Dear students and colleagues at the Institute of Geography,

You are cordially invited to our sixth event of the PLACES Research Seminar Series on 29 November 2023, which will take place online as a webinar from 14.15 to 16.00.

Topic: Prioritizing and evaluating NBS to support urban planning:  Applications in Stockholm, Sweden, and Trento, Italy

Abstract: Nature-based solutions (NBS), as actions to address societal challenges by harnessing ecological processes, have gained increasing attention for their key role in urban planning. The webinar illustrates innovative methodologies for prioritizing and evaluating the performance of NBS to support urban planning. In the Skarpnäck district of Stockholm, a combination of Ecosystem Services (ES) Hotspot-Coldspot Mapping and Spatial Multicriteria Analysis (SMCA) is used to prioritize NBS interventions. In Trento city, a dynamic hydrology-hydraulic modelling is applied to evaluate the performance of NBS scenarios in mitigating pluvial flood risks during extreme storm events. These methodologies offer valuable insights into effectively integrating NBS into urban landscapes, aiding decision-makers in sustainable urban development and resilience planning.

Speaker:
Jiayu Zheng (TU Dortmund University). He is a graduate student of Spatial Planning (M.Sc.) at TU Dortmund University, Germany. During his master’s study, he spent a semester at ETH Zurich as an exchange student studying Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems, gaining expertise in ecosystem services. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Urban Planning from Guangdong University of Technology in China. Jiayu is currently contributing to the REPLAN project on "(re)Planning Nature-Based Solutions and Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Transformations", funded by Formas A Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.

Tihitna Gezahegn Mulugeta (University of Trento, Italy). She is a master's student of Environmental Engineering specializing in ‘Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation’ at the University of Trento in Italy. She holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Haramaya University in Ethiopia. Her professional journey includes a position as an Assistant Researcher at the Technology and Innovation Institute and prior to that, she served as a Research and Development Analyst at the Science and Technology Information Center (STIC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Currently, Tihitna is an exchange student at the Institute of Geography at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, furthering her expertise in the environmental analysis and planning, and international collaboration.

The Webinar is organized by the Institute of Geography – PLACES Lab, Ruhr University Bochum. The event is part of the PLACES RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES and is organized in the frame of the “EKON Development Concepts and Project Management - Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas (170143a-WS 23/24)”. It will be held in a hybrid format, with a physical meeting in Room IA 02/111 (limited number of participants). The Webinar is open to public and in particular to all colleagues from the RUB Institute of Geography.

TU Dortmund: https://www.tu-dortmund.de/universitaet/fakultaeten/raumplanung/
University of Trento: https://www.dicam.unitn.it/en
ETH Zurich: https://plus.ethz.ch/

Registration:

For participation in person, please send an email to Blal Adem Esmail by 27 November 2023. For online participation, please use this registration link in advance Zoom Link.

We look forward to your participation and an exciting discussion.

Blal Adem Esmail