Author:
Green Steps
Short summary:
Green Steps has started a cooperation with the Center for Urban Nature at the Technical University of Munich to visualize ecosystem services for trees. The collaboration aims at making the value of old trees easy to understand through engaging science communication. Several other collaborations have also been formalized.
Since the end of March, we have been focusing the development of our environmental learning platform on nature experiences and urban trees in particular. Our Nature Guides have mapped and described over 280 old trees aka Big Friendly Giants on our app. We iterate on the communication of ecosystem services in an appealing manner. Our expertise lies primarily in the pedagogical activation of green spaces like city parks and communicating complex relationships in an understandable way. And although we have a basic understanding of ecosystem services, it was necessary to find a scientific partner for this phase of the project.
We have found this partner in the Center for Urban Nature and Climate Adaptation (ZSK), an interdisciplinary research center spanning several chairs at the TU Munich. On December 7, our CTO Lukas Helebrandt, our ecological manager Gloria Corradini and Green Steps Europe founder Knut Wimberger went to the city of Freising to meet Prof. Thomas Rötzer, Prof. Stephan Pauleit and Dr. Muhammad Rahman. All three have published extensively on the ecosystem services of trees, and we became aware of the ZSK through their articles on researchgate.
ZSK pursues many scientific questions related to urban nature. One of these we will be in the future our collaboration focus: How can people be made aware of subjects like modern urban planning, climate adaptation and ecosystem services? We will make our contribution in the communication of urban greenery and "green capital". Prof. Rötzer's team will provide us with the species-specific formulas that allow us to calculate CO2 storage, cooling, shading, and other ecosystem services. We will stay loyal to our design strategy of making access to science easy for every interested citizen. It should continue to be very easy to visualize ecosystem services for individual trees by simply measuring the circumference of a tree's trunk, recording the GPS data, and determining the species in question.
We are looking forward to this cooperation with the researchers of the TU Munich as well as to the cooperation with all the other organizations that have provided us with a letter of intent until the end of the year:
• Otto Glöckel Schule St. Pölten: special thanks goes to the principal Alexandra Schiffler, who has been supporting our work for a year now.
• NMS Pottenbrunn: a school with an ecological focus for 10-14 year olds that will participate in the Mobile Campus during the summer semester.
• Kinderkunstlabor St. Pölten: an educational project operational from 2024 under the artistic direction of Mona Jas
• Institut für Creative/Media/Technologies der FH St. Pölten: special thanks also to Prof. Markus Wintersberger, who has supported our work from the very beginning; and DI Christian Munk who has accompanied a group of European students in an EUDRES project to understand our work a bit better.
• Fluxguide GmbH: a Viennese company specialized in extended realities with extensive international project experience
We are also excited about the collaboration with Kunstfestival Tangente St. Pölten, which has hired the artists Luca Kieser and Katya Dimova to bring our Big Friendly Giant routes to the next level.
We are curious on how the cooperation with Architecture Center Vienna and Bernoulli Gymnasium will play out in Vienna and if Shanghai Concord International school will be our first Mobile Campus partner in China.
2023 will be a splendid year. Probably, beyond expectations.
2022 was very productive. We have started the Mobile Campus for Spring Equinox, we have published our first Bioregion Pass for Summer Solstice, we presented the Big Friendly Giant Map of St. Pölten for Fall Equinox, and we submitted 185 Nature Monument application together with the Green party St. Pölten and FG Lanius for Winter Solstice. And most importantly: we have accompanied many children into a special playground called nature.
We send all readers of our newsletter and this blog post merry season’s greetings and look forward to a hopeful 2023.
