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.
Theory and practice cooperate for sustainable urban development
On April 29, 2020 a round-table “Urban Ecology. Theory for practice” was held in an online format. The main topic was focused on the interaction of theorists in urban ecology and practitioners in urban development and landscape architecture. The participants of the round table – researchers, architects and designers of urban environment – presented their projects and discussed the features and prospects of communication between researchers of urban ecosystems and specialists of Russian urban planning and improvement. The discussion focused on the impact of environmental data of modern cities on the work of urban decision makers. The event was organized by Smart Urban Nature Laboratory of RUDN University and the Guild of Landscape Engineers (Moscow).
Science in self-isolation: climatologist from SUN Lab held a public online lecture on climate and coronavirus
April 17, 2020 a virtual meeting with Pavel Konstantinov, a climatologist, scientist at the Smart Urban Nature Laboratory (RUDN University), as well as the Executive Secretary of Russian Pan-Eurasian Experiment office (PEEX in Moscow State University) took place. The online lecture gathered about 700 viewers. In a conversation about climate, Pavel paid special attention to the current situation with coronavirus. And also shared a useful life hack how to determine the weather for tomorrow with an accuracy of 72% in two minutes.
SunLab scientists give recommendations for urban gardening
An analysis of urban gardens contaminated with lead and arsenic shows that traditional soil cleaning methods are ineffective. Gardening can be safe if regularly check the land with express monitoring devices and plant vegetables on raised beds. Research results were published in the Science of the Total Environment journal. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation.
Tree Talkers will monitor Moscow trees
In 2020, the Moscow Government will begin monitoring urban trees using instruments created by RUDN scientists stated the head of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the city of Moscow Anton Kulbachevsky at the 20th anniversary meeting of the Board of the department.