Journal articles on the topic 'Urbanization – Germany – Berlin'

In Germany, the population of large cities such as Berlin has increased rapidly due to industrialization and urbanization since modern times. The rental apartments for workers in large cities built during this period were called “rental barracks”(Mietskaserne), and the living conditions were very poor. As such, the demand for residential space in large cities continued to increase, and this resulted in an increase in demand for land, leading to a rapid rise in land prices. In the midst of this, American economist Henry George argued that the land value should be shared by society through the land value taxation, which collects land rent as a tax, and through this, the land problem could be solved. Influenced by Henry George's argument, Adolf Damashke appeared in Germany and the German Land Reformers Association (Bund Deutscher Bodenreformer) was formed. Due to their efforts, the Hereditary Land Rights Act was enacted in 1919, and Article 155 of the Weimar Constitution contained the content of the return of development profits. However, even if the constitution stipulates the return of development profits, the subsequent legislation was not implemented. This experience of Germany's past legislation can be used as a reference in Korea's current legislation related to land-rental housing for sale and the issue of stipulating the concept of land public in the Constitution.

In an era of urbanization, forests are a key component of the urban green infrastructure, providing multiple benefits to urban residents. While emerging forests on urban wasteland could increase the urban forest area, it is unclear how residents view such novel forest types. In a comparative self-administered online survey, we assessed attitudes and emotions of residents (n = 299) from the Berlin region, Germany, towards forest types that represent transformation stages from natural to novel forests: (1) natural remnants, (2) silvicultural plantings, (3) park forests and (4) novel wild forests in wastelands. Respondents expressed positive attitudes and emotions towards all forest types, including the novel wild forest. Ratings were most positive towards natural remnants and least positive towards the novel wild forest. The indicated prevalence of non-native trees (Ailanthus altissima, Robinia pseudoacacia) did not evoke negative responses. Women and younger people were more positive towards the novel wild forest compared to other respondents, and men were most positive towards natural remnants. Place attachment was positively related to the park forest. Results indicate support for a wide range of forest types, including novel wild forests and non-native tree species, which can be used to expand urban forest areas and enhance opportunities for nature experience in cities.

Programs of international cooperation between universities and scientific centres aim to promote not only the achievements in science and education but also contribute to intercultural understanding, as well as to development of efficient human resources, research and innovation. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of international cooperation in research and higher education between Russia and Germany by examining selected German-Russian projects and their outcomes. In particular, it highlights the experience of summer schools on “An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being”, an annual event started in 2014. It is organized under the umbrella of the German Academic Exchange Service (Program of Eastern Partnership), the International Office and Geography Department of Humboldt University of Berlin and the Faculty of Geography at Lomonosov Moscow State University in strong cooperation with other universities, research centres and NGOs from both countries. The summer school addresses relevant contemporary environmental issues of urbanization with special emphasis on ecosystem services, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions and their importance for well-being of the urban population. In this paper we present our experience from this project by providing the theoretical-methodological aspects of such joint educational and training programs and report outcomes, which emerged from them, thereby highlighting the difficulties and advantages and suggest lines of further development and cooperation. It also highlights how geographical perspective can provide new important and critical insights into the place-based approaches to ecosystem assessment and how it relates to the current trends in human-environmental research.

The presence of higher air temperatures in the city in comparison with the surrounding rural areas is an alarming phenomenon named the urban heat island (UHI). In the last decade, the scientific community demonstrated the severity of the phenomenon amplified by the combination of heat waves. In southern Italy, the UHI is becoming increasingly serious due to the presence of a warming climate, extensive urbanization and an aging population. In order to extensively investigate such phenomenon in several cities, recent research calibrated quantitative indexes to forecast the maximum UHI intensity in urban districts by exploiting multicriteria approaches and open-source data. This paper proposes different mitigation strategy to mitigate the Urban Heat Island Intensity in Bari. Firstly, the research evaluates the absolute max UHI intensity of the 17 urban districts of Bari (a city in southern Italy, Puglia) by exploiting the recent index-based approach IUHII. Secondly, a comparative evaluation of seven European cities (Bari, Alicante, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Milan and London) is achieved to point out the positives and negative aspects of the different urban districts. In total, the comparison required the analysis of 344 districts of 7 European cities: 17 districts in Bari (Italia); 9 districts in Alicante (Spain); 21 in Madrid (Spain); 80 in Paris (France); 96 in Berlin (Germany); 88 in Milan (Italy) and 33 in London (UK). Finally, the results emphasize some virtuous examples of UHII mitigation in the major European cities useful to draw inspiration for effective mitigation strategies suitable for the urban context of Bari.

Abstract. In cities around the world, urban green spaces provide a range of benefits and ecosystem services. However, recent years have shown how prolonged warm and dry periods can affect urban water resources and lead to water stress in vegetation in urban green spaces, even in temperate regions. Consequently, quantitative knowledge about ecohydrological partitioning in different types of urban green space is crucial for balancing sustainable water needs in cities during future challenges of increasing urbanization and climate warming. Using isotopic tracers in precipitation and soil water, along with conventional hydrometric measurements in a plot-scale study in Berlin, Germany, we investigated water partitioning under different generic types of urban vegetation (grassland, shrub and trees). This allowed for the assessment of urban vegetation effects on evapotranspiration, subsurface flow paths and storage during a prolonged drought period with episodic rainfall. Despite higher soil evaporation losses under urban grassland, higher interception and transpiration likely contributed to slower turnover of soil water and older groundwater recharge under urban trees. Shrub vegetation seemed to be most resilient to prolonged drought periods, with lower evapotranspiration losses. Our results contribute to a better understanding of ecohydrological partitioning under mixed urban vegetation communities and an evidence base for better adaptive management of urban water and irrigation strategies to sustainably meet the water demands of urban green spaces in the future.

Abstract. The acceleration of urbanization requires sustainable, adaptive management strategies for land and water use in cities. Although the effects of buildings and sealed surfaces on urban runoff generation and local climate are well known, much less is known about the role of water partitioning in urban green spaces. In particular, little is quantitatively known about how different vegetation types of urban green spaces (lawns, parks, woodland, etc.) regulate partitioning of precipitation into evaporation, transpiration and groundwater recharge and how this partitioning is affected by sealed surfaces. Here, we integrated field observations with advanced, isotope-based ecohydrological modelling at a plot-scale site in Berlin, Germany. Soil moisture and sap flow, together with stable isotopes in precipitation, soil water and groundwater recharge, were measured over the course of one growing season under three generic types of urban green space: trees, shrub and grass. Additionally, an eddy flux tower at the site continuously collected hydroclimate data. These data have been used as input and for calibration of the process-based ecohydrological model EcH2O-iso. The model tracks stable isotope ratios and water ages in various stores (e.g. soils and groundwater) and fluxes (evaporation, transpiration and recharge). Green water fluxes in evapotranspiration increased in the order shrub (381±1mm)<grass(434±21mm)<trees(489±30 mm), mainly driven by higher interception and transpiration. Similarly, ages of stored water and fluxes were generally older under trees than shrub or grass. The model also showed how the interface between sealed surfaces and green space creates edge effects in the form of “infiltration hotspots”. These can both enhance evapotranspiration and increase groundwater recharge. For example, in our model, transpiration from trees increased by ∼ 50 % when run-on from an adjacent sealed surface was present and led to groundwater recharge even during the growing season, which was not the case under trees without run-on. The results form an important basis for future upscaling studies by showing that vegetation management needs to be considered within sustainable water and land use planning in urban areas to build resilience in cities to climatic and other environmental change.

Abstract A modern urban lifestyle can be a risk factor for developing non-communicable diseases and mental health problems (Eckert S, Kohler S. Urbanization and health in developing countries: A systematic review. World Health Popul. 2014;15:7–20; Penkalla AM, Kohler S. Urbanicity and mental health in Europe: a systematic review. Eur J Ment Health 2014;9:163–77). Two non-commercial, state-funded web portals in the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg are attempting to support the residents in realizing a healthier lifestyle. The initial portal is named Präventionsatlas [Atlas of Prevention] and has existed since 2008. The second portal, called Stadtplan Gesundheitsförderung [Health Promotion Map], went online in 2014 and has become the successor to the former. Both web portals provide health information as well as searchable databases with locally available health promotion courses and projects. Since internet portals and knowledge management through Internet portals have become more and more frequently used as public health tools (see, e.g. Quinn E, Huckel-Schneider C, Campbell D, Seale H, Milat AJ. How can knowledge exchange portals assist in knowledge management for evidence-informed decision making in public health? BMC Public Health 2014;14:443), we share our lessons learned during the development and revision of the health portal www.praeventionsatlas.de in this article.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. Next to the main focus on SLR and its effects on resilience, the paper reviews main SLR associated impacts: Floods and inundation, salinization, shoreline change, and effects on mangroves and wetlands. The hazards of SLR related floods increase fastest in urban areas. This is related with both the increasing surface major cities are expected to occupy during the decades to come and the increasing coastal population. In particular Asia and its megacities in the southern part of the continent are increasingly at risk. The discussion points to complexity, inter-disciplinarity, and the related uncertainty, as core characteristics. An integrated combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures is currently considered as the most indicated way to resist SLR today and in the near future.References Aerts J.C.J.H., Hassan A., Savenije H.H.G., Khan M.F., 2000. Using GIS tools and rapid assessment techniques for determining salt intrusion: Stream a river basin management instrument. 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AbstractUnderstanding phenological responses of plants to changing temperatures is important because of multiple associated ecological consequences. Cities with their urban heat island can be used as laboratories to study phenological adaptation to climate change. However, previous phenology studies focused on trees and did not disentangle the role of micro-climate and urban structures.We studied reproductive phenology of dry grassland species in response to micro-climate and urbanization in Berlin, Germany. Phenological stages were recorded weekly at the individual plant level for five native grassland species across 30 dry grassland sites along an urbanization and temperature gradient. We estimated 50% onset probabilities for flowering and seed maturation of populations, and analysed variation in onset dates using regression models.Early flowering species significantly advanced flowering phenology with increasing mean air temperature but were little influenced by urbanization. By contrast, late-flowering species showed significant phenological responses to both air temperature and urbanization, possibly because micro-climate was most affected by urbanization in late summer. Surprisingly, not all grassland species showed an advanced phenology with increasing intensity of urbanization.This contradicts observed patterns for urban trees, indicating that phenological shifts in urban areas cannot be generalized from the observation of one growth form or taxonomic group. Growth form appears as a possible determinant of phenological responses. Results suggest that the phenology of dry grassland species may directly respond to the urban heat island, albeit with variable direction and magnitude. This has implications for ecosystem services, shifted allergy seasons, changes of biogeochemical cycles and potential ecological mismatches.

AbstractUsing dendroclimatological techniques this study investigates whether inner city tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies from eight tree species (ash, beech, fir, larch, lime, sessile and pedunculate oak, and pine) are suitable to examine the urban heat island of Berlin, Germany. Climate-growth relationships were analyzed for 18 sites along a gradient of increasing urbanization covering Berlin and surrounding rural areas. As a proxy for defining urban heat island intensities at each site, we applied urbanization parameters such as building fraction, impervious surfaces, and green areas. The response of TRW to monthly and seasonal air temperature, precipitation, aridity, and daily air-temperature ranges were used to identify climate-growth relationships. Trees from urban sites were found to be more sensitive to climate compared to trees in the surrounding hinterland. Ring width of the deciduous species, especially ash, beech, and oak, showed a high sensitivity to summer heat and drought at urban locations (summer signal), whereas conifer species were found suitable for the analysis of the urban heat island in late winter and early spring (winter signal).The summer and winter signals were strongest in tree-ring chronologies when the urban heat island intensities were based on an area of about 200 m to 3000 m centered over the tree locations, and thus reflect the urban climate at the scale of city quarters. For the summer signal, the sensitivity of deciduous tree species to climate increased with urbanity.These results indicate that urban trees can be used for climate response analyses and open new pathways to trace the evolution of urban climate change and more specifically the urban heat island, both in time and space.

AbstractPlant communities in urban gardens consist of cultivated species, including ornamentals and food crops, and wild growing species. Yet it remains unclear what significance urban gardens have for the plant diversity in cities and how the diversity of cultivated and wild plants depends on the level of urbanization. We sampled plants growing within 18 community gardens in Berlin, Germany to investigate the species diversity of cultivated and wild plants. We tested species diversity in relation to local and landscape-scale imperviousness as a measure of urbanity, and we investigated the relationship between cultivated and wild plant species within the gardens. We found that numbers of wild and cultivated plant species in gardens are high – especially of wild plant species – independent of landscape-scale imperviousness. This suggests that all community gardens, regardless of their urban contexts, can be important habitats for plant diversity along with their role in urban food provision. However, the number of all species was negatively predicted by local garden scale imperviousness, suggesting an opportunity to reduce imperviousness and create more habitats for plants at the garden scale. Finally, we found a positive relationship between the number of cultivated and wild growing species, which emphasizes that community gardens present a unique urban ecosystem where land sharing between cultivated and wild flora can transpire. As the urban agriculture movement is flourishing worldwide with gardens continuously and spontaneously arising and dissipating due to urban densification, such botanical investigations can support the argument that gardens are places for the reconciliation of plant conservation and food production.