Rehabitar la Montaña: strategies and processes for sustainable communities in the mountainous periphery of Medellín
Thousands of poor, marginal communities’ residents die due to landslide events every year. The quick urbanization of mountainous areas, combined with an increased frequency of landslide events induced by heavy rains due to climate change, is leading to increased deaths year after year, and the problem will only get worse. Landscape Architects, trained to analyze and intervene in situations with complex natural and social territorial dynamics, are in position to make positive contributions to mitigating risks in such situations. A collaborative effort between a team of landscape architects from Germany and Urbanists in Medellin Colombia is carrying out a four-phased research and implementation proposal to anticipate and mitigate risk in low-income settlements on Medellin's urban periphery. They propose five pilot projects to test risk mitigation strategies through monitoring and early warning systems, drainage improvements, urban agriculture, slope forestation, and developing sites with the supplied services.
Strategies for Sustainable Communities: Landscape-Based Landslide Risk Alleviation in Medellín
URBAM Center for Urban and Environmental Studies Universidad EAFIT Medellín, Colombia Established: 2010 Lab Leadership: Alejandro Echeverri (Cofounder and Director of URBAM) Current Lab Structure: Academic Faculty: 2 Research Staff: 8 Postdoctoral Researchers: 2 Graduate-Level Students: 33 Visiting Faculty and Students: 4
Assessment of Ground Regeneration around Borehole Heat Exchangers between Heating Seasons in Cold Climates: A Case Study in Bialystok (NE, Poland)
Based on the experimental studies, the process of ground regeneration around the borehole loaded with brine-water heat pumps working exclusively for heating purposes in the period of four consecutive heating seasons in a cold climate was presented. The research was conducted in north-eastern Poland. The aim of the work is to verify the phenomenon of thermal ground regeneration in the period between heating seasons on the basis of the recorded data and to check whether the ground is able to regenerate itself and at what rate. It was noticed that the ground does not fully regenerate, especially during heating seasons with lower temperatures. In the analyzed period, from 22 September 2016 to 12 October 2020, the ground probably cooled irreversibly by 1.5 °C. In order to illustrate and evaluate the speed of changes in the ground, the one’s profile with an undisturbed temperature field was presented for each month of the year. The presented results can be a very important source of information for the analysis of geothermal conditions occurring in the ground. They can be used to verify mathematical models and conduct long-term simulations that allow us to see the complexity of the processes taking place in the ground.