Last Saturday, the SUN Lab team held the first strategy session in the format of a team brainstorming session.
We discussed the concept of the Smart Urban Nature portal. This is a portal that will allow us to collect, analyze, deliver and present information about the state of urban ecosystems. Such a multifunctional open-access platform, in our opinion, will be a useful tool for different categories of users. During our session we tried to identifine these categories.
On Tuesday, March 30, 2021, Science Attaché of the Italian Embassy in Moscow, Mr. Enrico Brunioli visited Agrarian and Technological Institute of RUDN University. He was invited by Elvira Dovletyarova, the Director of ATI, for an informal “welcome” breakfast. The meeting provided all participants with a chance to discuss relations between the Institute and Italian partner organizations in the spheres of science and education. In fact, both Mr. Brunioli and the ATI team primarily focused on the current state of relations and possible prospects of improving it.
As part of ATI team, the meeting was attended by Deputy Director for International Affairs Vladislav Plyushchikov, Deputy Director of the Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems, Associate Professor Vyacheslav Vasenev, and Olga Gavrichkova, Research Fellow at the Center for Mathematical Modeling and Design of Sustainable Ecosystems.
When we drink a glass of water, write in a notebook, take medicine for a fever or build a house, we do not always make the connection with forests. And yet, these and many other aspects of our lives are linked to forests in one way or another.
Forest sustainable management and their use of resources are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. Forests also play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate.
In February 2021, a collaboration of Chilean and russian scientists represented by Elvira Dovletyarova, the Head of Agrarian Technological Institute (RUDN University) and Alexandr Neaman, professor of Institute of Agrarian Engineering at Southern University of Chili got their joint scientific article published in the highly rated Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (SJR Q1). The research was supported by the RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership Program and the FONDECYT international project.
Today the SUN Lab team is glad to recall its participation in an international project in support of young scientists in urban studies – TAURUS (Training Capacities in Agriculture and Urban Rural Interactions and Sustainable development of megacities). Starting in 2017, the project was launched in pursuit of providing international support for students who can gain new professional skills necessary for the sustainable development of large urban areas.
SUN Lab is among the organizers of the international conference “InterCarto. InterGIS 27. Geoinformation support of sustainable development of territories”. The conference will be held at Apatity (Murmansk region, Russia) and Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), August 21-27, 2021.
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Airborne fine dust particles (FD) are recognized as one of the most harmful pollutants to human health. The size of fine dust determines their ability to penetrate the human body, and particles less than 10 microns in size are recognized as the most dangerous. At the same time, the causes of FD toxicity are still insufficiently studied. For example, the relationship between mortality from COVID-19 and the concentration of FD in the air was shown. However, it is still not clear whether fine dust is a direct vector carrier of the virus or only exacerbates the susceptibility of the human body to the virus.
Prof. Riccardo Valentini, the head of Smart Urban Nature Lab opened the Module 6: Urban ecology of an educational program Master of Public Administration by giving a lecture “Urban Health and Green Infrastructures”.
Participants of this program, organized by SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management, are 500 managers from 100 largest cities in Russia: mayors, deputy mayors, deputy heads of the region, chief architects. The main objective of the program is to to form leaders who will act as drivers of the development of Russian cities.
Smart Urban Nature laboratory congratulates its employees, foreign colleagues and the entire scientific and expert community with the coming New Year. 2020 has become a serious challenge for everyone without exception – the pandemic, the global lockdown, the cessation of flights between countries, and much more have hit not only the economy and many other areas, but also limited the capabilities of the scientific world. The usual format of conferences, seminars, field research was forced to change and go online. Nevertheless, we managed to adapt to the needs of the time and maintain the quality level of work, the atmosphere of cooperation and ambitious plans.
By Dr. Diana Dushkova and Prof. Maria Ignatieva
On December 17, an online webinar of the LAWN 2020 project partners was organized by Dr. Diana Dushkova, Helmholtz Center for environmental research – UFZ Leipzig, Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology; Geography Department of Humboldt University Berlin, Germany and Prof. Dr. Maria Ignatieva, School of Design, University of Western Australia.
