The institute's research will improve our thinking on wildland and natural processes, create a new framework for understanding and valuing natural and semi-natural environments, and seek to enhance our relationship with wild nature.

The basis of the research will be:

The nature of the intrinsic value of wildland

Perceptions of wildland, its cultural and ecological components

Identifying and valuing ecosystem goods and services from wildlands

More specific areas of research will include:

Protected area management in the UK, its current and future goals

Integration of wildland into the wider landscape - new paradigms for land use and agriculture in a landscape continuum

Spatial strategies for large-scale rewildling

Delivering wildland values in multi-functional landscapes and habitat networks

Developing a Recreational Opportunity Spectrum for current and future landscapes

Fear and danger - the barriers to species reintroduction

The integration of wildland with open countryside and the peri-urban landscape

Developing and inspiring a future view of wildland in the literary and artistic milieu

Using visual and spatial approaches to envisioning new, wilder landscapes

Example publications by WRi staff

Watson, A., et al (in press) Contrasting place meanings to protect cultural landscapes. In W.Stewart and D.Williams (in press) Fitting Place to Decision-making.

Comber, A., et al (in press) Evaluating alternative mappings of wildness using fuzzy MCE and Dempster-Shafer in support of decision making. Geographical Analysis

Carver, S., et al (2009) Developing computer-based participatory approaches to mapping landscape values for landscape and resource management. In S.Geertman & J.Stillwell (eds) Best Practice and New Methods in Planning Support Systems. Springer. 431-448.

Gabriel, D., et al (2009) The spatial aggregation of organic farming in England and its underlying environmental correlates. International Journal of Applied Ecology.

Carver, S. (2008) Native behaviour: the human and land-use implications of returning key species to Scotland. In ECOS 29(3/4), 2-8.

Carver, S. (2007) Bringing wilderness into the classroom. In ECOS 28(1), 90-93.

Ward, V., et al (2006) Re-wilding projects in the UK - the database. In ECOS 27(3/4), 5-7.

Carver, S. (2006) Connectivity of nature in the Dutch landscape. In ECOS 27(3/4), 61-64.

Carver, S. & Samsom, p. (2005) "Eee, it's wild oop north" In ECOS Special wild land issue. 25(3/4), 29-33.

Corne, S., et al (2004) Predicting Alaskan forest properties using artificial neural networks. In Forest Science 50(2): 259-276.

Carver, S., et al (2002) Long-term rates of mass wasting in Mesters Vig, Northeast Greenland: Notes on a re-survey. in Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 13(3), 243-249.

Lennon, J.J., et al (2002) Are Alaskan trees found in locally more favourable sites in marginal areas? in Global Ecology and Biogeography. 11(2), 103-114.

Carver, S., et al (2002) Wilderness attribute mapping in the United Kingdom. in International Journal of Wilderness. 8(1), 24-29.

Web mapping pages

"Where is wild Scotland?"

"Wilderness Britain?"

"Wildness in the Cairngorm National Park"