Alterra is engaged in policy making and management on a local, national and international level. We produce readily applicable knowledge and expertise enabling rapid and adequate solutions to practical problems.
To conduct our work in a optimal manner we have various research facilities at our disposal such as biological laboratories, databases, profiles of national and international soils and DNA-techniques.
The emphasis of the research of Alterra is concentrated on 5 specialisations:
- Soil
- Research on physical, chemical and biological basic processes in and on soil. This knowledge is essential for nature development, integral water management, nature conservation and rural development.
- Ecosystems
- Improving and implementing ecological knowledge. The strength lies in combining observation, experiments and modelling.
- Geo-Information
- Integration of complex data activities such as data collection, data management and data processing. Research topics are monitoring of the envionment through remote sensing, time series data and data mining and scenario studies.
- Landscape
- Research on use, management and conservation of the rural and urban landscape; how do we experience our landscape and how do we create it.
- Water & Climate
- Research on integrated water management, climate effects on flooding and drought, uptake, emission and transport of pollutants such as greenhouse gases, nutrients, chloride, pesticides and management of aquatic systems.