Creating cool islands in the city - how microclimates and urban greenery can reduce the dangers of heat

Trees, parks and water bodies are vital to reduce heat for the health and wellbeing of city-dwellers. In the second article in our Urban Heat series, researchers Robert Brown, Johanna Deak Sjöman and Maria Ignatieva share their perspectives on how we can tackle the heat in cities by designing cooling microclimates and green-blue infrastructures ‒ with examples from across the globe.

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We already know that heatwaves cause more deaths than all other natural disasters put together. People will wake up and realize that we really need to design our urban environments to be cool islands rather than heat islands ‒ and we know how to do that.

– Robert Brown, Texas A&M University.

Getting Our Cities Right #4 – shaping our future urbanscapes

Save the date! On 18-19 November 2024, the fourth conference in the series ‘Getting our Cities Right’ will explore how emerging urban discourses define how we understand and respond to complex sustainability challenges. The conference is organised in cooperation with the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, starting in Alnarp on the 18th, and moving to Botildenborg on the 19th. We are inviting students, researchers and practitioners, shaping our future urban landscapes – in any discipline and sector – curious to know more about the importance of place-based approaches in working with the complexity of urban sustainability and how this can further help us shape capacities for transformative change. We hope to see you in November!

More information and registration will be published on slu.se/urbanfutures.

Updates from the hubs

UMEÅ
Our Umeå hub coordinator Dimitris Athanassiadis continues to explore Urban Forestscapes. Together with Viable Cities and the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning he represented SLU at the Bauhaus Festival. During the urban forest webinar on the 18th April we explored Urban Forestscapes in relation to BioCities. On June 23-29 Dimitris will be participating in the IUFRO 2024 Congress, where he will be available for meetings.
Read more updates about Urban Forestscapes

ALNARP
In Alnarp, our hub coordinator Amanda Gabriel is developing our work with Urban Healthscapes, leading the The Urban Heat series and organising the second Urban Health webinar. If you haven´t already, you can watch #1 here. Amanda is also exploring collaborations with Tranquil City, in London looking at a rewilding project in East London, with the aim of running co-designed nature engagement activities with young people. During the 5-9 July, Amanda will be participating in the IAPS 2024.
Read more updates about Urban Healthscapes

UPPSALA
In Ultuna, Andrew Gallagher is leading a project on Integrated Food Planning, exploring how Swedish municipalities work with the development and implementation of strategies, policies and practices concerning food system sustainability. The Ultuna Hub collaborates closely with societal actors, such as Uppsala Municipality and Uppsala Food Council. Andrew is currently preparing a contribution to the ECLAS 2024 conference, where he will present a paper on transformative approaches to food system governance within the theme of regenerative landscapes.
Read more updates about Urban Foodscapes

Food&Cities seed funding 2024

Two projects conducting cross-disciplinary research activities have been granted funding as part of the Food&Cities seed funding call in 2024. The projects each explore different aspects of the systemic relations between food systems and sustainable urban development.
Read about the projects!

View recorded webinars in the Urban Forests series

Have you missed any of the webinars in the Urban Forests series? This spring we heard about biocities, the health of dog owners linked to urban green areas, and the concept of Nature-based Thinking. You can find all recorded webinars on SLU Play.

Go to the playlist

Climate Conversations across disciplines

Researchers’ roles, activism, and transformative science are some of the topics discussed in the Climate Conversations at SLU - a webinar series for SLU staff to increase the scientific dialogue about climate change across disciplines.

What impact has the Climate Conversations had on the transdisciplinary dialogue within SLU?

“The impact is difficult to assess, but I think it has helped establish SLU as an actor in climate research and it has allowed good internal dialogues that might not have taken place otherwise”, says Susanna Sternberg Leverin.

The article is based on presentations and discussions from the Climate Conversations at SLU’s internal dialogue Towards a Transformative Science? – responsibilities, credibility and value systems arranged on 12 February 2024.

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More about the CC-series

Shaping an arena for exploring sustainable solutions

The Botildenborg Social Innovation Living Lab (SOIL) aspires to address the multifaceted challenges confronting contemporary and future urban landscapes. To do this many perspectives and insights of several actors are needed to be integrated. First meetings of SOIL focussed on establishing grounds for collaboration, getting to know each other, mapping capacities and relevant themes, questions and perspectives.

Some current activities focus on:

Research on Ukrainian refugees - SLU and associate professor Anna Maria Palsdóttír will in 2024 start research on the project Botildenborg is carrying out with Ukrainian refugees where the goal is to get refugees into work and contribute to strengthened health and language skills through food and cultivation.
Research into the health of the elderly - MAU with professor Lars Plantin, Elin Taube and Åsa Ahlberg conduct interviews and follow-ups regarding Botildenborg's project Grow Together, where seniors have the opportunity to grow with children with the aim of breaking loneliness and contributing to increased health.
Planning the Food & Farming week – One whole week in September inviting e.g. students of SLU, MAU and LU to co-create a local forest garden, inviting regional key actors to talk about food security, and inviting local residents to engage, be inspired and learn about the value and opportunities with social farming in their city.

Keep an eye out on botildenborg.se!

SLU at ITD24 in November

The Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD) was founded in 2019, with a mission to strengthen and promote the global capacity of boundary-crossing research and practice. SLU Urban futures was one of the founding members, and this year SLU will arrange two workshops at the ITD24 conference, held in Utrecht on 4-8 November.
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