Authors: Karolina Szymanowska-Dao, Gabriella Tjintjelaar, Yash Hajela & Fleur van den Berg.
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Artikel
Recycling rain in Amsterdam
With the changing climate, a balanced relationship between water resources available to us and the human consumption of these resources has become progressively challenging. The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly visible in the city of Amsterdam. With the city’s heavy downpours, as well as increasing events of heatwaves and periods of drought, the need for a widespread response to climate extremities has emerged. In collaboration with Waternet, we set out to prioritize the inclusion of private citizens in the effort to conserve water resources. The solutions presented int he infographic were developed on two crucial factors – efficiency of results and feasibility in implementation. Encouraging homeowners to adopt some of these ideas, we believe that their contribution in the long run will go a long way in the fight against climate change.
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Artikel
How can the electrification of boating be feasible?
The city of Amsterdam aims to improve air quality and one of their measurements is to electrify recreational boats by 2025. To find how the transition is perceived we based our research on ‘How does the Amsterdam boating community perceive the feasibility of the transition from fossil-fuelled recreational boats to electric boats by 2025?' Our team TableTurners, was curious on the different viewpoints of the various people involved in the potential transition of boating in the center of Amsterdam. Therefore, we started to research about the possible interventions which we representated in our infographic. It introduces the progress of transition to make people's boating lifestyle more sustainable for example by outlining technological intervention to enable faster charging hours on the electric batteries. Moreover, meauring boating owners behaviour towards the transition if it is implemented.
Authors: Daan Boven, Akanksha Chatterjee, Angeline Palumbo & Angélica Saglimbeni Salas.
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Artikel
Sustainable lifestyle in Gaasperdam
The issue of climate change can be defined as a “wicked problem”. It means that it is hardly possible to address the problem on a global scale because of its wide range of causes and impacts.To have a better understanding of the complexities of the issue, dividing it into smaller subproblems can be helpful. Therefore, looking at the issue from a local perspective can assist policy makers to come up with possible interventions. Groene Hub decided to act on a local scale and involve the community of Gaasperdam in switching to sustainable energy consumption. To facilitate this change, the organisation carried out an intervention, handing out thirty free energy displays to Gaasperdam’s households. Our project aims to research the effectiveness of these devices and investigate further opportunities to engage the local community of Gaasperdam to adopt a sustainable lifestyle in regard to energy consumption.
Authors: Martyna Piskorz & Matas Jurkevičius
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Artikel
Rainproof Amsterdam - Combating climate change one roof at a time!
This infographic contains the findings of the Rainproof challenge given to four Computational Social Science students at the University of Amsterdam. Guided by Waternet and their RESILIO project, the infographic presents a solution for combating climate change and excessive flooding. The findings of this project suggest the implementation of blue (water features), green (plants), and yellow (solar options) roofs as climate-adaptive building solutions. While these roofs are useful for the prevention of flooding, they also increase biodiversity and property value. As means of incentivizing public and private property owners to install these roofs, it is suggested to offer the opportunity to customize the roofs by combining multiple blue, green, and yellow features.
Auteurs: Quanpu Xiao, Maria Baba, Alyssa Telescu & Felix Toutant
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Artikel
The University’s Guide to Local Food
Identifying food production as one of the major contributors to climate change, our project aimed to explore how we could improve the food system in place. Initially, our approach was to consider that sourcing food locally may be more environmentally friendly, but upon further research we found that a local food system is not always synonymous with increased sustainability. We formed our research question to be “How is the local approach to sustainability at the UvA perceived by food system stakeholders?” By focusing on the consumer end, we identified a lack of available information on the sustainability of local food, convenience, and accessibility to be the most influential problems. To tackle these problems, we suggest increasing the accessibility and convenience of sustainable local food. To identify local food that is also sustainable, transparency in the food system of Amsterdam is required. For this, we suggest a monetary incentive for farmers to collect and share data on their produce and make the data available to consumers enabling them to make more informed and sustainable food choices.
Auteurs: Alexia Chifor, Carine Reijmers, Elpiniki Thrasyvoulou, Sahir Dhanani Enarth & Tom Heitland.
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Artikel
How to improve water quality and biodiversity in Amsterdam's canals
This research project was conducted to help resolve a key issue presented by the Municipality of Amsterdam. Currently, the canals of Amsterdam centrum do not meet the expectations of the European Water Framework Directive. The city is tasked with raising water quality, which includes supporting biodiversity. Amsterdam is not alone in this predicament. Many cities grapple with climate change issues and are considering sustainable nature-based solutions to enhance the quality of life in their communities. Based on the semi-structured interviews conducted with water quality experts and private water technology companies, we found that pollution and boat traffic are the main drivers of water degradation in the city centre. From pollution, sewage overflows are particularly concerning. These factors can be remediated through several intervention methods. This infographic was created to display the different solutions and how impactful their implementation could be on the water quality.
Auteurs: Alexis Drevetzki, Alicja Dorobis & Dmitry Golovchits.