Hoe mensen zich tot natuur verhouden verandert. Steeds meer voelen mensen zich onlosmakelijk met de natuur verbonden. Deze visie vormt het uitgangspunt van de huidige Natuurverkenning.

Relevant soil quality indicators for agricultural applications have been available for some time, but not yet for specific applications within the urban environment. In this report, relevant indicators are selected for assessing soil quality within the Amsterdam metropolitan region for the application ‘urban agriculture’ and ‘urban green’ . Within each of these applications, a further sub- selection of relevant indicators is made. On the basis of a case study in the ‘Fruittuinen van West’ -area in Amsterdam, an example for the use of soil quality indicators is being developed for the application ‘urban agriculture'.

The aim of this study is to determine the contribution of student interventions to urban greening processes. In two Dutch cities action research was conducted, including reflexive interviews a year after the first intervention, to assess factors causing change in the socio-ecological system. Results show that students and network actors were mutually learning, causing the empowerment of actors in that network by adding contextualized knowledge, enlarging the social network, expanding the amount of interactions in the socio-ecological system and speeding up the process. Students brought unique qualities to the process: time, access to stakeholders who tend to distrust the municipality and a certain open-mindedness. Their mere presence made a difference and started a process of change. However, university staff needed to keep the focus on long-term effects and empowerment, because students did not oversee that. After a year, many new green elements had been developed or were in the planning phase. In Enschede, the municipality districtmanagers were part of the learning network, which made it easier to cause changes in the main ecological network. In Haarlem however, no change took place in the main ecological network managed by the municipality, because no political empowerment of the civil society group had developed yet.

Making our cities more sustainable includes the need to make the transition a just one. This paper focuses on distributive justice with regard to greenspace in cities. Urbanisation and densification will likely result in less greenspace in urban residential areas, especially in deprived neighbourhoods. This is a threat to the aim of healthy and liveable cities, as greenspace has positive effects on human health and well-being. In this study, we show that in The Netherlands, neighbourhoods with a low socioeconomic status already tend to have a lower presence and quality of greenspace than those with a high socioeconomic status. This outcome is independent of the greenness metric that was used. However, depending on the precise greenness metric, socioeconomic differences in greenness between neighbourhoods are smaller in highly urban municipalities than in less urban municipalities, rather than larger. The paper discusses the implications of these outcomes for policy and planning regarding urban greenspace.

The Steenbreek program is a private Dutch program which aims to involve citizens, municipalities and other stakeholders in replacing pavement with vegetation in private gardens. The Dutch approach is characterized by minimal governmental incentives or policy, which leaves a niche for private initiatives like Steenbreek, that mainly work on behavioural change. The aim of this paper is to build a model based on theory that can be used to improve and better evaluate depaving actions that are based on behavioural change. We tested this garden greening behaviour model in the Steenbreek program. The main result is that the model provides an understanding of the ‘how and why’ of the Steenbreek initiatives. Based on this we are able to provide recommendations for the improvement of future initiatives. Steenbreek covers a wide range of projects that together, in very different ways, take into account elements of the theoretical framework; either more on information factors, or on supporting factors, sometimes taking all elements together in a single action. This focus is sometimes understandable when just one element is needed (e.g., support), sometimes more elements could be taken into account to be more effective. If a certain element of the framework is lacking, the change of behaviour will not (or will only partly) take place. The model also gives insight into a more specific approach aimed at the people most susceptible to changing their behaviour, which would make actions more effective.

The present research offers an exploration into the biophilic approach and the role of its agents in urban planning in questions of building a green, resilient urban environment. Biophilia, the innate need of humans to connect with nature, coined by Edgar O. Wilson in 1984, is a concept that has been used in urban governance through institutions, agents’ behaviours, activities and systems to make the environment nature-inclusive. Therefore, it leads to green, resilient environments and to making cities more sustainable. Due to an increasing population, space within and around cities keeps on being urbanised, replacing natural land cover with concrete surfaces. These changes to land use influence and stress the environment, its components, and consequently impact the overall resilience of the space. To understand the interactions and address the adverse impacts these changes might have, it is necessary to identify and define the environment’s components: the institutions, systems, and agents. This paper exemplifies the biophilic approach through a case study in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom and its biophilic agents. Using the categorisation of agents, the data obtained through in-situ interviews with local professionals provided details on the agent fabric and their dynamics with the other two environments’ components within the climate resilience framework. The qualitative analysis demonstrates the ways biophilic agents act upon and interact within the environment in the realm of urban planning and influence building a climate-resilient city. Their activities range from small-scale community projects for improving their neighbourhood to public administration programs focusing on regenerating and regreening the city. From individuals advocating for and educating on biophilic approach, to private organisations challenging the business-as-usual regulations, it appeared that in Birmingham the biophilic approach has found its representatives in every agent category. Overall, the activities they perform in the environment define their role in building resilience. Nonetheless, the role of biophilic agents appears to be one of the major challengers to the urban design’s status quo and the business-as-usual of urban governance. Researching the environment, focused on agents and their behaviour and activities based on nature as inspiration in addressing climate change on a city level, is an opposite approach to searching and addressing the negative impacts of human activity on the environment. This focus can provide visibility of the local human activities that enhance resilience, while these are becoming a valuable input to city governance and planning, with the potential of scaling it up to other cities and on to regional, national, and global levels.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for using “convivial greenstreets” (CG) as a resource for climate adaptation. When applied consistently, CG can become an emerging green practice with a positive impact on urban adaptation to climate change: CG may provide localized climate amelioration in ways that support social engagement outdoors. However, as spontaneous phenomena, CG should neither become an academic nor an aesthetic prescriptive tool. How then can CG be used as an active resource for urban adaptation to climate change while avoiding these two potential pitfalls? To explore this question, we present the concept of CG and the ways it can be situated in theoretical urbanism and analogous urban morphologies. We profile the CG inventory corpus and conceptualization that has taken place to date and expand them through a climate-responsive urban design lens. We then discuss how CG and climate-responsive urban design can be brought together while preventing the academization and aestheticizing of the former. This discussion is illustrated with a group of visualizations. We conclude by submitting that climate-responsive urban design and extensive and robust CG practices can co-operate to promote more resilient communities and urban climates. Finally, the conceptual framework herein sets an agenda for future research.

Natural areas are now known to be important resources for the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers, through, for example, the opportunities they provide for cognitive and emotional restoration. However, urban populations have also been found not to engage with these spaces and to display some form of biophobia which may hinder them from perceiving any of these benefits. This concept of biophobia is thought to entail both our innate physiological responses to the perceived danger from non-human threats such as spiders and snakes and our cultural attachment to material comfort. The word is often used with derogatory connotations, even if it is part of an evolutionary mechanism honed over thousands of years to keep humans alive. This review presents the current state of knowledge on urban biophobia as well as evidence of instances in which built and mixed urban environments were found to be more restorative than natural ones for the urban population, in order to assess any connection within the two. A series of recommendations for further research but also for the practical implementation of natural areas in cities capable of attracting a wide variety of people regardless of their fears or preferences are also formulated. Only by investigating the psychological and physiological responses of urban dwellers to their daily environments can we hope to design interventions which will remain relevant for the modern world. View Full-Text

Leven in harmonie met de natuur betekent meer biodiversiteit, meer zuurstof en minder stikstof en fijnstof. Dit resulteert in minder verdroging en een koelere stad in de zomer. Dat is vervolgens weer goed voor vermindering van het energieverbruik. Helaas komen lange periodes van droogte steeds vaker voor. Ook blijkt dat binnensteden en bedrijventerreinen soms wel bijna 10 graden warmer zijn dan het buitengebied. Dat gaat ten koste van de leefbaarheid. We zullen dus een balans moeten zoeken!

Green cities and community gardens can provide a way for young generations to connect with nature and understand its importance. Lenneke Vaandrager, associate professor Health & Society, researches how nature affects our health and wellbeing. She shows the initiative of Van Tuin tot Bord in Nijmegen, one of the community projects that we monitor.

If the Netherlands were to adopt a nature-inclusive planning regime this could make a significant contribution towards resolving the current challenges facing Dutch society. This is the outcome of the analysis of the Nature- Inclusive scenario, one of the three scenarios in the National Nature Outlook 2050. In this scenario there is an increase in the provision of multiple ecosystem services that make important contributions to meeting the major challenges facing society in the areas of climate, biodiversity, water quality and the quality of the human environment. It is the first time that the effects of a nature-inclusive future have been quantified in this way for the Netherlands. But even a far-reaching nature-inclusive spatial development of the Netherlands would still leave issues to be resolved and additional measures would be needed to fully overcome these societal challenges. Moreover, nature-inclusive spatial development would involve major changes not only in spatial planning and design, but also in people’s behaviour.

Het KNMI rapporteert hoe het klimaat in Nederland steeds sneller verandert. De nieuwste inzichten over het veranderende Nederlandse klimaat zijn vandaag gepubliceerd in het KNMI Klimaatsignaal’21. Het is gebaseerd op het laatste IPCC-rapport - dat in augustus 2021 is verschenen - en eigen onderzoek van het KNMI. Een stijgende zeespiegel, een toename van droge lentes en zomers en meer extreme zomerse buien vormen de klimaatrisico’s voor Nederland. Met dit rapport wordt de urgentie van de zich snel voltrekkende klimaatverandering duidelijk.

Europe has a rich diversity of landscapes because of differences in biophysical conditions, land use practices and cultures. Immigration brings new people from other cultures to the continent, with different preferences regarding the landscape they live in. Because of these and other differences cultural minorities may lack access to landscape use and planning. We explore this problem and discuss what the case of cultural minorities in the Netherlands can tell us about inclusion of vulnerable groups in landscape use and planning.

"Restoring nature on land and sea would have huge benefits for people’s health and well-being and help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises." This publication by WWF brings this to life through a collection of real-world examples. WWF’s publication goes beyond biodiversity and climate with a focus on local people, from the flourishing ecotourism in Romania to local cooperation with fishers in France, all of the stories clearly demonstrate that nature restoration benefits people and the planet alike.

Hoe zien Nederlandse steden er over honderd jaar uit? Een team van onderzoekers en landschapsarchitecten van Wageningen University & Research (WUR) kwam onlangs met een verkenning van de mogelijkheden in ‘De Stad van 2120: natuurlijk!’ De stad Arnhem dient als voorbeeld. WUR-wetenschappers Wim Timmermans, kartrekker van het project en onderzoeker klimaatadaptatie, en Sanda Lenzholzer, hoogleraar landschapsarchitectuur, geven samen een toelichting op de schets. En: roepen de waterschappen op meer sturing te geven aan de ruimtelijke opgaven.

Tiny Forest bestaat dit jaar vijf jaar en dat vierden ze met een speciaal webinar. Live vanuit studio de KAS in Woerden zondt IVN Natuureducatie op 1 april 2021 het webinar ‘Tiny Forest: klein bos, groot avontuur’ uit. Wil jij meer weten over Tiny Forest en het onderzoek dat er wordt gedaan? Kijk dan het hele webinar of een programmaonderdeel terug! Het webinar bestond uit de onderdelen: Vijf jaar Tiny Forest door Daan Bleichrodt / Twee fragmenten worden voorgelezen uit het boek 'Tiny Forest: klein bos, groot avontuur’ door schrijvers Daan Bleichrodt en Maarten Bruns / Tiny Forest onderzoek: wat zijn de effecten op biodiversiteit, CO2 opslag, hittestress en waterberging? door Fabrice Ottburg / Vraag en antwoord: Tiny Forest experts Daan Bleichrodt, Fabrice Ottburg, Christine Wortmann en Marijke Zoetelief geven antwoord op vragen van deelnemers.

Onderzoek naar welke groene maatregelen het meest efficiënt zijn en het meeste effect hebben op de verbetering van de luchtkwaliteit in steden

Powerpointpresentatie over de toepassing en het effect van groen op lucht- en waterkwaliteit bij de bron

Vegetatie als maatregel voor verbetering van de luchtkwaliteit langs snelwegen is een sympathieke en maatschappelijk geaccepteerde maatregel. De effectiviteit van de maatregel is onderzocht in het kader van het Innovatieprogramma Luchtkwaliteit (IPL), een samenwerking van de ministeries van VROM en V&W. Dit rapport vat de resultaten van een 17-tal rapporten samen die (mede) in dit kader zijn opgesteld. De rapporten betreffen literuuronderzoeken; opzet, uitvoer en resultaten van proefmetingen; en de uitkomsten van modellering. Alle onderzoeken wijzen in de richting van een licht positief effect van vegetatie op de luchtkwaliteit op grotere afstand van de weg, ruwweg vanaf 50 meter van de rand van de weg, maar de onderzoeken hebben dit effect niet statistisch significant kunnen aantonen. Op kleinere afstand is doorgaans sprake van een verslechtering van de luchtkwaliteit. Vanaf een afstand groter dan 100 meter van de wegrand wordt het effect van vegetatie weer veel kleiner. De invloed van naaldbomen blijkt sterker dan die van loofbomen. Loofbomen hebben ook als nadeel dat in de winter de hoeveelheid blad sterk afneemt en de porositeit toeneemt, hetgeen de positieve effecten op luchtkwaliteit doet afnemen.

Verkennend onderzoek in opdracht van de branchevereniging voor ondernemers in het groen, VHG om de meerwaarde van groen meer onder de aandacht te brengen van beleidsmakers en burgers