Dutch delegation visits Institute of the Urban Environment

During the MultiGreen meeting for 13 - 17 May the Dutch partners visited the Institute of the Urban Environment in Xiamen.

The visit consisted of several key-events meant to strengthen the knowledge exchange between the Dutch and Chinese partners.

To start, we kicked off with a series of meeting discussing the current progress from all the workpackages, and followed-up with investigating several opportunities to collaborate in the near future. This also involved scoping out methods that will increase the impact of readily-available results from this consortium. 

After, we visited the a project developer for the Municipality of Xiamen to discuss the potential implementation of the results from the MultiGreen consortium. This discussion was especially fruitfull given the direct interaction between the applied side of the MultiGreen products and practioners.

To conclude the trip, the Dutch partners were guided through several unique urban landscapes and green infrastructures, being: I) The Nanputuo Temple, surrounded by urban wildlife and greenspace, combined with religious and cultural ecosystem services, II) Gulangyu island, being pedestrian only and having european architecture, III) The Xiamen Botanical garden, which inspired some to measure mental health through the smiles of the people in the park, IV) and finally, Tulou, impressive architectural defensive structures with the ouside closed, inside open concept. Simaltenously, the birds also seemed especially keen to built their nests against the walls, windows and overhangs of these impressive structure.

Multi-functional nature-based infrastructure in urban areas: where and how workshop TERRAenVISION conference

The goal of the session was to discuss how to integrate multiple functions or benefits when planning nature-based solutions. There are many types/options of nature-based infrastructures and different places where they can be implemented in urban spaces. Deciding what option to apply and where to allocate them should consider a combination of objectives. Climate adaptation, human health, biodiversity and energy saving are examples of objectives where nature-based infrastructures can be of added value. How to maximise multiple benefits using a this type of measures? What aspects need to be considered when planning these measures to target multiple objectives? We explored these questions through an interdisciplinary and interactive session, where we integrated research and practical perspectives. We presented the main elements to consider when trying to achieve each single objective. Afterwards, we proposed a collaborative activity to explore together the synergies between objectives.