Community Event - Café Scientifique

Community Event - Café Scientifique

Door opens at 18h30 - Last drinks round at 18h45 - the venue doesn't serve food

Invited Speaker - Dr. Lauren Cook

Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), such as trees, green roofs, bioretention basins, or constructed wetlands, has been researched for decades, yet the holistic and multifunctional implementation of BGI in the built environment remains elusive. BGI are often implemented for a single purpose, such as stormwater management or biodiversity conservation, with the remaining ecosystem services (or objectives) assumed to passively occur. In turn, synergies within BGI elements and implementation efforts are overlooked. From the literature, Dr. Cook and her team compiled a suite of “objectives” that can be intentionally and holistically considered in the planning and design process, as well as, a list of 15 overarching types of BGI elements that should be considered across these objectives. Using a systematic literature review for each BGI element and objective, they found glaring gaps. Research related to BGI elements is consistently siloed among objectives and vice versa. To address this, continued coordination and holistic thinking is needed; however, they caution that evaluating too many options before implementation may impede decision-making and lead to a paradox of choice. This talk will discuss solutions and challenges on how to move forward to implement multifunctional BGI in cities.

Lauren Cook is a tenure-track group leader in the Department of Urban Water Management at Eawag and has a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA). She also has a Master’s in Energy and Economics from the IFP School (Paris, France). Her research focuses on the design of blue-green infrastructure for multifuctionality and climate resilience.