Archive for February, 2007

COMMON FORUM NEWS NR. 20 (updated) Next meeting Stuttgart 24 & 25/04/07

Monday, February 19th, 2007

Dear All,
As discussed on earlier occasions we will meet in Stuttgart on 24 and 25 April, where we join the CABERNET & REVIT 2nd international conference on managing urban land. The preliminary program of our meeting is as follows:

The preliminary program of our meeting is as follows:

1] Get together on monday evening 23 april, most probably in the wine cellar of the municipality’s winery , traditionally offered by the secretariat

2] Plenary meeting of COMMON FORUM 24 april in the Hotel Mercure Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt, see www.mercure.com
The agenda will be mainly devoted to the recent developments of the EU soil policy proposals. We will have a joint dinner after the meeting, which will hopefully be sponsored by our host country.

3] Workshop session at the CABERNET & REVIT conference on the afternoon of 25 april

a] BACKGROUND INFO:
URBAN SOILS AN EMERGING PROBLEM?
Many scenario studies for landuse in Europe predict an enormous expansion of urban areas in the next decades. Sealing of soils due to constructions and infrastructure has been identified as one of the most important threats to soil in the Thematic strategy for soil protection in the European union. There is a need for European member states to diminish sealing and to use land resources more efficiently. This can be done by redeveloping old industrial areas and other derelict land – the so-called brownfields- instead of using more greenfields for urban expansion. But brownfield redevelopment on its own can only slightly diminish the consumption of green land. The general trend is that urban land will increase. This leads to several important questions. First of all whether the large cities of tomorrow will be healthier than the cities of the past. Several projects are now studying on how to make urban environments more attractive and ecologically sound but they mainly address above ground aspects or are addressing specific regions . The importance of ecological functions and services of soils in urban systems is not yet fully recognized. In any case complete sealing of soils in large urban areas should be avoided, because the filter and buffer capacity and the biodegradation potential of urban soils may need to be exploited to the full in future.

Most knowledge about soils (and sediments) comes from natural soils or from agricultural soils. Urban soils are quite different and deserve special attention in view of the ecological services they can provide for a sustainable urban environment and their capacity to cope with contamination through biodegradation and long-term adsorption. This will contribute to ecological and human health in the urban environment and will help to prevent further spreading of contaminants into groundwater en surface waters. A dedicated research program on all ecological aspects of urban soil seems necessary, involving classification of urban soils, investigation of specific properties and their potential to perform ecological services.

Those involved in soil remediation and brownfield redevelopment already discovered the use of some these ecological services by noting that the soil itself has properties that contribute to risk reduction by biodegradation (monitored natural attenuation) or by acting as a barrier for the spread of contamination. It is necessary to expand this knowledge to achieve ecologically sound urban environments and also to answer the questions how properly designed urban systems can make up for the loss of ecological services of the green land that is consumed for urbanization.

b] PROGRAMME FOR THE SESSION ( Wednesday afternoon 25 april)

1-Dr. Joop Vegter ( COMMON FORUM) - Introductory keynote
2-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Burghardt (university of Essen) - Urban soil ecology, scientific perspectives I
3- Dr. Stefan Norra, (Institut für Mineralogie und Geochemie, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)), Urban soils , scientific perspectives II
4-Dipl-Ing. Martin Schamann ( UBA- Vienna). Lessons learned from the Interreg IIIB Alpine Space Project TUSEC-IP “Technique of Urban Soil Evaluation in City Regions – Implementation in Planning Procedures”.
Each presentation will be around 20 minutes with 5 minutes for questions Total speaking time 25 minutes per presentation
After the presentation 30 -45 minutes plenary discussions about possibilities for future research

3] HOTEL ACCOMMODATION AND CONFERENCE FEE
Thomas Ertel, one of the CABERNET REVIT conference organisers made a prebooking for rooms at the Mercure Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt Hotel (www.mercure.com) . The prerervation expires on 22 march, so book in time. Please note that ALL hotel reservations (23.-27.04.07) have to be booked by mailing Beate Deckert and NOT directly by the hotel. Please sign your reservation mail and the registration form for the conferene with “COMMON FORUM”. Those who can attend the CABERNET REVIT conference can register using the attached registration form(Registration CABERNET/REVIT). Participating at the CABERNET REVIT conference also involves a conference fee for one or more days. There seems to be a possibility for a discount for delegates from central and eastern European countries. Please consult the CABERNET REVIT conference website http://www.revit-cabernet.org/.

The full contact details of Beate Deckert are:
Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart
Amt für Stadtplanung und Stadterneuerung 61-8.1
Beate Deckert
Eberhardstraße 10
70173 Stuttgart
Telefon: 0711 216-3258
Fax: eFax 0711 216953258
E-Mail: Beate.Deckert

Best regards,
Joop