Many nature-based solutions are seen as favourable and effective measures to increase urban resilience during more extreme weather events, by for example decrease high temperatures in summer. Since space is often scarce in urban environments, roofs have received increased attention in mitigating the consequences of climate change in urban areas. This resulted in a variety of roof systems of green and blue-green roofs designed as an integral part of the built environment due to their hydrological, insulative and biodiverse capacities. This study examined the impact of blue-green, and conventional roofs on roof surface temperatures, indoor temperatures and insulative properties of the building. Temperature sensors (IButtons) have been used for summer and winter measurements on roofs for early 20th century buildings in the city of Amsterdam (NL).The results indicate the strongest effect of blue-green roofs on surface temperatures in summer, with significantly lower surface temperatures (2-3°C) than for conventional roofs. During winter days, the surface temperatures were not significantly different on blue-green roofs than on conventional roofs. The measurements in the water crate layers of blue-green roofs show an all year-round temperature buffering effect. During hot summer days, the temperature in the water storage of the blue-green roof was much lower than other measured surfaces (up to 12 °C and 7 °C compared to gravel roofs and the blue-green roof substrate, respectively) and also experienced the least diurnal variation. Similarly, the empty water crate layer showed up to 3 °C higher minimum temperatures during cold winter nights. The measurements also show a small positive systematic effect on the indoor environment under a blue-green roof compared to traditional gravel roof type. The variation in indoor temperature is smaller underneath the blue-green roofs compared to the reference roofs during both warm and cold periods (0.19 – 0.35 °C reduction in STD). This suggests that rooms located under a blue-green roof are less sensitive to the outside air temperature and its natural diurnal variation.Although the effect on indoor thermal comfort seems to be small, blue-green roofs contribute to overall greening of the city. Second, thanks to the water storage the potential for growing biodiverse vegetation is higher than on extensive green roofs.
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Almere is a green city where the greenery extends into the centre through a framework of nature, forests, parks and canals. With this green environment, Almere fulfils an important condition for a liveable city, where it is pleasant to live and work. An important goal for the municipality is to challenge its residents to develop a healthy lifestyle by using that green framework.But what really motivates Almeerders to go outside to exercise, enjoy the surroundings and meet each other? Are there sufficient green meeting or sports facilities nearby? Could the routes that connect the living and working environment with the larger parks or forests be better designed? And can those routes simultaneously contribute to climate adaptation?With the Green Escape Challenge, we invited students and young professionals to work on these assignments together.
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Cities worldwide are growing at unprecedented rates, compromising their surrounding landscapes, and consuming many scarce resources. As a consequence, this will increase the compactness of cities and will also decrease the availability of urban green space. In recent years, many Dutch municipalities have cut back on municipal green space and itsmaintenance. To offer a liveable environment in 30 to 50 years, cities must face challenges head-on and strive to create green urban areas that build on liveable and coherent sustainable circular subsystems.
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Online knowledge-sharing platforms could potentially contribute to an accelerated climate adaptation by promoting more green and blue spaces in urban areas. The implementation of small-scale nature-based solutions (NBS) such as bio(swales), green roofs, and green walls requires the involvement and enthusiasm of multiple stakeholders. This paper discusses how online citizen science platforms can stimulate stakeholder engagement and promote NBS, which is illustrated with the case of ClimateScan. Three main concerns related to online platforms are addressed: the period of relevance of the platform, the lack of knowledge about the inclusiveness and characteristics of the contributors, and the ability of sustaining a well-functioning community with limited resources. ClimateScan has adopted a “bottom–up” approach in which users have much freedom to create and update content. Within six years, this has resulted in an illustrated map with over 5000 NBS projects around the globe and an average of more than 100 visitors a day. However, points of concern are identified regarding the data quality and the aspect of community-building. Although the numbers of users are rising, only a few users have remained involved. Learning from these remaining top users and their motivations, we draw general lessons and make suggestions for stimulating long-term engagement on online knowledge-sharing platforms
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The Caribbean Netherlands are dealing with a situation where imported vegetables and fruits are mostly imported and hardly affordable. This leads to consuming unhealthy food and high obesities rates as a consequence. A lack of good agricultural practices with regard to water-smart and nature inclusive agriculture, as well as limited coping capacities to deal with hazards and climate change, results in very limited local production and interest. Initiatives that focused only on agrotechnological solutions for food resilient futures turned out to be ineffective due to a lack of local ownership, which jeopardizes sustainability. Moreover, the 'green' and 'blue' domains are not seen as attractive career perspectives among youth, hampering a bright future for those domains.
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With the beautiful new building of Aeres University of Applied Sciences Almere in the Floriade park, we have materialized our wish to lead the way in the green transition and its challenges. We want to be green changemakers and have the ambition to take on the challenges that we are faced with in agriculture, food and healthy living environments. We bring this about with our study programmes and increasingly with our Practice-Based Research Team. In 10 years’ time, this team has grown from our first professorship into a mature team of 20 people, of whom 7 are research professors.In this edition, three of our new professors will be introduced to you.
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''There is a clear demand for a collaborative knowledge-sharing on climate adaptation and mitigation. As a consequence of urban expansion, green spaces are lost and the available areas for pervious green areas are decreasing. Many cities will experience greater impacts from flooding and heatstress due to climate change. Blue-green and small scale Nature-based solutions (NBS) such as bio swales, raingardens and wetlands offer opportunities to adapt urban areas to the impacts of climate change, but their multiple benefits are often unknown to the wider public. Research suggests that effective management of mitigate flood events and heat stress will be achieved by applying a range of NBS measures at different locations in cities [Majidi et al 2019]. Mapping of these (potential) locations for NBS will raise awareness and contribute to capacity building on climate adaptation. Some open source Climate Change Adaptation Platforms (CCAPs) allow mapping of NBS by citizen science and can help to inform and inspire different stakeholders on the topic of climate adaptation in respective region. The aim of most CCAPs is to facilitate an open and free exchange of knowledge on an international scale. Raising awareness about climate adaptation in urban areas and promoting NBS are also key aims.''
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The aim of this document is to outline the preliminary requirements and steps needed to fully establish frameworks for certification systems across Europe, specifically to support and incentivize the restoration of peatlands and to provide a framework for reducing GHG emissions from degraded and mismanaged peatlands on a large scale. This will ensure that peatlands across Europe fulfil their potential to become a net carbon sink by 2050, while optimizing ecosystem service provision in a way that is fully consistent with all the relevant European policies. This report covers the following topics: - Analysis of current Carbon Credit systems and other incentives to support wet peatlands. - Economic land use analysis relating to peatlands. - Outline of a framework to support rewetting and peatland restoration. - Recommendations for an Eco-Credit system across Europe.
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This manifesto describes the notion of sustainable development according to its basic appeal for economic, social and environmental value-creation, together with the implications of its meaning at the level of the individual (the manager), the organisation (the business) and society. As sustainable tourism is focused on the long term, foresight is used to develop four scenarios for a sustainable tourism industry in 2040: “back to the seventies”, “captured in fear”, “unique in the world”, and “shoulders to the wheel”. The implications of the scenarios are mapped for four distinct types of organisational DNA: the blue organisation focusing on quality, professionalism and efficiency, the red organisation for whom challenge, vision and change are most important, the yellow organisation addressing energy, optimism and growth, and the green organisation which is led by care, tradition and security. The manifest concludes with strategic propositions for tourism organisations in each of the four business types and each of the four scenarios.
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Closed loop or ‘circular’ production systems known as Circular Economy and Cradle to Cradle represent a unique opportunity to radically revise the currently wasteful system of production. One of the challenges of such systems is that circular products need to be both produced locally with minimum environmental footprint and simultaneously satisfy demand of global consumers. This article presents a literature review that describes the application of circular methodologies to education for sustainability, which has been slow to adopt circular systems to the curriculum. This article discusses how Bachelor and Master-level students apply their understanding of these frameworks to corporate case studies. Two assignment-related case studies are summarized, both of which analyze products that claim to be 'circular'. The students' research shows that the first case, which describes the impact of a hybrid material soda bottle, does not meet circularity criteria. The second case study, which describes products and applications of a mushroom-based material, is more sustainable. However, the students' research shows that the manufacturers have omitted transport from the environmental impact assessment and therefore the mushroom materials may not be as sustainable as the manufacturers claim. As these particular examples showed students how green advertising can be misleading, applying “ideal” circularity principles as part of experiential learning could strengthen the curriculum. Additionally, this article recommends that sustainable business curriculum should also focus on de-growth and steady-state economy, with these radical alternatives to production becoming a central focus of education of responsible citizens. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.005 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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