Ziel der Forschungsinitiative ist die Untersuchung der räumlichen Verortung deutscher Tweets auf Basis von verfügbaren Standardwerkzeugen. Zunächst werden die spezifischen Herausforderungen im Kontext der Sprache und der Eigenschaften von Tweets betrachtet. Die darauffolgende Entwicklung eines grundlegenden, algorithmischen Ablaufs schließt mit der Implementierung eines Prototyps ab. Dieser bildet die Basis für die Evaluation der Genauigkeit und führt zur Betrachtung des Verbesserungspotentials.

Transdisciplinarity is a principle of integrative research, in which scientific and practical partners jointly generate new knowledge. This approach is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the funding priority "Innovation groups for a sustainable land use" (Förderschwerpunkt "Innovationsgruppen für eine nachhaltige Landnutzung"). One project that has been implemented within this regard is Regiobranding. The project aims at investigating the characteristics of landscapes in different Northern German regions in order to use their uniqueness for sustainable regional branding and development. The combination and integration of heterogeneous knowledge of the different project partners from eight institutions in three federal states was a central challenge for the transdisciplinary work. In the absence of a common technical language, "space" served as a common ground for bridging differences and actively involving local partners. Against this backdrop, the local public participated in the branding process via various mapping workshops. The results of the mapping exercises were later combined with GIS-based quantitative landscape analyses derived form scientific investigation by partners from the fields of surveying, archeology and environmental planning. The paper presents results of our approach and highlights the benefits of combining qualitative analyses based on user-generated spatial content with quantitative landscape analyses based on various sources of official agencies' geodata.

A mixed methods approach using GIS was applied to identify places relevant for regional branding and to support co-creation in a transdisciplinary process in Northern Germany. For this purpose, local stakeholders mapped characteristic landscape features, places of leisure activities and places where they feel happy. In addition, public authorities’ geodata were processed to identify landscape classes and elements, which are characteristic from a quantitative point of view. The results indicate a cross-thematic, cross-methodological and cross-regional significance of water landscapes. However, their relationship to other landscape elements and further topics differs significantly in the two study regions presented here, leading to different starting points for place branding. The use of maps as a basis for discussion helps bringing together stakeholders with different experiences and involving them in brand building. In this way, the chosen approach supports inter- and transdisciplinary changes towards a sustainable regional development and acts as a bridge between brand building and its implementation on site.