Johanna Schumacher, a 2014 graduate of the Coastal and Marine Management program at UW just published her article, “Measuring and comparing the sustainability of coastal tourism destinations in Germany, Lithuania, and Indonesia” in the multidisciplinary journal Environment, Development, and Sustainability. The article is based on her master´s research which focused on the improvement and use of sustainability indicators in coastal communities.

After graduation Johanna obtained a position at the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde (IOW) Germany and has been working there since 2015. Along with her work at the Leibniz-Institute, Johanna is also working on her PhD. degree at Lithuania´s Klaipeda University´s Ecology and Environmental Science department, where she focuses on tools and approaches for supporting coastal and marine policy.

She is also involved in OPTIMUS (Optimization of mussel mitigation cultures for fish feed in the Baltic Sea) and DESTONY (Decision Support Tools for Managing the Baltic Sea Ecosystem), two international projects dedicated to interdisciplinary research of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Johanna is also a part of the coastal and marine management working group at Leibniz-Institute (IOW), traveling between the Baltic States, hosting workshops, speaking at conferences and teaching courses on Integrated Coastal Zone Management at Klaipėda University and Rostock University.

Johanna´s publication discusses indicator-based sustainability assessments of coastal tourism destinations on a local level. The aim of her research was to create an applicable self-assessment tool for coastal stakeholders with improved indicators. The tool was tested by applying it to ten contrasting tourism destinations in Germany, Lithuania, and Indonesia. Results indicate that the tool can be used to categorize the sustainability of a region, helping to raise community awareness and guide future planning.

The journal Environment, Development, and Sustainability is an international, multidisciplinary journal covering all aspects of the environmental impacts of socio-economic development. The article is accessible on the magazine webpage and Johanna´s full thesis can be accessed at Skemman.