The horizontal expansion and increase in population that have characterised urban growth and development patterns of the last few decades have produced cities that are inconsistent with the principles of sustainable development. Due to the high rate of global urbanisation, the consequences of problems such as greater traffic congestion, higher levels of air pollution, lack of green space, and insufficient water supplies not only affect the cities in which they occur, but extend around the world. Cities that maximise the use of the third dimension are seen as a possible path to sustainable urban form.The urban underground possesses a large untapped potential that, if properly managed and exploited, would contribute significantly to the sustainable development of cities. The use of its four principle resources (space, water, geothermal energy and geomaterials) can be optimised to help create environmentally, socially and economically desirable urban settings. For instance: space can be used for concentrating urban infrastructure and facilities, as well as housing parking facilities and transportation tunnels, energy from geothermal sources and thermal energy stored in the underground can be used for heating and cooling buildings, thereby reducing CO2 emissions,groundwater can be used for drinking water supply, and geomaterials from urban excavation can be used within the city to minimise long-distance conveyance.Traditionally, planning of underground works is done on a single-project basis with little consideration of other potential uses of the same space. This approach often produces interference between uses (e.g. road tunnels interfering with geothermal structures), causes negative environmental impacts (e.g. groundwater contamination), and restricts innovative opportunities for sustainable development (e.g. using waste heat from metro lines for heating buildings).The present research will create a methodology that will help planners consider and integrate the full potential of the urban underground within the larger context of city planning. Since the way in which the use of the urban underground varies in accordance with a cityies specific natural, social and economic circumstances, this research will be trans-disciplinary, incorporating both the physical and social sciences. The development of the methodology will be based on the results of key research activities. Constraints and opportunities for underground use will be identified by establishing the complex linkages between existing underground development and the variables that shape it in cities worldwide. Space, water, energy and geomaterials resources will be studied in terms of their interaction and combined use, to optimise their benefits under various geological, legal, economic, environmental and social conditions. This methodology will be tested on and refined during a case study on the city of Geneva. usw.
Leipzig is the only major German city in which extensive hardwood floodplain forests have been preserved. At present, drying out and a lack of hydrodynamics pose the greatest challenges for the conservation of the floodplain landscape. Restoring typical floodplain hydrological conditions and habitats can sustainably safeguard biodiversity and numerous ecosystem services in the medium term. To this end, the Lebendige Luppe project aim to reactivate typical floodplain hydrodynamics with inundation over large areas, the restoration of old river courses and the conversion of intensively farmed areas into typical floodplain habitats. The Lebendige Luppe project, itself is a joint project of cities of Leipzig and Schkeuditz and the NABU Saxony as implementation partner and the University of Leipzig and the UFZ-Helmholtz Centre (Partner for accompanying natural and social science) (Scholz et al. 2022).
The implemented and planned restoration measures are accompanied by long-term scientific monitoring (UFZ and Leipzig University). For this purpose, 60 permanent observation plots were set up in the area of the measures according to the BACI design (Before-After / Control-Impact), on which the diversity of selected indicator groups (vegetation, molluscs, ground beetles) as well as groundwater dynamics, water and material balance in the soil, carbon storage and forest growth are recorded (Scholz et al. 2022). By integrating further landscape ecology and nature conservation data, a comprehensive analysis of the status quo and the changes in site conditions, biodiversity and ecosystem functions of the floodplain resulting from the expected floodplain dynamisation is possible, which goes beyond what has been available to date. The resulting simulation of hardwood forest responses to the changing abiotic environmental variables are already the basis for assessing the impact of the planned measures in the implementation process.
This data publication contains the tree inventory data of the scientific accompanying research of the winters 2013/2014 and 2016/2017 (first inventory) and a repeat inventory from the winter of 2020/21. The Leipzig riparian forest distributed on old hardwood riparian forest (main tree population older than 90 years) of the forestry office of the city of Leipzig and Sachsenforst as state forest (Scholz et al. 2022). All stands were identified as Riparian mixed forests of Quercus robur, Ulmus laevis and Ulmus minor, Fraxinus excelsior or Fraxinus angustifolia, along the great rivers (Ulmenion minoris) – Annex I habitat type (code 91F0).