Global Urban Sustainability and Justice Wallenbergseminar Part 1

Insights, facts, visions and challenges for a green-blue future of cities around the globe

Urban sustainability and justice are among the most pressing global challenges as urbanization continues. This is especially true in the Global South, where local governments struggle immensely with providing housing, water and energy as well as healthy living conditions for billions of people. While the Global North undertakes increasing efforts towards urban sustainability through e.g. greening its cities to improve quality of life and to reduce health costs, there is an increasing connection between South and North through trade, commodity chains, tourism, communication and other financial flows, where changes in one region will spill over to others and impact local sustainability opportunities and challenges.

During her Wallenberg professorship 2017 at SLU in Alnarp, Dagmar Haase has dealt with urban ecology and urbanization prospects and the consequences of increased global connectivity among cities. As part of the SLU team on landscape planning, she has discussed bringing nature back into cities and enhancing green and blue spaces in towns, in European cities but also in China, Africa and Latin America. Next to science-based functional aspects of ecosystems in cities, justice aspects related to access to nature and benefits of nature in segregated urban system played a big role in the debates at SLU.

This seminar will discuss research on urban sustainability and green infrastructure. Pressures on urban land and threats to ecosystems will be discussed, as well as greening and blueing of cities. Justice aspects will be emphasized, as well as global, urban health and well-being, including heat stress, water supply and aspects of migration and resource exploitation.