Smart Urban Green Infrastructure Online Course
Explore the Potential of Carbon-Smart Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure can mitigate the impacts of climate change on urban areas and increase biodiversity in densely populated areas. Urban green infrastructure (UGI) can be considered a next-generation solution for society to deal simultaneously with climate and social pressures. Carbon sequestration and storage have huge potential for mitigating climate and can be applied to urban green areas and infrastructure.
This online course provides different approaches to Carbon Smart Urban Green Infrastructure. During the course, you will reflect on Urban Mobility Challenges and grasp the context and bigger picture of Urban Mobility, the built environment, and green infrastructure.
With the help of our faculty, you will gain an understanding of the context and the world in which we operate and some of the challenges that planners have to face. You will investigate the different advantages of carbon-smart urban green infrastructure and their applications to urban contexts. Moreover, you can get richer experience and context with our case studies and examples. Finally, we will dive into urban green infrastructure planning, design, construction, and maintenance and present different case examples. This course leverages research and publications conducted by the CO-CARBON project and its researchers.
This online course is designed to support independent study optimally. Course contents, methods, and tools are hand-picked to be applied in your work environment.
The course is built with faculty members from the Aalto University Department of Built Environment, the Department of Architecture, and researchers from the Co-Carbon project.
The course has been co-created with experts from the Co-Carbon project. One aim of the course is to leverage the project's research insights and disseminate the project's outcomes to a wide audience.
Benefits
One of the key aims of this course is to empower and motivate you to explore the potential of carbon-smart urban green infrastructure while fitting urban spaces for the impacts of climate change and using them in your work. You will have access to several lectures, case examples, short knowledge checks, and reflection assignments. These help you find tools and methodologies you can use immediately in your organization. The course is designed to support independent study optimally. The learning content is split into weeks to help you study at any time that suits you. Each week contains materials in video and article formats. At the end of each week, we provide activities and tasks to enhance your learning experience, including Echo Teams assignments.
For
The course is designed for urban mobility and transportation professionals, urban planners, and other professionals working in this field at any stage of their career.
Contents and Schedule
This online course is structured into five core weeks and will take approximately ten hours to complete, depending on your speed and preferred study style. The study weeks consist of video lectures, reflective knowledge checks, and an Echo Teams assignment, offering you a unique insight into communicative planning processes. Please note that the Echo Teams are not compulsory for the course. Still, we highly recommend you use this tool and arrange Echo Team meetings with your peers, teams, or colleagues from your work community to reflect and receive feedback on your learning journey.
The underlying frameworks, tools, and methodologies used in this course are based on common planning practices and academic research conducted in the field. We strongly encourage you to take action when invited to do so, that is, complete the knowledge checks, join in the discussion, be active in the Echo Teams assignment, reflect on your work, and think about the relationship between the lecture content and your work. The study journal provided in the course materials is a good tool for keeping notes on your reflections and recording any questions that may arise during the course.
- Mobility, mobility infrastructure, and climate change
- The impact of urban green infrastructure on human behavior, health, and well-being
- Planning carbon-smart urban green infrastructure from city-level to green spaces
- Urban green infrastructure as means for urban regeneration
Participation in the course is free of charge and grants you basic access to the online course for six (6) weeks upon registration. Unlimited access to this online course is available for a separate fee.
This online course is designed as a self-study course. No individual feedback or support by the course educators will be provided.
The course videos are subtitled in English.
Study Weeks
Module 1: Current Urban Mobility Challenges
This study week introduces Mobility Challenges. It internalizes how infrastructure can be planned and designed in a way that it acts as mitigation measures for climate change; it is crucial to understand the impact of transport and mobility infrastructure on the environment and the climate in urban areas. Further, you will look at the economic, social, and health impacts of mobility and transport and on emerging mobility technologies and their governance. By the end of this week, you will understand the impact of transport infrastructure on the environment in urban areas. In addition, you will identify different mobility challenges and trends and internalize their impact on climate change. Further, you will engage in a discussion on urban transport and well-being.
Key topics
- Introduction to mobility and transport challenges
- Context of urban mobility challenges
- The link between emerging mobility technologies and mobility behavior
- Environmental, economic, social, and health impact of mobility
Instructor
Miloš Mladenović, Associate Professor, Transportation Engineering, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University
Module 2: Urban Nature and Ecosystems
This study week focuses on urban nature and ecosystems. To be able to dive deeper into the topic of Smart Urban Green Infrastructure, we have to understand fundamental processes in urban ecology.
This week explores urban ecosystems from a carbon cycling point of view. You will look at the carbon cycling process, its benefits to urban spaces, and the built environment's impact on these natural processes. By the end of this week, you will have gained a basic knowledge of carbon cycling. You will be able to identify the benefits of carbon cycling to urban spaces and can point out the most common human impacts on urban ecosystems.
Key topics
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Carbon cycling
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Human and natural effects on photosynthesis
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Urban ecosystems
Instructor
Liisa Kulmala, PhD, Senior researcher, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Module 3: Environmental Urban Mobility Impacts and Urban Nature as Infrastructure
In this study week, you will look closely at the environmental impacts of urban mobility and transportation and mobility infrastructure. Mobility and transport infrastructure make up a big share of the planned urban and built environment.
By the end of this week, you will be able to identify the different environmental impacts of urban mobility infrastructure and the cause-and-effect relation behind it. You will be able to grasp urban nature as part of urban infrastructure and know how to integrate nature-based solutions into planning.
Key topics
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Introduction to environmental impacts of urban mobility
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Concept of socio-ecological impact
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Air-, land-, water-, and biodiversity-related environmental impacts
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Environmental impact assessment
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Urban nature as infrastructure
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Ecosystems Service Model
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Nature-based solutions
Instructor
Miloš Mladenović, Associate Professor, Transportation Engineering, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University
Module 4: Designing the Green City
During this study week, you will dive into the historical context of urban green and explore some implementations of urban green as urban infrastructure. We will discuss different ways of strategic planning and co-creation of urban green. By the end of this week, you will understand how urban green ideals have evolved. You can name applications of urban green as urban infrastructure and are aware of different methods of integrating nature into the city.
Key topics
- Stormwater management
- Ideals of urban green
- Strategic planning and co-creation of urban green
- Blue-green landscapes
Instructors
Outi Tahvonen, D.Sc. (Architecture), Principal Research Scientist (tenure track), Häme University of Applied Sciences
Ranja Hautamäki, D.Sc. (Architecture), landscape architect M.Sc., Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, Department of Architecture, Aalto University
Module 5: Constructing and Managing the Green City
This study week, you take a closer look at the construction and maintenance of smart urban green infrastructure.
You will explore different characteristics of the construction of green infrastructure and discover how green infrastructure can be integrated into traffic and mobility environments. We introduce the Green Factor and its application into planning processes.
By the end of this week, you will have internalized the characteristics of the construction and maintenance of green infrastructure. You can apply the Green Factor Tool to count the number of green spaces in urban spaces. You are aware of the different possibilities to integrate urban green into traffic environments and infrastructure and design traffic environments to benefit urban green.
Key topics
- Construction and maintenance of smart urban green infrastructure
- Green Factor Tool
- Scalable Green Infrastructure
- Designing traffic systems for Scalable Green Infrastructure
Instructor
Outi Tahvonen, D.Sc. (Architecture), Principal Research Scientist (tenure track), Häme University of Applied Sciences
Ranja Hautamäki, D.Sc. (Architecture), landscape architect M.Sc., Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, Department of Architecture, Aalto University
Instructors
Mari Ariluoma
Mari Ariluoma is a doctoral researcher at Aalto University and a landscape architect and co-founder of Nomaji landscape architects. She has extensive expertise in landscape design, construction, and urban design, both in academic work and practice.
Ariluoma’s research interest is the practical applications of sustainable green and blue infrastructure, ecosystem services, and nature-based solutions. Currently, Ariluoma is working on the CO-CARBON project focusing on carbon-smart urban green.
Ranja Hautamäki
Ranja Hautamäki is an Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture and head of research in landscape architecture at Aalto University. She has a 13-year professional background as the head of landscape planning at the City of Tampere.
Hautamäki's research focuses on urban nature and its planning practices and discourses. She works now on a multidisciplinary research project on urban nature in climate change mitigation and develops solutions for carbon-smart planning.
Liisa Kulmala
Senior researcher Liisa Kulmala acts as the Head of the Carbon Cycle Group at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. She has studied various biotic processes in the carbon cycle in forests, agricultural fields, and urban green spaces.
Her current work focuses on quantifying the climate mitigation potential of land ecosystems and finding multi-beneficial management practices for the land use sector.
Miloš Mladenović
Miloš N. Mladenović is an Associate Professor at the Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering Group, Department of Built Environment, School of Engineering.
His current research interests include the governance of emerging mobility technologies and the development of decision-support methods. His previous and current teaching responsibilities include transport systems policy, planning, modeling, management, and design courses.
Outi Tahvonen
Dr. Outi Tahvonen has a long practical background in green industries and an active network with various actors in the field. She finished her PhD in Landscape architecture in 2019.
Tahvonen's research interest includes multidisciplinary topics to support sustainability, such as the role of low-density housing in urban green infrastructure and its role in stormwater management and carbon sequestration.