published: 24 October 2018 in Marine Policy
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The ecosystem approach to management (EAM) is a policy principle and management tool of increasing importance in European environmental governance. In the Baltic Sea region (BSR), this approach has developed in line with a progressive environmental management agenda, reaching from hot spot solutions to new holistic agendas. This paper examines the spatial dimensions of the EAM in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The analysis is based on an analytical framework which combines regional environmental governance with debates on socio-spatial relations. It is found that the development, implementation, and spread of EAM corresponds with changing socio-spatial relations. Reterritorialisation of both institutional arrangements and policies is needed to solve cross-boundary problems. Place-making such as hot spots and pilot projects (e.g., in maritime spatial planning) are first steps towards the upscaling of local experiments and re-scaling of policies is also needed for the implementation of EAM in a macroregional multi-level setting, stretching from the EU to the local level. Analyzing regional environmental governance from a spatial perspective reveals institutional ambiguities and even institutional voids because the successful implementation of EAM requires new institutional arrangements.

ACS Style

Kristine Kern; Sara Söderström. The ecosystem approach to management in the Baltic Sea Region: Analyzing regional environmental governance from a spatial perspective. Marine Policy 2018, 98, 271 -277.

AMA Style

Kristine Kern, Sara Söderström. The ecosystem approach to management in the Baltic Sea Region: Analyzing regional environmental governance from a spatial perspective. Marine Policy. 2018; 98 ():271-277.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristine Kern; Sara Söderström. 2018. "The ecosystem approach to management in the Baltic Sea Region: Analyzing regional environmental governance from a spatial perspective." Marine Policy 98, no. : 271-277.

Article
Published: 10 August 2017 in Environmental Policy and Governance
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This article focuses on the use of the ecosystem approach to management (EAM) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Based on selected criteria for EAM, the article traces and compares the impact of EAM on HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the EU Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD). Starting from the assumption that institutional interplay determines the impact of the EAM on marine policies, the article examines how different forms of interplay (interplay through cognition, commitment and compliance) affect the spread of EAM and its implementation in the BSR. The study finds strong interplay between HELCOM's BSAP and the EU's MSFD. Although HELCOM is still an important player in marine governance in the BSR, since it includes Russia, taking over responsibilities for the implementation of EU legislation has repercussions and affects its independence. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

ACS Style

Sara Söderström; Kristine Kern. The Ecosystem Approach to Management in Marine Environmental Governance: Institutional interplay in the Baltic Sea Region. Environmental Policy and Governance 2017, 27, 619 -631.

AMA Style

Sara Söderström, Kristine Kern. The Ecosystem Approach to Management in Marine Environmental Governance: Institutional interplay in the Baltic Sea Region. Environmental Policy and Governance. 2017; 27 (6):619-631.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sara Söderström; Kristine Kern. 2017. "The Ecosystem Approach to Management in Marine Environmental Governance: Institutional interplay in the Baltic Sea Region." Environmental Policy and Governance 27, no. 6: 619-631.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2016 in Interdisciplinary Environmental Review
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Based on a literature review of over 160 journal articles and books, this article examines the ecosystem management and environmental governance approaches, and looks for common topics and integrated research agendas. While scientific articles on environmental governance stem primarily from social science research, the ecosystem management approach is more natural science-oriented. A review of journal articles from the ISI Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) reveals that the two research communities hardly interact. The paper discusses two thematic linkages between the two approaches: the debates dealing with the scale and level of environmental policy; and the discussions surrounding multi-stakeholder participation. Moreover, the article identifies areas with a high potential for the establishment of common ground, such as the current discussion on science-policy interfaces. We argue for more interaction, claim that the two research approaches can learn from each other, and discuss the potential for the development of interdisciplinary research agendas.

ACS Style

Sara Söderström; Kristine Kern; Magnus Broström; Michael Gilek. 'Environmental governance' and 'ecosystem management': avenues for synergies between two approaches. Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 2016, 17, 1 .

AMA Style

Sara Söderström, Kristine Kern, Magnus Broström, Michael Gilek. 'Environmental governance' and 'ecosystem management': avenues for synergies between two approaches. Interdisciplinary Environmental Review. 2016; 17 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sara Söderström; Kristine Kern; Magnus Broström; Michael Gilek. 2016. "'Environmental governance' and 'ecosystem management': avenues for synergies between two approaches." Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 17, no. 1: 1.