by Rik De Vreese | Jun 19, 2017 | Events
The GREEN SURGE project invites you to an online conversation with two leading researchers in the field of urban green infrastructure, Prof. Dr. Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch and Prof. Dr. Stephan Pauleit who will share observations on the current academic discourse on green infrastructure in Northern America and Europe.
The webinar is the first of a series of GREEN SURGE webinars reflecting on cities’ and researchers’ views on urban green infrastructure. The theme and the webinars will be leading up to the GREEN SURGE final conference in September.
More information and registration
by Rik De Vreese | Jun 14, 2017 | EFUF2017
The EFUF awards panel is delighted to announce that the award of Young European Urban Forester of the Year Award 2017 has gone to John Parker who works for Transport for London as Senior Technical Specialist – Arboriculture & Landscape, and who is chair of the London Tree Officers Association (LTOA).
The award committee were very impressed by John’s commitment to bring together those involved with management of individual trees with those engaged in land use based urban forestry, governance and planning as well as his skills and activity in promoting urban forestry. The awards panel were faced with a significant task given the high standard and number of applications received in 2017.
The award is now in its fifth year and is supported by Green Infrastructure and Urban Forestry Consultancy, MD² Consulting Ltd and the scientific journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
Background information on the Young Urban Forester Award can be found on this page.
by Rik De Vreese | Jun 4, 2017 | EFUF2017
While some of the EFUF delegates are still enjoing Barcelona, I arrived home this morning after a 16 hour stressless train trip to Brussels (shared with a Swiss delegate up to Paris). The Forum has always been a special event for me, and arriving home is always connected with mixed feelings. Being happy to be at home again, feeling re-energised and full of new ideas, being thankfull for seeing old friends and making new contacts, but feeling a bit lonely without the EFUF family around myself.
The 20th European Forum on Urban Forestry was not only special as it was a jubilee edition, but also for being organised in such a wonderfull city. I didn’t expect Barcelona to be so leafy and was very surprised by vastness and quality of the Collserola park.
We were hosted by Area Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) and the Centro Tecnologic Forestal de Catalunya, and I was happily surprised by the active contribution and participation of members of all the co-organizing institutions. Your contribution greatly facilitated the Forum to achieve its aim to be a science-policy-practice interface. This has always been a challenge, and I think this year’s Forum was very successfull in this sense.
The EFUF Steering Group will closely cooperate with the staff at AMB to make the presentations available online in the coming weeks. We also invite you all to write a post for www.efuf.org on your presentation, or on your work in general.
Thanks again to all who contributed, before and behind the curtains. It has been a wonderfull experience, once more.
by Rik De Vreese | May 29, 2017 | Articles
Trees can make a city sidewalk prettier, sure. But that’s not even their best trick. A growing pile of research suggests that planting more urban trees, if done right, could save tens of thousands of lives around the world each year — by soaking up pollution and cooling down deadly heat waves.
In fact, as a
fascinating new report from the Nature Conservancy details, a well-targeted tree campaign could be of the smartest investments a hot, polluted city can make. Which seems important, given that the world’s cities will add about 2 billion people this century, and they’re only getting hotter.
“A lot of cities still think of trees as just ornamentation,” says Rob McDonald, the lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy’s Global Cities program and a co-author of the report. “But they really do so much more than that. And the evidence suggests that we should start thinking of trees as a crucial part of our public-health infrastructure.”
Read the full story on https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2016/11/4/13510352/planting-trees-pollution-heat-waves.
by Rik De Vreese | May 6, 2017 | EFUF2017
Applications are now welcomed for the prestigious European Young Urban Forester of the Year (YUFA) 2017. The closing date for applications is the 29th May 2017. The award, which includes a year’s subscription to Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, a certificate and a cash prize of €200, will be announced at the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) in Barcelona on the 2nd June 2017.
For Eligibilty and Conditions, consult the dedicated page on the YUFA-award.
Applications are to be made using the European Young Urban Forester of the Year 2017 application form. Please download the form and mail it to the mentioned address.
The winner of the YUFA award will be announced during the closing session of EFUF 2017 in Barcelona.
The award is sponsored by MD² Consulting Ltd and the journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
