Mikhail Varentsov, an expert from the Smart Urban Nature laboratory, presented the results of numerical modeling and experimental studies in the field of urban meteorology and climatology on the example of the Moscow megacity and Russian Arctic cities. The presentation took place September 23, 2020, on the 33rd Scientific and Educational Seminar on Supercomputer Modeling of the Climate System.
SUN Lab’s team took part in online conference on landscape ecology
On September 14-18, 2020 SUN Lab’s team represented by Anastasia Konstantinova and Victor Matasov took part in the 1st International conference «Landscape Science and Landscape Ecology: Considering Responses to Global Challenges» hosted by IALE-Russia and Lomonosov Moscow State University. Due to the restrictions induced by the Covid-19 pandemic the event took place online but still gathered almost 200 participants from Russia, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and many other countries.
SUN Lab in cooperation with Landscape Engineering Guild assessed ecosystem services for a new residential complex in Moscow
Smart Urban Nature lab together with the Landscape Engineering Guild, has implemented a project to assess ecosystem services for one of Moscow’s residential complexes.
Moscow architectural bureau UTRO, whose specialists developed the concept of improvement for the residential complex “Metropolia”, strove for a reasonable balance between the purpose of the object, the needs of people and the environment. Thus, the main goal in developing the concept was to bring nature to the city center to create a comfortable living environment. With the proximity of major roads, the impact of the urban heat island, and the increasing number of extreme weather events associated with climate change, the regulatory functions of green infrastructure seem to be the most significant.
SUN Lab scientists have published the first results of the Tree assessment on Bolotnaya Square (Moscow)
Paper “IoT Monitoring of Urban Tree Ecosystem Services: Possibilities and Challenges” was published in the Special Issue Assessing, Valuing and Mapping Ecosystem Services of Forests journal and describes an opportunity of applying IoT technology not only to measure tree functionality through fluxes of water and carbon, but also to establish a smart urban green infrastructure operational system for management.
The paper presents results of a research project developed by SUN Lab scientists (RUDN University), in cooperation with researchers from University of Palermo, University of Tuscia, Campania University “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Research and Innovation Centre, Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian University with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF).
The first service in Russia for predicting heat risks in cities was developed by SUN Lab
SUN Lab’s climatology team with the support of the Russia Science Foundation is developing the first russian system for predicting heat risks for urban residents. The “Heat in Russia – 2020” project applies an experimental technology, based on modeling the thermal balance of the human body in various meteorological situations, and allows to identify “heat waves” and indicate the most dangerous time periods.
Studying urban soils and green infrastructure: the fourth 3MUGIS-2020 summer school took place online
From July 3-13, 2020, the IV International Summer School 3MUGIS (Monitoring, Modeling and Managing Urban Soils and Green Infrastructure) was held on the basis of the Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems at RUDN University. The school is organized with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) and under the umbrella of the International Union of Soil Scientists (IUSS) and the New York City Soil Institute in collaboration with universities, research institutions and research groups from around the world.
“Sustainable city means green city”: scientists, practitioners and municipal services discussed new challenges and prospects for sustainable megalopolises
From July 8 to 10, 2020, the Smart and Sustainable Cities international conference in advanced technologies for sustainable development of urban green infrastructure was held on the base of the Department of Landscape architecture and sustainable ecosystems. Due to specific circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held online. However, this did not prevent the conference for the second time from becoming an open discussion platform uniting not only the research community, but also municipal services, environmental protection agencies and organizations working in the field of urban management and landscaping.
Particular attention in organizing the SSC-2020 conference was paid to attracting young scientists – participants of the 3MUGIS Summer School, which was held from July 3 to 13. The conference brought together more than 100 participants from Russia, USA, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan with the involvement of leading russian and foreign experts in the field of ecology, soil science, landscape design and sustainable development.
The SUN lab team summed up the results of the one-year work
On June 24, 2020, the annual Board meeting of the Smart Urban Nature Lab was held. The meeting took its place online and was devoted to a discussion of the results of the laboratory’s work. The Board meeting gathered all the lab’s scientists and experts headed by Riccardo Valentini as well as invited international colleagues and external experts from France, Italy, Germany and Russia.
In more details scientists discussed the current SUN project “Smart technologies to monitor, model and evaluate ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure and soils to support decision making in sustainable city development under global changes” which was financed by Russian Science Foundation and started in May 2019.
Review of the impact of Global Climate Change on Metal(loid) Soil Pollution
Anna Paltseva, a researcher at the SUN Lab, and Professor Alexander Neaman made an overview of research works in the field of the impact of global climate change on metal mobility in soils.
Science non-stop: researchers of SUN Lab took part in a prestigious european geoscience conference
From 4-8 May 2020 scientists of the Smart Urban Nature Laboratory (RUDN University) took part in the respected EGU General Assembly 2020 in the online format. Instead of the annual life General Assembly in Vienna, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) hosted EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online. The largest virtual geoscience meeting is a pilot project that brought together thousands of scientists from around the world onto one platform to discuss their latest findings. The event provides a unique opportunity for researchers, experts and journalists to interact to each other, exchange with new developments and find out about the latest discoveries in a wide variety of topic areas ranging from water resources, natural hazards and climate to space and planetary science missions. Moreover, some of the participants were also selected to rule the specific sections and to convene other researchers.