Snapshot
Surprising learnings from the students
The past year, seven master students completed their master thesis while investigating different aspects of the project’s pilots. They analyzed the effects of Green Infrastructure (GI) on the surrounding urban landscape and helped to refine the Nature Smart Cities Business Model further. We asked them about their experiences, what they enjoyed and what surprised them most about their research.
Marijke Geukens
Marijke Geukens (Master Environmental Sciences, University of Antwerp) studied the impact of ecosystem services derived from GI on the new business center in Southend.
"I investigated the benefits of green infrastructure implementation on the Launchpad site in Southend-on-Sea. I was most surprised by the impact on the microclimate of simply replacing a large parking space with grass. When substituting the paved parking lot with natural surfaces such as grass, the air temperature decrease was almost as high as when trees were planted and the parking space remained the same. A natural surface instead of pavement would also provide better infiltration and thus improve water management. I was also surprised to notice how little architects and urban planners know about the benefits of greenery enhancements regarding thermal comfort and heat-island mitigation strategies."
Latoya Bogaert (Master Industrial Engineer Bio-sciences in horticulture, University of Ghent) quantified the ecosystem services for the City of Bruges. She compared different tools for this quantification.
‘At the beginning of this academic year, I only had very basic knowledge of the subject, since my Bachelor years in the Industrial Engineering program in Bioscience mainly focused on horticulture and its production. Nevertheless, I enthusiastically started this project, where I progressively learned more and more about urban green infrastructure and its ecosystem services. Many of the things I learned during this project have enriched my curriculum. For example, I learned to work with QGIS, which was not a requirement of my degree programme. With this tool, I learned to map numerous aspects, such as habitat and biodiversity, avoided water run-off, and microclimate.’
Hendrik Vanaeken
Hendrik Vanaeken (Master Commercial Engineering, University of Antwerp) used Didi Naessens’ (fellow masters student) calculations for The Hague to monetize ecosystem services, compare green scenario and grey scenarios and undertake a multi-criteria analysis.
"I found working for the Nature Smart Cities project a very interesting experience. The opportunity to be part of a real project and produce concrete and realistic results in collaboration with other institutions, including the City of the Hague itself. And in general, working with people from very different backgrounds was really fascinating and motivating."
Hendrik Vanaeken
The students presented their work to all the project partners during an online webinar on the 30th June 2021. They did a great job in advancing the tools and methods to quantify ecosystem services provided by GI. Congratulations!
Recordings and presentations from the NSCiti2S Business Model webinar on the 30th June 2021 can be viewed from the project website.
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