International research team including SUN Lab’ scientists interviewed citizens of Moscow (Russia) and Perth (Australia) to find out what role urban green spaces played for them during the COVID-19 pandemic. It turned out that the vast majority of respondents in both cities considered contact with nature to be extremely important for mental well-being, and many of them went for walks in their free time, despite the restrictions. The results of the research, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, are published in the journal Sustainability.
SUN Lab was presented on roundtable “Green and Blue Urban Infrastructure Innovation for Northern Eurasia”
The roundtable “Green and Blue Urban Infrastructure Innovation for Northern Eurasia” took place April 19-20 in Saint Petersburg. During the event there were presented projects related to green and blue infrastructure (GBI) in Russian cities. Speakers representing academic and non-academic institutions, shared their relevant GBI experience and reflections to share. Also the factors of success and failures of such innovation projects given a variety of biophysical and socioeconomic contexts across the country were disscussed.
Riccardo Valentini gave a lecture to managers from 100 Russian cities
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.
LAWN project partners update webinar 2020
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.
Smart Urban Nature Lab took part in the NAUKA0+ Science Festival
XV Russian Science Festival NAUKA0+ took place from October, 9-21 in Moscow and many other regions of Russia. The largest Russian popular science project designed to establish a dialogue between science and society, educating schoolchildren, students and adults about the latest achievements of science in the field of physics, biology and medicine, ecology, humanities, etc. SUN Lab is an active participant in this event. Every year our scientists take part in lectures and workshops, both at the RUDN University and in the external events of the festival.
Scientists discussed the use of smart technologies in monitoring green spaces
On September 30, 2020, an international scientific seminar “Monitoring urban green infrastructures” was organized under the umbrella of the Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems of ATI RUDN University. The event was held in an online format and was devoted to a number of issues in the field of monitoring green infrastructure in cities using IoT technologies.
Experts and participants discussed topics such as express methods for assessing the physiological state of green spaces, the influence of environmental factors on the state of plants, timely diagnosis of plant diseases and the development of methods for plant protection. Among the participants of the seminar are experts from the Smart Urban Nature laboratory Vyacheslav Vasenev, Alexey Yaroslavtsev, Vasily Brykov, Yuri Dvornikov and Viktor Matasov as well as partners from the Russian Research Institute of Phytopathology, N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden of RAS and other organizations.
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).
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.