LILa construction August-September 2025

These were the final months before the official opening in October, and we finally get to see the new sign renaming the location to UT Field Lab.

In August little vegetation is growing as a result of the construction.

Towards the end of August, this is much the same.

In September, two new signs are placed at the two entrances, one near the BMC building.

 

GI example: wadi and playground in Wierden

In the North of the town Wierden is a nature playground. Although it has been added into the neighborhood's edges as a developmental afterthought, it still performs well as a multifunctional space. 

 

The reason the space was still available for use lies in the power poles. We have seen the same in Enschede on a larger scale previously. In the Netherlands special guidelines prohibit building near power poles due to obviously the height of structures interfering with the lines themselves, and because it is potentially causing a slightly higher chance of cancer when you live too close. It is still suitable for the combination of playground and temporary water storage, under the assumption that children won't go play in flooded playgorunds.  

Some parts of the area have elevated paths and concrete tubes run underneath to connect the different wadi storage areas. Municipality Wierden is one of few who include an explanation of how wadi's are supposed to function on their website, including a video with English closed captions (from Enschede).

 

Heat symposium July - report

The heat symposium in Amsterdam in July showcased current research and solutions to combat urban heat stress. We have many policies and information available to help combat heat, with the most important being the national heat plan. However, it is not always implemented everywhere yet. If we can reduce heat stress, we can also help reduce night heat stress when buildings do not cool down sufficiently and people suffer from lack of sleep, loss of productivity and concentration, stress, and in the worst cases death. The link to socio-economic status is also clearly mapped, and we see worse conditions in areas with lower socio-economic status (in Dutch: armste wijken zijn de warmste wijken). The question has moved to what can be done as implementable measures, as we know where help is needed most. This event highlighted both green infrastructure measures, and cases where GI was not possible. 

There are new designs for mobile greenery. While these may not be ideal for plants to exist, they have proven to be effective to reduce experienced temperatures. WUR also showed different design options and how larger trees once again provide larger benefits in terms of shade, water retention, and biodiversity.

 

 

Thermal walk research showed that 10% more greenery led to about 0.5 degrees Celsius cooling, and the experienced temperature in shaded areas is about 10-17 degrees Celsius less, meaning greenery can make a big difference.

Still, many inner city buildings are several floors high and thus out of range of most trees. GI cannot solve everything in these cases. Issues mentioned included:

• Inhabitants who rent properties and have limited options to alter their living space
• Regulations prohibiting outside awnings or even the possibility of opening windows
• Housing corporations pointing towards the lack of heat stress data and therefore no reason for action
• People cannot sleep in their bedrooms with 29 degrees Celsius and move to the kitchen or hallway 

This called for additional measurements within these high rise buildings. After measurements and interviews it was found that: 

• Rental housing is 1-2 degrees Celsius warmer than privately owned housing
• Measures outside windows are exponentially more effective than inside
• Heat labels can help implement appropriate measures

Aside from technical measures, there was also a clear call to be a humane citizen and check on your neighbours during a heatwave, especially if they are older adults or have a disability. A clear actionable point!

 

 

Sustainable Tuesday

Since 1997, the first Tuesday in September is Sustainable Tuesday in the Netherlands. Traditionally it is an event that makes sustainable events in society more visible. This can be initiatives from either citizen initiatives, startups, or cooperations, and it helps connect their initiatives to policymakers and people with funding. The organization behind Sustainable Tuesday also organizes year round events to increase visibility of these projects. The website has an archive with initiatives from the past years, a great inspiration for future projects. It also serves as a reminder to keep the focus of single sustainability projects small and thereby implementable. 

 

Opening of the UT Field Lab (formerly Living Innovation Lab) in October 2025

After years of preparation, the UT Field Lab will open in about a month!

"On Thursday afternoon, 2 October, we’re officially opening the brand-new UT FieldLab on campus for all UT staff and those directly involved in the UT FieldLab such as faculty management and sponsors. In the past years we have worked together to develop this unique outdoor facility where research, education, and societal impact come together. As experiment lead you are naturally invited for the opening. The programme for the day is as follows: 

• Starting from 14:00, everybody is welcome to join a guided tour (drop-in, every 10 minutes).
• Around 15:30, we’ll gather for the official programme.
• At 16:00, the central part begins with short talks from key contributors and stakeholders, followed by the official opening by Tom Veldkamp (around 16:45).
• Afterwards: drinks!

📍 Location: Northeastern side of the campus, near the BMC building

Mark van der Meijde, Léon olde Scholtenhuis and Wim Timmermans, coordinators of the UT FieldLab initiative, are taking care of the guided tour. Passing by each experiment, we think each experiment should be represented by an experiment-expert who can provide more in-depth information when needed."

For green infrastructure, I will be bringing some of the sensors, small pieces of layers of a green roof that you can touch, and some visualizations of what the building could look like when the work is finished. Yes, it is still a work in progress, but I expect it to be visitable next year on the roof itself. For now, please join us and learn more about all the experiments happening at the Field Lab.

Student research results - more thermal walks

One of our master students civil engineering student, Gianluca Belardo, has now finished his MSc thesis, expanding on the results from thermal walks. He also developed site specific recommendations for each of the locations tested and check their feasibility with the municipality Hengelo. The title is 'Urban Heat Stress Assessment in Hengelo Through Thermal Walks to Guide the Implementation of Green-Blue Infrastructure for Urban Cooling'. The summary is below, and the repository link to download the full thesis is here. An overview of the tested locations is in the image. 

"Since the 1940s, global temperatures have steadily increased as a result of climate change. At the same time, rapid urbanisation has driven cities to expand, replacing natural landscapes with built-up areas dominated by materials like concrete and asphalt. These surfaces absorb and retain heat, while the loss of vegetation reduces the natural cooling capacity of the environment. As urban areas grow denser and greener spaces become more limited, cities begin to experience significantly higher temperatures than their rural surroundings, a phenomenon known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This rise in urban temperatures not only worsens environmental conditions but also poses growing risks to public health and overall quality of life.
This thesis explores how urban design interventions, specifically Green-Blue Infrastructure (GBI), can improve outdoor thermal comfort in city centres. The research focuses on Hengelo, a medium-sized city in the Netherlands that, like many European cities, is increasingly dealing with the consequences of extreme heat, yet lacks detailed microclimate data or clear strategies for site-specific interventions. While Hengelo has made some progress in implementing GBI, many public spaces remain exposed to heat stress, and decision-makers face challenges in balancing spatial constraints, public use, and climate adaptation goals.
To address these challenges, the thesis first evaluates the existing conditions in Hengelo’s urban centre and then proposes targeted GBI strategies to improve thermal comfort in its most heat-stressed areas. This begins with a comprehensive literature review, examining the UHI effect, thermal comfort theory, and the effectiveness of various GBI types in mitigating urban heat in different spatial contexts. The review also explores participatory and observational methods for assessing heat perception, laying the foundation for the fieldwork approach adopted in this thesis.
Building on insights from the literature, the methodology integrates multiple research approaches that shaped both the data collection and the analysis of findings. A spatial analysis was first conducted using the available urban heat maps for Hengelo, helping to identify priority areas that might benefit most from interventions. Due to the low spatial resolution of these maps, assumptions had to be made about which areas were most heat-stressed, based on available information on urban form, surface materials, and existing vegetation. To build on this preliminary assessment, the core of the field research involved thermal walks, a novel method in which participants walked through five different locations while environmental data was recorded and subjective thermal perceptions were gathered. Environmental conditions were measured using two Kestrel 5400 trackers. At each location, one tracker was placed at a reference point and the other at an intervention point to assess the cooling performance of the existing GBI. At the same time, participants at the intervention point completed a questionnaire covering comfort ratings, thermal sensation, and preferences for shade, wind, and cooling.
The results showed a strong correlation between dense green infrastructure and improved thermal comfort. The location with the most dense tree cover recorded a reduction in Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) of over 20°C between reference and intervention points and was consistently rated as the most comfortable by participants. Locations with partial vegetation, also showed moderate cooling effects and improved participant comfort. In contrast, blue infrastructure without shade, such as the pond and the fountain locations, produced limited physical relief. Tracker data even showed PET increases in some cases due to radiant heat from surrounding paving or water reflections, despite participants perceiving these areas as slightly cooler, likely due to the psychological effects of water.
After this analysis, a strategy was developed to improve the less effective locations analysed in the thermal walks and also for the most heat stressed areas that were analysed at an earlier stage. The study then included feedback from municipal representatives, who helped assess the feasibility of the proposed interventions. While some locations, such as the pond area, were deemed realistic for near-term implementation (adding climbing vegetation), all others locations posed challenges due to underground infrastructure and competing land uses. Additionally, the municipality emphasized the importance of maintaining visual openness and ecological balance, where new trees could disrupt existing plant life. As a result, the recommendations reflect not only environmental performance but also practical limitations. The discussion with the municipal representatives also sparked internal reflection within the municipality about whether long-term heat resilience should take precedence over occasional public uses in certain urban spaces.
Based on the findings, this thesis recommends a site-specific approach to urban cooling. Priority should be given to increasing shade through tree planting where feasible, combining green and blue infrastructure in areas with enough space, and using artificial shading (e.g. pergolas or vertical greenery) in more constrained locations. Overall, the research shows that evidence-based interventions, informed by local context, can support effective climate adaptation. Moreover the methodology applied here, specifically the use of thermal walks, builds on existing research and demonstrates their value in connecting environmental data with user experience. In doing so, this study contributes new, location-specific insights and helps further develop the practical application of thermal walks in urban heat research." 

Student research results - designing and testing a blue-green sloped roof

Our student Iris Laagland finished her MSc thesis on the topic of 'Blue-green for LILa : Designing a Modular Setup for Research regarding Pitched Roofs', where she developed and built a design for a blue green roof during the past year. Images of these designs can be seen below, where different drainage and retention materials and shapes were developed and tested in practice. These are valuable results that we can use to continue future development of blue-green solutions for sloped roofs specifically. The abstract is below and the full thesis is available from the repository here.  

The combination of urbanization and climate change will lead to significant concerns in the foreseeable future, as urbanisation reinforces the effects of climate change. The two major concerns regarding climate change in urban areas are flooding and heat-stress, both of which Blue-Green (BG) infrastructure can offer partial relief to. As the Dutch built urban environment predominantly consists of pitched roofs, there is a need for research regarding the possibilities of applying BG there. A modular setup is designed for Living Innovations Lab (LILa), a fieldlab in development on campus of the University of Twente, offering a platform to perform research on the effectiveness of BG infrastructure on a variety of pitched roof geometries in a semi-controlled research environment. This research platform will provide the possibility to make more informed decisions regarding the implementation of BG in the Dutch built urban environment.