Join the CIBSE Resilient Cities Group for a webinar on Dual Benefits for Tackling Air Pollution and Net Zero Challenges in Cities on Tuesday, September 14th from 10:00AM to 11:00AM.
About this event:
Learn about nature based solutions for city climate resilience and emissions sequestration and their impact on citizens and the urban environment. Gain insight on microclimate and buildings and implications for sustainable, resilient urban planning, building design and retrofit.
Event chair: Kirstin Johansen, Chair of CIBSE Resilient Cities group
Speaker 1:
Timothy Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last thirty years. Beatley is the author or co-author of more than fifteen books, including Green Urbanism (Island Press, Ethical Land Use, (Island Press, 2014) and Blue Biophilic Cities: Nature and Resilience Along the Urban Coast (Palgrave, 2018). Beatley directs the Biophilic Cities Project at UVA (http://biophiliccities.org/) and is also co-founder of UVA’s Center for Design and Health, within the School of Architecture.
Biophilic Cities:
Working Towards Cities That Nature, Resilient, and Regenerative
As the planet continues to rapidly urbanize there is a growing sense that a new model of cities is needed: one that overcomes the physical (and mental) disconnect between humans and nature. Beatley believes that contact with nature is not something optional but it absolutely essential for leading a happy, healthy and meaningful life. Nature-rich cities are also a key strategy in addressing a range of sustainability challenges—reducing air pollution and urban heat, adapting to climate change, transitioning to renewable energy and carbon neutrality, and conserving biodiversity, among others.
Beatley will review the many ways in which cities are already profoundly natureful and biodiverse and he will describe the emerging vision and practice of Biophilic Cities. He will discuss the newly formed global Biophilic Cities Network and will provide examples of innovative design and planning in cities in the Network.
Speaker 2:
Prashant Kumar is a Professor & Chair in Air Quality and Health, founding Director of Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), and Associate Dean (International), at the University of Surrey, UK; and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His fundamental and application-oriented cross disciplinary research is focused at the interfaces of clean air engineering, human health and smart/sustainable living in cities/megacities. His current research projects are focused in broad multidisciplinary areas of air pollution monitoring/modeling, low-cost sensing, nature-based solutions, climate change mitigation and developing innovative technological and passive (e.g. green infrastructure) solutions for air pollution exposure control for both developing and developed world. He has published >250 journal articles attracting >10,300 citations with a h-index of 56. He has secured >£8M research funding from RCUK & international bodies, serves editorial board of several journals and reviews/advises as a panel member many funding agencies worldwide.
Green Infrastructure for Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation' will focus on how green infrastructure – also referred to as nature-based solutions - can help in mitigating the impact of air pollution exposure at micro to city scale and how these can also be used to fight against the natural hazards driven by the climate change.
Register here!