GreenJLU

Concept for the sustainable development of the green spaces of the Justus Liebig University Gießen

Project Coordinator: Prof. Till Kleinebecker

Participating scientists: Prof. Dr. Jan Siemens, Prof. Dr. Lutz Breuer, Dr. André Große-Stoltenberg, Dr. Frank Jauker, Prof. Dr. Lea Schneider

Researchers: Mojdeh Safaei

Duration: 2021-2025

Funding: Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Innovations- und Strukturentwicklungsbudget

Main Project:  JLU green spaces

Summary

In Germany, the proportion of people living in cities is more than 75% and constantly increasing. Urban green spaces, which are green islands surrounded by buildings and infrastructure areas, potentially fulfill a large number of important functions. They are mostly used for recreation purposes and have been proven to have positive effects on human health and psyche. However, urban green spaces also make important contributions to urban climate, carbon storage, water retention and can also take over important ecological functions as habitats for plants and animals. JLU is one of the most important landowners in the Giessen. These areas contain a large number of unsealed green spaces of various sizes. In the context of the development of a sustainability strategy, the need but also the great potential to develop the JLU-owned green spaces more sustainably was recognized. However, there is a lack of an overall concept to align green space management with sustainability aspects and to systematically implement measures to improve green space functions. The project is intended to initiate the transformation to a more sustainable green space design and management. The project addresses a large number of sustainable target functions: (a) increasing biodiversity, (b) increasing carbon storage and (c) water storage capacity, (d) improving the urban climate, (e) increasing the recreational function for JLU members and the city population and (f) the increased integration of sustainability aspects in teaching and research. With project progress, measures for the sustainable development of the JLU green spaces will be implemented and their impact on the above mentioned target functions will be evaluated.