Environmental Quality and Sustainability

Working to understand, protect, and remediate the environment and ecosystems to ensure long-term sustainability.

Survey on Practical Examples of Urban Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA)

The Friends of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (FEBA) Urban EbA Working Group has developed this survey to identify practical examples of Urban EbA planning and implementation. The Working Group, co-chaired by IUCN and PlanAdapt, brings together researchers and practitioners from the fields of urban development, EbA and Green-Grey Infrastructure to share successes and failures to help learn and improve future urban EbA initiatives in the Global South and Global North. Your participation in this survey contributes to the knowledge base of the growing area – in theory and practice – of Urban EbA. Follow this link to take the survey.

Sourced from: Friends of EbA

Urban Gardens Growing Strong Amid COVID Pandemic

Mike Levenston stands over a half-harvested stalk of kale, eyeing the autumnal remnants slowly disintegrating into the soil. It’s a familiar scene for Levenston, an urban gardener who has been growing food and community in the garden he founded, dubbed City Farmer, for more than 40 years.

At the time, it was almost unheard of to grow food in cities, and gardens weren’t given much thought in city planning efforts. No longer: Urban gardens are thriving worldwide, especially this year as pandemic-bound city dwellers have sought sustenance in gardens, parks, and other green spaces.

“I’m there seven days a week. It’s the best place for my family to be in COVID times because it’s a garden with lots of space,” Levenston said. “We’re busier than ever because of the backyard garden craze. We sell city compost bins (and) people are picking them up every day, and (there) are a lot of new gardens (in the city).”

Canadians like their gardens, especially in 2020. A report released earlier this month by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab found that roughly 51% of Canadians grow at least one variety of fruit or vegetable at home. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Morning Ag Clips

Leading Edge Dialog Series: Urban Green Infrastructure Workshop

Every Leading Edge Dialogue (LED) held at the 2019 National Urban Extension explored innovative shifts in Extension’s vision of its future and its role in the communities it serves. While this workshop was not an official LED, the discussions that took place regarding Extension’s role (or future) in urban green infrastructure (UGI) as a programming area is a practical example of many of the points raised in the LEDs held during the conference. Follow this link to read the paper.

Sourced from: Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research

10th Annual Ohio Food Policy Summit + Ohio Local Food Council Workshop

Join the Ohio Food Policy Network (OFPN) and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs for the 10th Annual Ohio Food Policy Summit and Ohio Local Food Council Workshop, which is being held virtually this November. 

Ohio Food Policy Summit
Monday, November 16, 1-4 p.m. E.T.

• Keynote speaker Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It
• Presentation of the OFPN draft policy framework and the opportunity to interact with the framework, setting the course of the OFPN policy agenda
• Presentation of the OFPN Food Hero award

Ohio Local Food Council Workshop
Tuesday, November 17, 4-6 p.m. E.T.

• This interactive workshop will prepare local food policy councils to operationalize their policy agendas
• Topics addressed include how to work within the law, steps in campaign building and tools to move forward

Follow this link to register.
Follow this link to join the Ohio Food Policy Network

 

Sourced from OFPN

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Series

Many American communities have realized considerable financial and water quality gains by incorporating green infrastructure strategies for reducing and managing stormwater. The same green infrastructure that helps manage urban stormwater and improves water quality provides a wealth of other benefits to our communities including reducing urban heat island effects, providing evaporative cooling and shade, improve air quality by removing pollutants, human health benefits, and tangible economic benefits such as increase property values and green jobs.

Join Penn State Extension for this Green Storwmater Infrastructure Webinar Series to learn how research and work across Pennsylvania are providing cost effective approaches to managing stormwater. Explore how to properly prepare soils, select appropriate vegetation, plant, and maintain green stormwater infrastructure systems. The series begins this month. Follow this link to learn more.

To learn about Ohio State’s Stormwater Management Efforts, you can contact Dr. Ryan Winston, or  follow this link.

Webinar: Green Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Design, and the Urban Heat Island

Jean-Michel Guldmann
Department of City and Regional Planning

Green Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Design, and the Urban Heat Island: Mitigation Strategies in the Era of Climate Change

October 7, 2020  *  4-5 p.m.
CarmenZoom: link to be distributed via email to registered participants

Nested within the global warming problem, the urban heat island (UHI) is a specifically local warming problem that is becoming critical in most metropolitan areas of the world. Columbus and Beijing will be used as a case study settings of the phenomena. He will illustrate how expanding greenery at both ground level and on building roofs can reduce temperatures and how the UHI varies across seasons including the dual beneficial role of vegetation, reducing temperatures in the summer, but increasing them in winter.

The Ohio State University Emeritus Academy Lecture Series

Registration Link

Oh, Deer: How to Keep Your Yard from Becoming a Buffet

The Ohio Department of Natural Resource Division of Wildlife is accustomed to fielding complaints about nuisance deer, especially in urban areas. With the coronavirus pandemic keeping folks at home, more people are planting gardens for the first time. Someone new to the game might not know how to handle a hungry four-legged visitor, said Geoff Westerfield, a wildlife biologist with ODNR.  Stark County’s deer population tends to be stable in rural areas, such as Minerva, and growing in more urban areas. In rural areas, ODNR can adjust hunting regulations to help keep populations in check. In cities, that’s not typically an option, and without control, populations will grow, he said. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Canton Repository

More Than a Token: Urban Agriculture Has Much to Offer Close to Home

Jodi Kushins, of Over the Fence Urban Farm, knows she doesn’t grow a lot compared to some farms. She feeds about 20 households through her CSA program, with 2,500 square feet in her yard and her neighbor’s yard. “It’s like a drop in the bucket,” she said. “Seeing a semi truck full of produce and then thinking about the very, very tiny amount of food I’m able to produce in my yard definitely gives me pause.”

Kushin’s farm is one of more than 30 in Columbus, up from about five in 2014. Urban agriculture is driven by desires for food security and fresh foods, vacant land in post-industrial areas and interest in connecting with farmers, said Mike Hogan,  Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Franklin County. “We know we’re not gonna feed the world with urban agriculture,” Hogan said. But Hogan believes that urban agriculture needs to be part of the city food systems. In Cleveland, about 80% of the vacant land could provide 20% of all the produce needed. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Farm and Dairy