The Swedish wine culture is comparably young, and its domestic wine production is even younger, starting with the official approval by the European Union in 1999. While domestic wine production currently contributes modestly to the Swedish economy, the industry is experiencing notable growth. It attracts investments, gains national and international media attention, and demonstrates a strong determination to thrive. Swedish winemakers have by now shown the ability to produce highly appreciated and award-winning wines from locally grown grapes. Furthermore, recent studies conducted within the context of ongoing global warming indicate the possibility of a future, more extensive wine industry in cold climate regions, such as southern Scandinavia. In this study, we evaluate the great potential of recent emerging Swedish wine regions, which demonstrate the crucial role of research in achieving industry success. Some pioneering Sweden-oriented viticulture and oenology research has been conducted, some of which is shown in this paper, indicating a possibility to diversify the used grapevine cultivars in the Swedish production. Overall, more research will be needed to advance wine farming in still relatively unknown territories. Given Sweden’s robust sustainability goals and the absence of rigid regional wine regulations, there is both a need and an opportunity for the development of locally adapted, sustainability-driven wine production methods. In this context, unique opportunities exist for practitioners and researchers to explore highly sustainable approaches, such as regenerative viticulture and multifunctional agriculture. These approaches have proven successful in other parts of the world, despite their current limited broader application

Projektet FramHall har under perioden november 2024 till december 2025 genomförts med målet att sprida och praktiskt tillämpa framsynsmetoder inom samhällsbyggnad i Halland.

Projektet är ett av 23 som beviljades stöd från ShiftSweden, en nationell satsning för att utveckla framtidens hållbara och attraktiva samhällen genom visionärt och metodutvecklande arbete. Genom samverkan mellan Halmstads och Varbergs kommuner, RISE, Högskolan i Halmstad, Fredblad arkitekter samt flera regionala aktörer har projektet introducerat verktyg som trendanalys, framtidshjul, scenarioplanering och backcasting till en bred grupp av deltagare.Projektet har haft en styrgrupp med representanter från Varbergs kommun, VFAB, Halmstad Kommun, RISE och Högskolan i Halmstad.

Projektet bestod av tre huvudelement: Kunskapshöjande webbinarier, fysiska workshops på utvalda platser (case) och en slutkonferens. Tre fysiska workshops genomfördes under mars 2025 i Halmstad och Varberg med cirka 30-35 deltagare per gång. Dessa fungerade som praktiska övningstillfällen för att applicera framsynsmetoder på verkliga stadsutvecklingsområden: Björkeslätt i Halmstad samt Norra Västerport och Badhusplatsen i Varberg. Deltagare kom från kommuner, Trafikverket, Hallandstrafiken, akademi, näringsliv och civilsamhälle.Resultaten visar att framsynsmetoderna har stor potential att stärka kommunernas planeringsarbete, särskilt i tidiga skeden. I workshops utvecklades framtidsscenarier för varje plats baserat på kombinationer av trender som energipriser, globalisering, klimatpåverkan och socioekonomiska skillnader. Scenarierna hjälpte deltagarna att identifiera möjligheter och risker, såsom risk för bilberoende, segregation och förlust av offentliga rum, men även potential för resilienta, inkluderande och klimatvänliga stadsmiljöer.

Projektet har också visat på vikten av samverkan och dialog mellan olika aktörer. Många deltagare lyfte särskilt värdet i att mötas över sektorsgränser för att gemensamt diskutera framtida utmaningar. Studentarbeten från Högskolan i Halmstad, Chalmers och LinnéUniversitet har parallellt bidragit med analyser och reflektioner kring metoderna och deras tillämpbarhet.6Lärdomar från projektet inkluderar att framsynsmetoder bör integreras systematiskt i samhällsplaneringsprocesser, med stöd från både tjänstepersoner och politiska beslutsfattare. För att detta ska bli hållbart krävs fortsatt utbildning, praktisk träning och regional samverkan. En särskild rapport med rekommendationer till Hallands kommuner lämnas även till Region Halland i december.

Slutligen har FramHall väckt stort intresse för framsyn och lagt grunden för ett mer framtidsorienterat samhällsbyggande i Halland, där både medborgare, akademi, kommuner och näringsliv tillsammans planerar för ett hållbart Halland år 2049.

SATURN (System and sustainable Approach to virTuous interaction of Urban and Rural LaNdscapes) has been a pan European EIT Climate-KIC project including three different pilot areas in the city-regions of Birmingham (UK), Trentino (IT), Göteborg (SWE). European urban areas are expanding, thus leading to controversial growth dynamics, and to unbalanced relations between urban and rural landscapes. Therefore, landscape becomes physically fragmented. For this reason, the European Landscape Convention (2000) urges parties to adopt more integrated approaches and to introduce holistic landscape-scale strategies within regional development policy-making processes in order to incorporate ecological and socio-cultural features and better adapt to climate change. SATURN aims to increase landscape multifunctionality and integration that are needed to better respond to climate emergency by addressing air quality, food and water security, and sustainable land uses. In this chapter an analysis of the current European landscape is being proposed and the SATURN project is being described within, the context of the three hubs. The discussion then moves to the challenges contemporary landscape and territories are posing upon us, and how the three hubs have dealt with the topic of landscape fragmentation in relation to food security issues and through research into practice cooperation with local stakeholders.

Landscape conservation requires the system-level understanding of the natural world and the human environment, making a paradigm shift in three levels: shift in geographic scale where site specific arbitrary boundaries are abandoned to maintain biodiversity and climate resilience, shift in perspectives to define the landscape as a whole with all types of land uses, habitats, urban and rural areas in an integrative manner, and shift in the conservation process based on collaborative governance structures and community participation. In urban areas with mainly grey infrastructures and very limited green areas the ecosystems are deficient, since natural producers and decomposers are missing, reduced, or altered. Thus, introducing the concepts of multifunctionality in land use and urban agriculture are vital for sustainable and re-silient circular economies. A new urban metabolism model has been developed to serve as a tool for urban planning, taking into consideration all relevant processes of land use and changes in land use, production, consumption, energy systems, material and energy flows, waste management, use of natural resources, and recycling to enable urban planners to identify the core areas of green infrastructure planning and nature-based solutions. This study investigates the integration of ecosystem-centred urban planning and multifunctional land use into landscape conservation strategies to foster sustainable and resilient urban environments. The research addresses the gap in existing literature by providing a novel urban metabolism model that synthesizes ecological and urban planning principles. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines a comprehensive literature review, case study analysis from various European cities, and the development of a conceptual framework and an urban metabolism model. The results demonstrate how urban agriculture and ecosystem-centred planning can be effectively utilized to enhance landscape conservation and urban sustainability. Key findings include the identification of practical strategies for implementing nature-based solutions, such as Urban Living Labs, and policy recommendations to facilitate the integration of ecosystem services into urban planning. The study highlights the critical role of urban agriculture in promoting biodiversity, enhancing local food security, and reducing the environmental footprint of cities. Furthermore, the research underscores the importance of developing collaborative governance structures and community participation. The urban metabolism model proposed in this study offers a robust tool for urban planners and policymakers, enabling a system-level understanding of material and energy flows within urban ecosystems.

The twentieth century saw rapid environmental degradation due to changes that contributed to increased net GHG emissions, loss of natural ecosystems, and declining biodiversity. Deterioration of unprotected landscapes during swift industrialization, urbanization, increasing monocultures in agriculture, expansion of commercial production significantly contributed to these negative consequences. However, a cultural shift occurred during the last two decades in favour of landscape conservation. In response to widespread landscape degradation and loss of ecosystem services, the Council of Europe saw the need to protect, manage, and develop the landscapes, and thus signed the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in 2000. This was the world's first international agreement that described all aspects of landscape management in detail. The European Landscape Convention fully meets the challenges through its goal of correcting a lack of understanding of landscapes as a unique system embracing natural, economic, and social features throughout Europe. It goes beyond simply protecting landscapes and addresses landscape management and development, as well as raising public and government awareness of the importance of paying attention to all types of landscapes, whether exceptional or spoiled. Landscape observatories, multifunctional platforms and knowledge centres for researchers, technicians, administrators, and citizens, are one of the Council of Europe's instruments for implementing the European Landscape Convention (ELC). They can be established on a variety of scales and can serve as a vital link between administrations, civil society, researchers, and the economic sector. This article discusses the emergence of landscape observatories and the role they can play as decision support instruments in promoting sustainable landscape development through a regenerative approach. Additionally, the paper discusses the implementation of ELC in Västra Götaland in Sweden through the establishment of Landscape Observatory Västra Götaland, and its impacts and challenges associated with landscape development. Furthermore, we propose a comprehensive and holistic, to any landscape type adaptable landscape observatory concept, based on multifunctionality of these institutions, emphasizing their decision support roles, social and economic importance. © 2023 The authors.