URBORETUM Kick-Off on 10 June 2024
On June 10, 2024, the time had finally come: the kick-off event for the URBORETUM project took place in the TRIANGEL Studio. From 9:30 a.m., all those involved in the project, students, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), employees of the Horticultural Office and other interested parties met to kick off the project together.
The event was opened with a welcome speech by Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald, Director of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at KIT, and by Ms. Bettina Lisbach, who emphasized the importance of the project for the city of Karlsruhe and its environmental policy. Dr. Somidh Saha, head of the project and the"Sylvanus" research group at ITAS, introduced the URBORETUM project and explained the objectives and expected results.
Sina Franke and Agnes Suchy from Project Management Jülich presented the "Regional innovation groups for a climate-friendly forestry and timber industry - REGULUS funding measure". Dr. Andy Selter from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (ALU) followed with a presentation of the"WaldHolz 'WaHo Boost'" project, which is a cross-sectional project for networking the REGULUS research projects.
Representatives of the URBORETUM work packages then presented their planned research and answered questions from the audience:
- ITAS-KIT (TreeEcos): "Ecological processes of urban tree growth, provision of ecosystem services and improvement of monitoring and management of urban forests".
- IfGG-KIT (TreePulse): "Urban trees under drought - linking functional ecology and remote sensing data".
- Professorship of Silviculture, ALU (TreeCare): "The response of urban trees to climatic stress factors and management. Development of strategies for resilient urban forests".
- Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim (ZI) (TreeNeuro): "Urban vegetation and mental health".
- RINNTECH-METRIWERK GmbH & Co KG (TreeInspect): "Leaving, pruning or felling? Improving urban tree control and tree care under difficult climatic and site conditions".
- greeHill Deutschland GmbH (TreeTwin): "How we give (your) trees a voice".
- Horticultural Office, City of Karlsruhe: "TreeCityKA - Municipal Practice Partner".
A lunch break with delicious vegan catering was followed by an intensive Q&A session and group discussion in which the participants discussed the selection of locations and tree species. The event concluded with closing remarks by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus from the Chair of Silviculture at ALU.
Following the official program, the project participants met to discuss internal issues such as future data exchange, trial planning and the selection of tree species. Topics such as the creation of a stakeholder board and the planning of future workshops in late 2024 were also discussed.
The kick-off event of the URBORETUM project was a complete success and marks the beginning of a promising project. We look forward to the exciting collaboration!