Prof. Dr. Beate Ratter
Beate Ratter is professor of integrative geography and coastal studies. Her research focusses on human/nature-interaction, place attachment and sustainable regional development in European coastal areas and small islands. Special interest lies in the analysis of nature perception and awareness of environment, extreme events and risks in different regional cultures. For her, sustainable coastal management is about participation of lay people and the integration of transformative governance structure in multi-hazard and multi-stakeholder environments. B. Ratter gained regional experiences in industrialised and non-industrialised nations, i.a. Canada, Columbia, Caribbean islands, Guyana, Taiwan, Maldives and the European Wadden Sea.
Her current work specialises in climate change adaptation, strategies and barriers, and deals with questions on resilience, vulnerability and adaptation capacity in coastal and island societies. She is Vice-president of the International Small Island Studies Association (ISISA) and currently Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere, which will be published in September 2019.
In 2011 she studied the ecological footprint of Helgoland (Ratter/Petzold 2012: From Ecological Footprint to Ecological Fingerprint. Sustainable development on Helgoland. In: Karin Topsø Larsen (Hg.): From one island to another. A Celebration of Island Connections. Bornholm: Centre For Regional And Tourism Research, pp. 191-203). Her recent book is about small islands in a globalised world: Ratter 2018: Geography of Small Islands – Outposts of Globalisation. Springer Nature, Cham Switzerland, DOI.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63869-0
