After two years of work, the first numbers have been produced. Whereas the IPCC has calculated an average number of 65 Watts per square meter for urban areas, the UF numbers are 80w/m2 for Basel and 200-300 W/m2 for London. Although these numbers are for a larger area in Basel and for the commercial centre of London, we can already suspect that London is less energy-efficient than Basel.

So… two years of work just to produce these two numbers? Uhmmm…. no. Actually the aim is to develop a fast and reliable method that can produce numbers such as these for all European cities. London and Basel are case studies in which the factors of local climate are measured and calculated with several methods at the same time, both to test the reliability of different methods and to find the fastest way to do it.

In the CoP discussion the question was raised what URBANFLUXES can contribute to Basel when most energy is already renewable, and the energy regulations for construction in Basel are already very strict? For example, in Basel-Stadt active cooling is not allowed

2nd CoP meeting Basel 18 January 2017

for buildings (only small scale air conditioning for households); and heating of buildings with electricity is not allowed since 10 years. Basel-region is less strict and so are the urbanized areas of Germany and France. The researchers explained that it does not matter if energy is produced in a sustainable way; the heat production is the same. Also, traffic and old buildings still produce a lot of heat. Better insulation saves energy and this reduces anthropogenic heat significantly. It would also be interesting to investigate the effect of the strict laws by comparing the heat production from buildings of Basel-Stadt with the region.

Discussion in the group: green roofs are a popular measure but they may not help much to reduce the urban heat.

The human input of energy is not the only factor that heats up the city; the sun is most important and different building materials and urban green can make a difference. This will in turn reduce the need to cool buildings. By exploring all factors the URBANFLUXES project can help to to reduce the urban heat island effect, also in a city like Basel.

The problems with data acquisition across borders was further discussed in a presentation by Boris Stern of GeoRhena. GeoRhena is a European office that aims to improve cooperation in the upper Rhine between France, Germany and Switzerland. Data from the three countries become available through GeoRhena in the form of GIS maps. There are many differences in the data between nations and offices and it is too much work to acquire and adapt all of them. This is why GeoRhena works on request only. It can take between six months and two years to produce the requested maps. Placing a request now will be too late for the UF project.

In the discussion the question was raised what UF can contribute to Basel when all energy is already renewable, and the energy regulations for construction in Basel are already very strict? For example, in Basel-Stadt active cooling is not allowed for buildings (only small scale air conditioning for one household); and heating of buildings with electricity is not allowed since 10 years. Basel-region is less strict and so are Germany and France. The researchers explained that it does not matter if energy is produced in a sustainable way; the heat production is the same. Also, traffic and old buildings still produce a lot of heat. Energy can be saved with better insulation. This reduces anthropogenic heat significantly. It would also be interesting to investigate the effect of the strict laws by comparing the heat production from buildings of Basel-Stadt with the region. Another potential use of the project is to reduce the urban heat island effect; the human input of energy is not the only factor that heats up the city, the sun is most important and different building materials and urban green can make a difference. This will in turn reduce the need to cool buildings.

2nd CoP meeting Basel 18 January 2017

Boris Stern presenting GeoRhena at CoP meeting

Judith Klostermann in the URBANFLUXES stand during European Space Solutions

URBANFLUXES project participated in the European Space Solutions conference with a stand in the Space Research Village of the Exhibition. Lots of people of various backgrounds were interested in URBANFLUXES project during the conference and visited our stand. Our colleagues Judith Klostermann and Stavros Stagakis welcomed all the visitors in URBANFLUXES stand and provided information about the project. There have been many interesting discussions regarding the objectives, the methodology and the multiple potentials of our project. Many different views and ideas were shared in these discussions, revealing the multiple aspects that derive from innovative research programs, such as URBANFLUXES.

Stavros Stagakis in the URBANFLUXES stand during European Space Solutions

URBANFLUXES team will keep on spreading the ideas of this project in various conferences around the globe. You can also be informed about our latest activities through on twitter or google+

URBANFLUXES project was presented in the Earth Observation in Support of Urban Monitoring Session. This session was intended to outline how EO might support urban and spatial planning by providing dedicated information products and services. The session also included a discussion on the current challenges and opportunities in using EO and the new opportunities arising from the European Sentinel program as well as from the use of ICT technologies for collecting, exploiting, and disseminating the generated data and information.

In the framework of this Session, Dr. Nektarios Chrysoulakis presented an overview of URBANFLUXES approach, objectives and methodology, along with the first results of the URBANFLUXES project. The following activities and the future objectives of URBANFLUXES were also discussed.

URBANFLUXES team will keep on spreading the ideas of URBANFLUXES in various conferences around the globe. Keep track of URBANFLUXES team activity on twitter or google+ !

Judith enjoying the conference

This is my second day at the European Space Solutions Conference. So far I am enjoying it! It is a luxury to have a booth like this, it makes me feel at home, even though the domain of this conference is only remotely connected to what I normally do. For example, the neighbour on one side develops rockets, small ones to launch small satellites (less than 50kg). The booth opposite ours promotes packaging computer chips in plastic instead of ceramics or metal, because it is cheaper and lighter; plastic is more sensitive to radiation and thus has a shorter lifetime – but nobody asks for durable satellites anymore. In the introduction film for the conference you can see cities, cars and industries, and there is one shot of a big mono-cultural field with a vehicle spraying pesticide. That is what our future looks like. Climate change and sustainability – not much of an issue here.

Yesterday I went to the opening sessions and the only one that politely mentioned the vulnerability of our planet was the Dutch astronaut, André Kuipers. He showed us the beauty of Earth at daytime and at night-time, sometimes in pictures and sometimes in short videos. Their space station was flying at an incredible speed, and to see a small country like the Netherlands, he said, you really had to pay attention. As you hear more often from people who have visited space, the experience changed him from ambitious to worried about the future of that watery planet with the thin atmosphere.

Another speaker that was really worthwhile was the Director of TomTom, the car navigation systems manufacturer. In a funny story he showed us how they started in 1991 or thereabouts, with the very first smartphone (not looking very smart) and the employment of space data for different purposes. Their biggest step was to combine developing the software for car navigation with producing the hardware as well. This made them less dependent on what the market had to offer. This was so successful that there was a clone on the market one year later, three clones the next year, nine a few years later, until at one point in time they had 200 competitors. Over the same period their turnover was also growing exponentially, from 2 million to 4 to 20 to 200 in less than ten years. (I do not remember the exact numbers). They stayed ahead of their competition by imagining what their clients wanted: simple and easy buttons, automatic adjustment of sound volume depending on background noise, information on traffic jams, etc.

The other speakers (Minister Kamp, from Economic Affairs), and Elzbieta Bienkowska (EU commissioner for Internal Market and Industry) only had one message: economic growth, economic growth, economic growth.

Another nice thing of having a booth is of course that people come to you. So far I heard that the problems of urban heat are acute in Somalia, Japan, Mongolia, and China. In most places, they are removing green belts and parks because the price of the land is very high. There will be enough work after we finish the project. We are trying to collect business cards, hand out leaflets and printed newsletters, and hopefully we will have a lot more subscribers to the newsletter after the conference.

And there is spacecake.

Spacecake from the launch of the rockets project

Judith Klostermann, URBANFLUXES / WUR-Alterra

Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger, 2002). Communities of Practice develop around things that matter to people. The members of a community deepen their knowledge and expertise in a particular area by interacting on an ongoing basis. Examples of Communities of Practice are a band of artists seeking new forms of expression or a group of engineers working on similar problems.

A Community of Practice can be characterized by three core dimensions: the domain, the community and the practice. If a group of people develops these three elements in parallel it constitutes a Community of Practice.

The domain

A Community of Practice is not merely a network of people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership implies a commitment to the domain, and a shared competence that distinguishes its members from other people. A domain can be any kind of expertise like ‘tomato growing’, ‘urban planning’, ‘empowerment’ or ‘surviving on the street’.

The community

In pursuing their interest in a specific domain, the members of a CoP build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. They engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. Members of a Community of Practice interact on a regular basis. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to create a Community of Practice, even though they often painted alone.

The practice

Members of a Community of Practice develop a shared practice. Together they create a repertoire of resources: methods, tools, experiences, stories, and ways of addressing recurring problems. This takes time and sustained interaction. Nurses who meet regularly in a hospital cafeteria may not even realize that their lunch discussions are one of their main sources of knowledge about how to care for patients. In the course of all these conversations, they develop a set of stories and cases that become a shared repertoire for their practice.

The concept of community of practice has found a rich and growing number of practical applications in business, organizational design, government, education, professional associations, development projects, and civic life.