Presentation held at the 13th anniversary of the International Sustainability Academy at Hamburg, Germany on September 13, 2022.
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The question of how to design climate-resilient landscapes plays a major role in the European projects in which the green university has been involved, such as Future Cities and F:ACTS!. These are projects in which various European organizations, government authorities and universities have joined forces to find an answer to climate-related issues. Van Hall Larenstein also collaborates with Almere, a relatively new Dutch municipality that is changing rapidly and that prioritizes climate resilience in its development. Over the years there has been a clear development in climate-adaptive planning, both in education and in practice.
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Global climate change will result in more extreme heat, drought, and rainfall. The urban environment is particularly vulnerable to these effects. Adaptation to these extreme weather conditions is difficult due to the high complexity of urban land-use patterns and stakeholder configurations. The current practice in the field of urban climate adaptation mainly revolves around the assessment of climatological risks, leaving the question where measures can be implemented under-researched. This study proposes and tests a four-step GIS-based Decision Support Model (DSM) to map the spatial opportunities for adaptation measures in public and private spaces. The DSM was applied to the city of Groningen. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between urban design, climatological risks, and opportunities for adaptation measures, with higher density neighbourhoods showing more opportunities for greening private properties and permeable pavements and lower density neighbourhoods showing opportunities for the implementation of green-blue measures in public space. The application of this DSM can aid urban planners and other stakeholders in mapping spatial opportunities for climate adaptation, that is, allow for more precise site selection for adaptation efforts and for an evaluation of adaptation efforts in different neighbourhood typologies within the urban environment.
Wet and healthy peatlands have a strong natural potential to save carbon and, due to their waterbuffering capacity, play an important role in managing periods of excessive rains or droughts. Yet, inNWE regions large areas of peatlands are drained for peat mining, agriculture or forestry, whichmakes them CO2 emission sources rather than sinks. By restoring the capacity to buffer carbon andwater, BUFFER+ partners aim at climate change adaptation and mitigation in NWE regions, while atthe same time restore biodiversity and create new revenue streams.BUFFER+ involves 21 partners and 7 Associated Organisations from regions
Climate change is increasing the challenges for water management worldwide. Extreme weather conditions, such as droughts and heavy rainfall, are increasingly limiting the availability of water, especially for agriculture. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer potential solutions. They help to collect and infiltrate rainwater and thus play an important role in climate adaptation.Green infrastructure, such as rain gardens (sunken plant beds) and wadis (sunken grass fields for temporary storage of rainwater), help to restore the urban water balance. They reduce rainwater runoff, stabilize groundwater levels and solve problems with soil moisture and temperature. Despite these advantages, there is still much ignorance in practice about the possibilities of NBS. To remedy this, freely accessible knowledge modules are being developed that can help governments and future employees to better understand the application of these solutions. This research, called GINA (Green Infrastructure in Urban Areas), aims to create more sustainable and climate-resilient cities by developing and sharing knowledge about NBS, and supports local governments and students in effectively deploying these green infrastructures.
