SearchUrban trees and forests contribute to making cities socio-economically and environmentally more sustainable. This is a transdisciplinary field where the two platforms SLU Urban Futures and Future Forests meet and collaborate to identify knowledge gaps and new research…
Room4water
Room4water aims to link spatial planning, risk management and climate adaptation with nature conservation through cross-sectoral and cross-boundary cooperation within a case study watershed, with the overall aim of working towards a shared vision on creating space of…
Microforests make the city greener
[Article in Swedish] Temat ”Mer skog i staden” rullar vidare på SLU Tankesmedjan Movium och den 25 oktober är det dags för ett webbinarium om mikroskogar tillsammans med Henrik Sjöman, forskare på SLU.
SLU joins the New European Bauhaus initiative
Living spaces that are beautiful, sustainable and inclusive. Those are ambitions of the EU initiative New European Bauhaus. In August 2023, SLU became an official partner in the New European Bauhaus to further strengthen the work on the…
Can microforests save the cities?
[Artickle in Swedish] De är små, snabbväxande och billiga och dyker upp över hela världen. De ökar den biologisk mångfalden och kan hjälpa mot värmeböljor och översvämningar. Kan mikroskogarna bli räddningen för städerna?
NORDGREEN – Smart Planning for Healthy and Green Nordic Cities
How are human wellbeing and access to green spaces integrated into city planning? The aim of NORDGREEN is to support integrated planning efforts for urban sustainability by developing and implementing smart planning and management solutions for well-designed, high-quality…
GreenME – Advancing Greencare in Europe
An integrated multi-scalar approach for the expansion of Nature-Based Therapies to improve mental health equity. Swedish chapter: Marcus Hedblom, Anna María Pálsdóttir, Helena Nordh, Anna Åshage
RULES AND TOOLS – safeguarding neighbouring green space for human health and well-being
In times of urbanization and densification, rules and tools are used to design residential areas that preserve and develop health-promoting outdoor environments.But how do rules safeguard the quality of the outdoor environment?
Landpaths – Urban landscapes
The research focuses on ways to deliver biodiversity, climate change and human health goals in the urban context, making recommendations for the governance and management of green spaces in ways that highlight multifunctionality.
Alnarp’s Agroecology Farm
A non for profit running a farm next to SLU Alnarp's campus. Providing fresh organic vegetables and flowers grown with organic and agroecological methods.
Urban Healthscapes and Urban Forestscapes – Granted seed funding calls 2023
In the spring of 2023 SLU Urban Futures issued two seed funding calls; one from the hub in Umeå focusing on Urban Forestscapes and one from the hub in Alnarp focusing on Urban Healthscapes. Six applications were granted…
Creating cool islands in the city – how microclimates and urban greenery can reduce the dangers of heat
Extreme urban heat – a serious threat in cities and a contemporary health hazard
Vattnet svämmar över – vad händer?
(Article in Swedish.) Eftersom de största riskerna som är förknippade med översvämningar finns i städerna är det viktigt med åtgärder som minskar översvämningarna där.
What are urban forestscapes?
On the 7-8th of June 2023, SLU Urban Futures brought together researchers and practitioners for the third conference in the series 'Getting our cities Right'. The theme was 'From Green Infrastructure to Urban Forestscapes'. Six keynote spakers gave…
How do we get our cities right – June 2023
Six keynote speakers at the conference 'Getting our Cities Right #3 in June 2023, answer the question: From your perspective and background, what are the main ways to get our cities right?
Getting our Cities Right #3 – From Green Infrastructure to Urban Forestscapes
Read about Getting our Cities Right #3 - Umeå
Therapeutic landscapes beyond the lush season: extending the well-being benefits of urban green and blue spaces through outdoor leisure
This project examines possibilities for planning and use of nearby green/blue spaces beyond the ‘lush season’, to extend access to their benefits as ‘therapeutic landscapes’ throughout the year.
Urban wildlife management
(Fact sheet in Swedish) Många viltarter har ökat under de senaste hundra åren. Vilt i urbana miljöer erbjuder värdefulla ekosystemtjänster men medför också problem. Movium Fakta #6, skrivet av Fredrik Widemo, handlar om samspelet mellan djur och människor.
OUT-FIT: Health-promoting outdoor environment in special housing for the elderly
(Article in Swedish) Det finns inga regler som bestämmer hur tillgången till utevistelse och naturupplevelser ska ske för äldre personer som bor på särskilda boenden i Sverige. Göteborgs universitet, Chalmers och SLU driver ett gemensamt forskningsprojekt som bland…
Getting our Cities Right #2 – From Living Laboratories to urban healthscapes
In October 2022 the second conference of SLU Urban Futures’ series Getting Our Cities Right took place at SLU Campus Alnarp. The focus was on Living Laboratories as new formats for research, teaching, and societal interaction. Read the…
ARWIDSSON TALKS – Vardagsnatur
(Podcast in Swedish) Matthias Qviström, professor i Landskapsarkitektur vid SLU, belyser samspelet mellan den fysiska planeringen och landskapets utveckling i podcasten Arwidsson Talks. Samspelet (och konflikterna mellan) mellan stad och land, inte minst i stadsnära landskap, har varit…
Living labs – Gröna Fakta 6/2022
(Article in Swedish) 'Living labs, levande laboratorier, kan vara ett förhållningssätt och en arena för samproduktion av kunskap och utforskning i realtid och i direkt koppling med omgivningen. Med exempel från olika platser lyfts i detta Gröna Fakta…
Arguments for greener cities
(Research compilation in Swedish) Vilka fördelar har gröna städer? Argumenten för gröna städer är överväldigande för den som följer aktuell forskning. Växter i stadsmiljöer har positiva effekter för invånarnas hälsa, klimatet, den biologiska mångfalden, den sociala sammanhållningen och…
How animals are affected by living in the city
(News item and video in Swedish) För några år sedan tog sig gråsälar via strömmen in i centrala Norrköping. Rovfåglar och ugglor häckar på höga byggnader i flera städer, och bävrar verkar trivas mitt i Norrköping. Lever vilda…
Live pod: Learning about research on landscapes for a sustainable society
(Link to Spotify) How can we research and how do we research, in SLU Landscape, with the objective of creating a more socially sustainable and health-promoting society? Human Land podcast, together with researchers from SLU Landscape, will explore…
The time is ripe for a Living Lab Campus
Campus Alnarp has a long tradition of using the outdoors for testbeds, trial areas and landscape laboratories. In the autumn of 2022 a new doctoral project in Alnarp will explore the possibilities of using the landscapes of the…
Ur STAD #36: Från hemmet
Article in Swedish from Tidskriften STAD #36. Henrietta Palmer, architect and researcher at the University of Gothenburg, as well as senior advisor at SLU, writes about urban change processes.
Living Lab SLU Landscape – collaboration-capacity building
This initiative, running since 2015, focuses on inter-disciplinary engagements within a university context, with the aim of developing tools for synthetically bridging geographically isolated, and historically separate academic research domains.
Alnarp’s Living Lab Landscape
Alnarp can be seen as an agricultural and forest island in the highly urbanized region of Malmö, in the south of Sweden. The dynamic campus landscape constitutes a valuable resource for transdisciplinary research, teaching and collaboration.
SLU Urban Futures meets Michel Desvigne
Alnarp Campus is situated in the increasingly urbanized Öresund region. With its vast park and outdoor areas it can develop into a unique venue for students, scientists and citizens into a Green Living Laboratory for sustainable development.
Biogas yield from meadow grass in urban landscapes
Video in Swedish: Ett forskningsprojekt visar potentialen i att skapa biogas från insamlat klippt gräs i staden.
What are urban forests?
Urban forests are in increasing focus these days as contributors to healthier, more resilient, and more attractive cities. But what do we mean with ‘urban forests’? On the 29th of September 2021, two research platforms at SLU invited…
The landscape architect program 50 years
(Video in Swedish) The landscape architect program at SLU celebrates 50 years in 2021. A short film was created where we get to hear some of those who were involved in building up the landscape architect education in…
Urban open space governance and management
An anthology about the development and management of the urban landscape, suitable as course literature as well as for anyone interested in urban open space and sustainable development.
Society and Landscape Research School
The research school aims at creating an arena based on the humanities and social science perspectives that can critically engage with interdisciplinary issues pertaining to issues that are central to society.
Children’s encounters with animals in everyday life
(Article and report in Swedish) Hur möter barn och ungdomar djur i vardagslivet? Och hur kan vi ta hänsyn till deras behov av att möta och umgås med djur? I en rapport från framtidsplattformen SLU Future One Health…
New guest professor connects urban and rural through food and culture
(Article in Swedish) Håkan Jönsson, är gästprofessor på Institutionen för människa och samhälle. Med bakgrund som kock och med stor kärlek till mat, landsbygd och landskap hoppas han kunna koppla ihop för människan livsviktiga områden i sin nya…
Campus Lab Landscapes: Creating dialogue between Alnarp, Uppsala, and Umeå
During the SLU Landscape Days 2021, SLU Urban Futures hosted an interactive workshop to open a dialogue on conceptualizing and creating living labs on university campuses. Read more about the event and the definitions of living labs.
Movium Fakta: Urban green spaces
(Article in Swedish) Vilken roll spelar våra urbana grönområden för vår hälsa? Hur stora måste de vara och hur nära där vi bor? Resultaten presenteras i ett faktablad av Patrik Grahn & Jonathan Stoltz. Kan köpas i Moviums…
Soundscape Perceptions and Preferences for Different Groups of Users in Urban Recreational Forest Parks
Although the soundscape in cities is receiving increased attention in urban planning, there is still a lack of knowledge of how personal factors influence the perception of and preference for soundscapes. This study from Xi’an, China, explores the…
The power of design and landscape perspectives
Landscape architecture, in research and practice, is a field with potential to greatly influence and strengthen urban transformations and sustainable development. We met with Gunilla Lindholm, associate professor in Landscape Architecture at SLU, to hear more about this…
Food & Landscape
How is the landscape affected by what we eat? In the masterprogram Food and Landscape you can learn more about how you can help shaping the food landscape of the future. (Select English subtitle under settings.)
Food & Cities
Food & Cities is a collaboration between SLU Future Food and SLU Urban Futures. The project communicates SLU’s existing research and aims to create new encounters between different disciplines and sectors.
Urban Forum – Practice meets Academia
Urban Forum is a collaboration between SLU Urban Futures and Urban Arena at Lund University. An Urban forum is a place where practice meets academia, for practitioners and practice-oriented researchers to exhibit their work, finished or in progress,…
Swede dreams: can Malmö’s green points system help rewild London?
London will be the largest city in the world to implement a green space system. The Guardian visited Bo01 and Tobias Emilsson, a researcher at SLU, who presented the development of green roofs at the Bo01 district in…
Podcast: Designing environments for the human needs
Researcher Jonathan Stoltz from SLU shares his current research about how environments can be designed to cater for the human needs. The podcast hopes to inspire city designers to creatively integrate evidence-based design in their planning practices to…
The Landscape Architecture Programme 50 years
The Landscape Architecture Programme at SLU turns 50 years in 2021. This will be celebrated through a series of roundtable discussions, campus events, a film and an overview of the development of the education over 50 years.
Effects of uncontrolled urbanization on river streamflow and water quality
Urbanisation cause degradation of water quality and streamflow in rivers and streams worldwide. Benjamin Gossweiler Herrera evaluated land changes, water quality and flow in the river after three decades of urbanization in his new doctoral thesis.
Sustainable Leisure Mobilities in Compact Towns: Changing patterns of outdoor recreation in transit-oriented development (TOD)
An SLU research project that contributes to an understanding of the potentials for wellbeing and sustainable leisure mobilities in compact cities, and to green structure development.
Lab Stories – Alnarp Rehabilitation Garden
Alnarp Rehabilitation Garden is one of SLU's living labs and an arena that invites to multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research and collaboration. SLU Urban Futures met Anna María Pálsdóttir and Vanessa Mårtensson to learn more about this kind…
Lab Stories – Alnarp Landscape laboratory
(Video in Swedish) SLU Urban Futures met Björn Wiström and Erik Svensson in charge of the maintenance and development of the Alnarp Landscape Laboratory, covering about 20 hectares of land for experimental design, construction and management.
‘Barn Plats Lek Stad’ – strategies for child-friendly urban planning
(Video and book in Swedish) Tankesmedjan Movium vid SLU har släppt en ny bok med titeln Barn Plats Lek Stad – strategier för barnvänlig stadsplanering. – Ska vi lyckas skapa ett hållbart samhälle måste barns och ungas perspektiv…
Wildlife in the city
Hur står sig djurens rättigheter när vi planerar våra städer? Ska vi ha stora parker i städerna eller många små för att de vilda djuren ska trivas? Vilken stadsplanering är bäst för djuren och vilken forskning saknar vi?…
Teaching with the sky as the ceiling – positive effects when children and teaching move outdoors
Schools that relocate the classroom outdoors can expect a large number of positive effects. In addition to reducing the spread of infection, research shows that teaching conducted outdoors rapidly improves the pupils’ concentration, working memory and motivation to…
Staden och barnen
Regeringen har gett Tankesmedjan Movium i uppgift att samordna och sprida kunskap om barns och ungas samspel med sin utemiljö. Därför vinnlägger sig Movium särskilt om att anlägga ett barn- och ungdomsperspektiv på frågor som rör stadsutveckling.
Grönskans betydelse
Vad bidrar träd, parker och urban natur med i form av ekosystemtjänster, hälsa, hållbarhet och biologisk mångfald? Se Tankesmedjan Moviums film om grönskans betydelse för oss människor.
Garden owners should gain more knowledge about invasive species
In a changing climate, the threat from invasive alien species is expected to increase. Researchers are now finding out how garden owners view garden plants and the problem of invasive species. (Article in Swedish.)
Helsingborg’s urban lawns can operate 250 biogas cars per year
(Article in Swedish.) Klimat- och miljömålen gör att Sverige behöver satsa betydligt mer på lokalt producerad biogas. En ny rapport från SLU visar hur urbana gräsytor i Helsingborg har potentialen att driva cirka 250 biogasbilar per år.
City trees save money for society
(Article in Swedish.) Can society make money on city trees? Yes, and not a little either. In Stockholm, the trees jointly capture air compounds that can be equated with SEK 99 million in socio-economic value, according to the…
Development of playscapes for children’s nature encounters
(Report in Swedish) I projekt efter projekt där lekmiljöer för barn skall iordningställas så ser vi hur leken undermineras genom att ytor med naturmark decimeras, vegetationen hålls tillbaka och konstgjorda material ersätter natur. Mot denna utveckling behövs nya…
The Welfare Landscape Reassembled: Policies for sustainable outdoor recreation in times of urban densification
The project studies the heritage of the welfare state, the welfare landscape, and how its values can be secured in densification projects.
Animal Adaptations to Survive the Anthropocene
The world is changing fast. Some animals adapt and may even thrive in the presence of humans, while other species decline and face extinction. Dr. Kays will present his research using animal tracking and camera traps to study…
Meet your wild neighbours
Wildlife populations in Sweden have increased while cities have expanded into natural areas. Furthermore, many Swedish cities have a green infrastructure of forests and parks that allows wildlife to move into the city. As a consequence, there seems…
Landscape Laboratory Alnarp 2.0 – towards a Landscape Lab Office
The Alnarp Landscape Lab can be identified as a new form of wooded urban open space and a living lab for urban woods, accessible to urban publics as much as to urban researchers, teachers, and students.
Sustainable Smart Parks
Hur kan vi bli bättre på att fördela våra resurser och skapa smartare system för skötsel av våra parker och grönytor? Vilket resultat når vi med ny teknik som möjliggör övergång från frekvens- till behovsstyrda insatser? Hur utformar…
Urban ecosystem services in strategic planning in Swedish municipalities
Research to date on urban ecosystem services has mainly been conducted in large cities, particularly in China, the USA and some European countries. This study examined the provision of urban ecosystem services in a Swedish municipality context, based…
Stad #31 – The urban norm
“Must city and country be opposites?” so asks STAD Magazine, echoing a commitment to think urban and rural together, in many arenas at SLU. The material highlighted here was selected to display perspectives, interlinkages and questions that spanning…
Movium Think Tank
Since 1980, Movium Think Tank has worked for knowledge development and knowledge dissemination in issues relating to urban development in Sweden. Today Movium offers a number of services, courses and publications designed for practitioners in the urban realm.…
Emily Wade, adjunct professor of landscape-adapted infrastructure
Emily Wade, SLU Adjunct Artistic Professor and Landscape Architect, was one of the keynote speakers at the SLU Landscape Day in 2020. She introduced the development of a new hub in SLU exploring how the design of infrastructure…
Uppsala Municipality Collaboration
The goal of this project is to strengthen collaboration between SLU and Uppsala Municipality and to create synergies between the work of Uppsala Municipality and the research conducted at SLU that will have mutual benefits for both organisations…
Co-creation!
Do you miss something here? Would you like to contribute? Please let us know: urbanfutures@slu.se