In cities, the impact of increasing and prolonged heat is especially noticeable. Trees can make an environment feel as much as 15°C cooler. Despite their potential, trees are still too often overlooked in urban development. The T-Roffa Lab Project in Rotterdam aims to use a mobile forest to investigate how we can develop cities together with residents and make them more climate resilient by integrating more greenery.
Your car is packed to the brim, the family is ready for a couple of weeks in the Italian sun. Change of plans, with temperatures reaching 48 degrees tourists are returning home in a hurry. In addition to vacation destinations, our own cities are also experiencing problems due to the heat. During heat waves, the built environment of cities leads to a disturbing "heat island effect," which can become extremely uncomfortable and dangerous. How do we make cities climate proof? The T-Roffa Lab will explore this question over the next 24 months with a mobile forest placed on the Handelsplein in Feijenoord; a real "living" lab.
The tree: a superhero.
Trees offer a solution to creating a cooler city. On a hot, windless day, trees in a green neighborhood can make it feel up to 15°C cooler. In addition, trees provide clean air to breathe, capture precipitation, promote biodiversity, improve mental health and encourage physical activity. The list of ecosystem services trees provide seems endless.
When designing and developing public spaces in our cities, tree placement comes last. Roads, pipelines and buildings are constructed first and only at the end of this process are trees placed. As a result, trees are often planted in less than ideal conditions and never thrive. Many trees therefore struggle to grow and eventually get sick or die. This prevents the benefits that are so desperately needed in our fight against climate change. How can we better design our cities with green infrastructure in mind?
Alongside residents
The T-Roffa Lab consists of 38 movable trees with sensors. Together with citizens, different configurations are devised to measure cooling capacity and health benefits. The forest introduces a new social relationship of co-care between trees and citizens. Trees care for citizens by providing cooling and other ecosystem services. Citizens care for the trees by watering and monitoring their health. The research team also includes local organizations Komovo design firm, Botanical and Urban Greenhouse.
Unique collaboration
The T-Roffa Lab Project is part of the Convergence Program, the collaboration between Erasmus MC, Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft. The project is funded by the Resilient Delta Initiative, partners Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and works closely with the Municipality of Rotterdam. The researchers are Rebecca Price, Daniela Maiullari and Michiel Pouderoijen, and residents of the Kop van Zuid - Entrepotbuurt neighborhood.
The T-Roffalab and the Hefhouse will launch several joint educational activities over the next two years. The HefHouse is an initiative of Erasmus University, specifically ErasmusX, where together with the Municipality of Rotterdam, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences/EMI Op Zuid, Albeda College and welfare organization SOL, a meeting place is created where neighborhood residents and educational institutions work together to learn from each other.
- More information
More stories from Convergence - the collaboration between our university, Erasmus MC and TU Delft: www.convergence.nl
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