Examples of Green Infrastructure - Berlin

What could be more in touch with urban nature than sharing your meal outside with a bird?

The conference site itself, Atelier gardens, is located just South of the former Tempelhofer airfield and houses a film studio. The name suggests the location is very green, and as we arrived new plants and an irrigation system were being installed. There were trees (very welcome as cover for both sun and rain as we walked between the buildings) and diverse bushes, as well as herbs for cooking at the on site restaurant.

Given that we had four action packed days at the conference site, I didn't get to see much of Berlin, but some parts are definitely very green. Even within the dense inner city, once you got off the main roads and into the smaller hidden alleys, entire building facades could be green, and outside terraces added plants where possible. I also visited Viktoriapark, which has a higher hill overlooking the city, though the trees covered much of the surroundings, and a waterfall running downhill.

To me the question when visiting cities these days is, how can we measure how much of the city fulfills the ambitions of the 3-30-300 policy, and how can we increase this in the areas that need it the most, as they are often already quite densely built? You can see different available methods for measuring and those in development in the link. Would these methods work where you live, is the required data available? What do you think would be the result of the 3-30-300 scan for your city?

The Nature of Cities Festival walkshop

Today we held our walkshop during the Nature of Cities Festival walkshop in Berlin. After a brief introduction and questionnaire, we took our participants to the nearby Bear Park to explore. Despite it being a landscaped and maintained city park, and construction taking place nearby, we found a diverse array of flora and fauna. Following this, we returned and shared our experiences.

During this walkshop we asked our participants to focus on one of the senses to experience the area, and to report back on how they experienced it. Here we see one of the results. These findings are taken into account in the final evaluation of our walkshop project.

World Environment Day

It's World Environment Day and this year's theme is on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. In the Netherlands you could visit e.g. the ReNature festival. 

It is a good time to consider the impact of land use on the soil and life within in, and how nature based solutions might help recover soil quality and increase drought resilience. Not just for humans either.

LILa construction - BMC roof

Today I had a chance for a visual inspection of the roof of the BMC (biomagnetic center) building. This building is now unused and is plan to act as the main location for the performance testing of different types of green roofs and green walls. I had two little problems though.

As you can see, the roof is covered with stones, which makes it a perfect nesting ground for these Eurasian oystercatchers. They were rather loud in announcing their disagreement with my visit. I count myself lucky not to have been assaulted.

The roof features aside from the stones include an airconditioning unit, ventilation pipes, a roof window located above the hallway crossing inside, and a weather/camera station for the LILa project. We will have to work around these features when constructing the (blue) green roofs and access pathway.

World Biodiversity Day

It's world biodiversity day and the UT has many relating events the coming weeks. Check them out here: BioBlitz 2024: what species can you find on campus? Explore the campus & help spot plants and animals

Gotta catch them all! Help find more species we didn't know exist at our green UT campus during the events listed. You can find more news on international events here, as it is a UN initiated day, and translation to Dutch here.

 

 

 

Examples of Green Infrastructure - Vienna

Here are some examples of green infrastructure from Vienna, Austria. While I got the chance to see only a small part of the city, it has left me with a mixed impression. On the one hand, there are several large parks, and the Danube river and a canal cross the city, allowing for blue-green infrastructure as well. 

 

 

 

On the other hand, the inner city is densely built and doesn't allow for large green infrastructure. In some cases, it is even mobile. I realize that during my short visit I have only gotten an impression of this large city, but especially the newly developed area north of the river really drove home the point that green infrastructure should be a part of urban planning with the same priority as other services. There is nearly no space for nature, while there are thousands of apartments and therefore people with the need to visit and experience nature, preferably within 300 m of their homes. 

What are wadis? Example of Green Infrastructure

Wadis are a Dutch term used for temporary water retention areas as a form of green infrastructure. You can see a famous example from Enschede in the video below. This is part of the main ring road surrounding Enschede's center. You can see the retention area is quite deep, but the number of plant species is quite monotonous. During heavy rainfall it can fill up, but it is also connected underground to prevent overflowing.

Ideally, wadis are made by disconnecting the streets and roofs of buildings from the sewage system in order to collect the water in natural areas. This helps prevent the sewer from overflowing, prevents clean water from entering the sewer, and helps restore the ground water level. You can see this disconnected system where water flows from roofs, down the center of the street, and into a nearby pond in the video below.