Ridge-and-Furrow Agriculture around Lake Mikri Prespa, Greece, in a European perspective

Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges and troughs used in Europe, frequently associated with communal open-field farming and strip cultivation. Strip farming spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages but appears to have only slightly penetrated southern Europe. In Greece, no areas under a ridge-and-furrow system were previously known. Working on 1945 aerial photos of Prespa, Greece, a border area around two lakes whose water levels fluctuate seasonally, we noted the presence of strip fields around the lakeshore, and subsequently identified them in the field as a ridge-and-furrow system. Using GIS, we measured the dimensions of all individual fields and collected oral histories from elderly locals. The area under strip farming was over 900 ha. Strips were straight, ca 200 m long and 10m wide, with a mean area of 2,160 m2. Wheat, rye, maize and beans were cultivated on the ridges, whilst grass in the furrows was mowed for hay. The construction and dimensions were almost identical to those seen in England. No information was found on either the origin of this system in Prespa, or connections with ‘zadruga’ or ‘chiftlik’ – other regional communal land management systems. A few adjacent areas with strip cultivations still in use were located in the two neighbouring countries sharing the lakes, and still fewer areas with ridge-and-furrow traces, particularly around lakes. By using ridge-and-furrow agriculture, local people had successfully coped with the perennial and seasonal inundation of their fields, a problem that remains unresolved and afflicts modern biodiversity conservation in the area

Education for Sustainable Development in Teacher Training Through Multinational Cooperation: Goals, Opportunities, and Challenges

International audienceGlobal challenges such as climate change or water scarcity require specific educational concepts (Fensham, 2012) and skills such as systemic and complex thinking, understanding issues of scale. These competences are part of theis Educational for Sustainable Development (ESD) (Leicht, Heiss, & Byun, 2018), within the context “Water” is an central issue. Training teachers in ESD is a major challenge for professionalization but the pandemic put a stop to the field trips that were essential to this learning. That is a challenge taken up by an international project made between Universitat Hamburg (Germany), University Paris City (France) and Oranim College of education (Israel). International virtual academic collaboration enabled this project using different long-distance communications options. Due to current pandemic state different digital teaching opportunities were used. The main goal of the project was to enable students to have experiential and meaningful distance learning to implement ESD in teacher training seminars in geography (Sprenger & Nienaber, 2017). Another target was to use the chances and challenges of interculturality to develop learning approaches of virtual, collaborative didactics while experiencing with the goals of Educational Sustainable Development. Questions were asked following this learning: What is the added value of intercultural encounters in a geography education courses? What are the benefits this project makes for the in-service and pre-service teacher professional development? What is the added value of intercultural encounters be integrated into the profession in the future? Students were asked to teach and learn from each other about the current state of water in their countries, its challenges, and existing solutions. Students were asked to choose and explore a specific water topic in this field (e.g. floods), they asked questions and found possible courses of action. During the seminar the students developed virtual teaching conceptions for geography lessons (ArcGIS Story-Maps) regarding sustainable development and water. Ten mixed groups of students presented the research to the multinational class.The impact of the project was analyzed from the analysis of the Storymaps produced by the students as well as the student diaries filled in during the project (France, Israel).The feedback for many of the students show, that it was an extraordinary opportunity to meet, get to know and work together. It allowed them to discover the issue of water from different perspectives. Language challenge, culture differences and online learning difficulties were an integral part of this project and its challenge. Although many obstacles occurred, we believe this project enable students to use the skills they acquired in their work as future teachers. The presentation will outline the conceptual basis and results of the seminar