Internship Gitty Korsuize, Bologna, October 2010

Gitty Korsuize from City Development, department Environment and Sustainability,  went on a four day internship to Bologna in October 2010. She went to Bologna to  learn more about the urban heat island effect. An urban heat island is an urbanized area which has a higher temperature than it's surrounding rural area.

The internship left the following impression on her:

Bologna, also known as the city of towers, the basket city or the red city

It is a lovely city with two ancient towers, two basketball teams and historical red-clay buildings.  During Summer however, everybody leaves the city because the heat is unbearable. The city is desolate, shops are closed, is this the future Utrecht awaits?

The City of Bologna is interesting for Utrecht because of its current climate. The urban heat island effect combined with global warming effect can have great consequences for the liveability in the inner city of Utrecht.

Possibilities for Utrecht

Comparing the urban heat island of Bologna with the urban heat island Utrecht furnished me food for thought and inspiration. To mitigate the urban heat island of Utrecht several measures are possible.

- roof gardens; in the inner city of Bologna most green area's were private. Although not open to the public, they do mitigate the urban heat island. Utrecht should stimulate new gardens.

- facade gardens; citizens of Utrecht have a tradition of maintaining very nice facade gardens. The Municipality of Utrecht should prevent the use of flowering pots, and stimulate the removal of several bricks from the pavement. This will prevent future health issues concerning the tiger mosquito. 

- keep pavements open; a lot of historic pavements allow water retention. Treasure these pavements and prevent the use of black pavements, if possible.

- stimulate water retention; in the historic center water is needed to keep the city green during Summer. Of course the canals contain a lot of water, but storage on site will prevent the use of energy needed for transport.  Other measures that are possible are planting of trees and the treasure of the canal and the inner city parks.

Gitty Korsuize