Examples of Green Infrastructure: tiny forest

A tiny forest is a dense forest with native trees and about the size of a tennis court. This forest is not only a pleasant place for butterflies, birds, bees and small mammals, but also for people. Children learn about Dutch nature in the outdoor classroom and local residents meet each other in a pleasant and healthy place. A tiny forest also provides cooling on hot days, more biodiversity and water storage during heavy rainfall. This video shows an example tiny forest at an elementary school in Enschede.

 

 

Article on cyclone disaster published

The International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction has published an article I co-authored with my colleague Nasif Ashan: Title: ‘We knew a cyclone was imminent’: Hazard preparedness and disaster management efficiency nexus in coastal Bangladesh. Reference: IJDRR_104240

You can access it for free until March 9 2024 here:https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1iSUI7t2zZHCSP

The abstract reads as follows: 

"Natural hazard-prone countries in the global south adopted an anticipatory-preparedness approach in disaster risk reduction (DRR) by shifting away from the response and rehabilitation approach. It was highly associated with the policy recommendations of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) framework. Nevertheless, challenges remained in managing disaster risks due to heterogeneous efficiency among disaster managers. This research examines the institutional effectiveness of the disaster management agency in cyclone-prone areas in southwestern coastal Bangladesh through network analysis. This research also explores institutional efficiency’s impact on household preparedness in mitigating losses. We collected two distinct data sets from the local Union Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) and households in the same operational area of UDMC that were at risk of cyclonic disasters. To evaluate the effectiveness of local disaster management institutions, we conducted structured interviews with 336 representatives, spanning eight UDMCs in the cyclone-prone regions. To assess the impact of institutional performance (specifically, the UDMCs) on household disaster preparedness and loss mitigation, we collected data from 696 at-risk households. These households were located within the operational zones of the eight UDMCs, and the data was obtained using a structured questionnaire. Based on the application of social network analysis, our findings demonstrated that UDMC members were more active in the aftermath of disasters, as confirmed by three centrality measures - degree, eigenvector, and betweenness. Consequently, upon employing the Negative Binomial and Poisson regression models, we found a positive association between household engagement with UDMCs and participation in disaster preparedness training. This training appeared to enhance the knowledge and capacity of the respondents. The spill-over effects from disaster preparedness appeared to bolster the resilience of at-risk households, assist them in avoiding disaster-induced damages, and maintain consumption stability in the wake of disasters."

Green Panel sensor data analysis - initial plans

Four groups of third year students from the bachelor minor module 'smart solutions for sustainable cities' have presented their plans to analyze the available three month data for the Green Panels. Their findings will be the basis for in depth analysis and a paper presented at the upcoming EGU24. Some groups already showed an initial comparison with data from the local meteorological station, with temperature peaks during hours of high solar radiation. This suggests the surrounding flat, black roof might have a greater influence on the temperature than initially anticipated. We still await to see whether or not there is any significant difference in water retention for the different applied substrates.