On January 28, we had the pleasure of unveiling the first edition of SURE Solutions on the topic of sustainable development of urban regions.
2-day Workshop on Scientific Writing: Towards Organization and Motivation
SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research ProjectThe SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research (F&SR) team hosted a 2-day workshop to improve your scientific writing skills. The workshop on "Scientific Writing: Towards Organization and Motivation" was facilitated by Dr. Andreas Sanchini.
Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain 2024
The SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research (F&SR) team will be present at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2024.
Come to the booth to learn more about the SURE Funding Priority and funded projects, to connect and exchange.
Location: GRAN VIA, Hall P2 at the booth No. 81 at the Smart City Expo World Congress.
World Urban Forum 12 in Cairo, Egypt 2024
The SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research (F&SR) team will be present at the WUF12 in Cairo 2024.
Join us to explore the SURE funding priority and be part of five engaging events.
60th ISOCARP World Planning Congress ”Reinventing The (In)visible Cities”, Italy 2024
The SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research Team will be on site and will present the trend analysis in sustainable development of urban regions in Southeast Asia and China.
Urban-Rural Assembly (URA) - International Conference in Berlin
Urban-Rural Assembly (URA) organizes an international conference in Berlin: “Co-visioning Interconnected Regions”
This closing conference of the URA project will explore innovative approaches and methodologies for understanding and managing the complex interdependencies between urban and rural areas.
Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain 2023
The SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research (F&SR) team will be present at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023.
Come to the booth to learn more about the SURE Funding Priority and funded projects, to connect and exchange.
Location: Hall 2 at booth D90 at the Smart City Expo World Congress.
International Conference on Recovery and Reconstruction

As a joint event of the LIRLAP and the KAHR projects, an international conference on recovery and reconstruction took place at TU Dortmund University on July 4th, 2023.
Science-Policy Dialogue | Ecological restoration in urban-rural linkages

In order to promote the ecological environment protection and sustainable development of the urban-rural linkage in Taizhou, the URA Sino-German Consortium plans to hold a scientific-policy dialogue in June 2023 to provide technical advice and policy support for urban-rural ecological restoration.
International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics (IFKAD) 2023
Affecting the River of Knowledge in Sustainability: Knowledge Management Strategies and Tools in Cross-Cultural Settings
The SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research Project is hosting a special track on “Affecting the River of Knowledge in Sustainability: Knowledge Management Strategies and Tools in Cross-Cultural Settings” at the 18th International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics (IFKAD) 2023.
StadtLand - From Thuringia to a planetary perspective
International Conference
The International Building Exhibition (IBA) Thuringia and the Sino-German research project Urban Rural Assembly (URA) will jointly host the international conference „StadtLand – from Thuringia to a planetary perspective“
URA Raumbild Planning Workshop
URAThe URA Raumbild Workshop Series aims to develop sustainable development pathways for the study region in Huangyan-Taizhou on the basis of our scientific analyses through the “Raumbild 图 景 共 构” approach. The series is intended to strengthen URA internal collaboration and to serve as a preparation for the upcoming Multi-Actor Workshops in Huangyan (08/23, 03/24), in which the sustainable development strategiesare are to be discussed and elaborated in abroader circle of local and trans-local actors.
German Vietnamese Science Day
FloodAdaptVNThe FloodAdaptVN takes part at the German Vietnamese Science Day on April 27th in DaNang.
An accompanying workshop “Regional Cooperation on Flood Risk Adaptation” on April 26th will be chaired by the FloodAdaptVN team.
Regional Networking Forum
FloodAdaptVNThe FloodAdaptVN organizes a Regional Networking Forum on April 25th with selected stakeholders of the Thua Thien Hue province and neighbouring provinces. The Regional Networking Forum on Climate Change Adaptation, Flood and Disaster Risk Reduction focuses on the exchange of experiences of different provinces prior, during and after past flooding events.
Sustainable Building Arena 2023
Build4PeopleOn 20 April 2023, the second Build4People Sustainable Building Arena took place at Raintree Cambodia.
Around 50 frontrunners in the field sustainable building collaborated in an inspiring participatory workshop prepared by Ravi Jayaweera, Build4People Work Package “Sustainable Urban Transformation” with support from Melanie Mossard from Impact Hub Phnom Penh.
International Symposium Siem Reap – Evaluating crucial project results and elaborating road map ahead towards water sensitive partner cities
PolyUrbanWatersFrom 14 to 17 March 2023, the PolyUrbanWaters – Symposium was held in Siem Reap/Cambodia.
It brought together the research network with more than 50 representatives of partners from Cambodia, Germany, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
»Sustainable Building« Science Workshop
Build4PeopleOn the 07 March 2023, the 4th Science Workshop of WP2 “Sustainable Building” took place at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC). This workshop was a continuation of the 3rd workshop on 29 September 2022 where questions about what is a sustainable building in Cambodia and what are the most important environmental challenges that should be considered when such a definition is attempted were asked.
Ecocity Transition Lab 2023 Presentation Conference
Build4PeopleOn 03 March 2023, the Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab 2023 Presentation Conference took place at the Grand Hall of Borey Peng Huoth.
During this event, the different working groups presented their empirical results after an intensive week of multidisciplinary joint analysis with the aim to develop potential micro-interventions and preliminary guideline ideas to foster a more sustainable development of Peng Huoth group, Cambodia most renowned developer company.
Opening of 2nd edition of Build4People poster exhibition »Green Buildings and Sustainable Neighborhoods«
Build4PeopleThe launching event of the 2nd Build4People poster exhibition “Green Buildings and Sustainable Neighborhoods”, this time with best practice examples from Southeast Asia and from China, attracted many people at Bophana Center in Phnom Penh.
Pitching Night of Build4People Sustainable Building Incubator at Impact Hub Phnom Pen
Build4PeopleOn 28 February 2023, the concluding event of Build4People Sustainable Building Incubator took place at Impact Hub Phnom Penh. In the course of the pitching night, five teams of young aspiring entrepreneurs presented their exciting business ideas in the field of sustainable building. In the end, the winner was AquaBuild – a startup working on making building materials more sustainable and environmentally friendly from water hyacinths to eliminate waste and limit water pollution, especially in the Tonle Sap Lake area.
Urban Climate Conference
Build4PeopleOn 24 February 2023, the Build4People Urban Climate Conference took place at Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh.
The rationale behind this event is that global climate change will increase heat and flooding problems in cities. Therefore it is important to understand urban climate and its application in urban planning and building design.
»Urban Quality of Life in Phnom Penh« Science Workshop
Build4PeopleOn 23 February 2023, Build4People Work Package #1 “Behaviour Change” led by Magdeburg University conducted a Science Workshop with the topic “Urban Quality of Life in Phnom Penh” at the Cambodian Korean Cooperation Center of Royal University of Phnom Penh.
»Urban Green Infrastructures« Science Workshop
Build4PeopleThe Science Workshop on “Urban Green Infrastructure in Phnom Penh” took place on 26 January 2023. It covered the research plan, milestones, and related activities for the B4P RD phase (2021-2025) and featured presentations on various topics related to urban green infrastructure. The workshop was jointly organized by the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) in Phnom Penh and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) in Germany.
URA Raumbild workshop #1
URAOn January 26th, URA Raumbild workshop #1 took place in Berlin in a hybrid form, focusing on collaborative works on sustainable future strategies for Beiyang Town and Huangyan-Taizhou region.
WP#3 Science Workshop “Sustainable Neighborhoods”,
Build4PeopleOn 29 November 2022, the 2nd Science Workshop of the Build4People Work Package #3 “Sustainable Neighborhoods” took place. It was organized and moderated by representatives from Eble Messerschmidt Partner (EMP), Rolf Messerschmidt, leader of the Build4People WP3 “Sustainable Neighborhoods” and Nuria Mariela Roig Mejia, WP#3 Research Associate.
“Urban Quality of Life” Workshop at Magdeburg University
Build4PeopleOn 24 November 2022, the Build4People Urban Quality of Life Workshop took place at Magdeburg University. For Build4People urban quality of life is the common link of our scientific-conceptional, analytical and normative dimension, which we consider to be the general foundation for our people-driven approach.
PolyUrbanWaters National Stakeholder Workshop
PolyUrbanWatersLast week, the PolyUrbanWaters team organized the three-day National Stakeholder Workshop in Laos Vietnam. There, PolyUrbanWaters, together with the project implementation committee, presented the key findings of the draft baseline study and the first urban development.
After an engaging and productive week. During which the interdisciplinary project partners of the Project Implementation Committee developed a better awareness of the current and future challenges, opportunities and optional strategies.
COP27 Side Event "Knowledge for sustainable and resilient cities in times of climate change: Latest findings and persisting needs"
MYrisk, SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research ProjectOn 14 November, Prof. Frauke Kraas (MYrisk) and Prof. Jörg Noennig (SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research project) took part in the side event "Knowledge for sustainable and resilient cities in times of climate change: Latest findings and persisting needs" at the German Pavillon at COP27.
SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research Project at Urban Transitions 2022
SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research ProjectThe SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research project will contribute to the Urban Transitions Conference 8 - 10 November in Barcelona with two paper presentations. The first will be on the topic "The use of AI in sustainable urban development research: Natural language processing (NLP) usage in urban research, a comparative analysis between different AI engines". The other presentation...
URA Symposium 2022
URADespite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the URA symposium has been successfully completed on the 2nd and 3rd of November 2022. This intensive workshop offered the team an opportunity to jointly reflect and develop further the project process.
Workshop as part of the Disaster Risk Reduction Conference 2022
MYriskFrom Oct 25-27 2022, the German Red Cross, with the support of BBK, katNet and DKKV, organized the Disaster Risk Reduction Conference in a digital format. In this context, the MYrisk project, in collaboration with the Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK), conducted a workshop...
Science Workshop of WP #6: "Sustainable Urban Transformation"
Build4PeopleOn 06 October 2022, the Build4People Work Package #6 “Sustainable Urban Transformation” and their research partners from the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) held a productive Science Workshop at the Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center. The aim of the workshop...
Final Round and Award Ceremony of the Design Competition for Implementing Green-blue Infrastructure in Huế
GreenCityLabHuếThe GreenCityLabHuế invites all interested people to the final round and award ceremony of the design competition for implementing Green-blue Infrastructure in Huế. The design competition is held for four individual plots, so called Showcases.
Spacial Image Lab: Cooperative paths to a sustainable and climate-friendly region of Nordhausen
URAAt the third workshop, the Spatial Image Lab, excellent presentations and discussions were held to find out what possibilities there are for implementing the approaches the URA team has collected for Spatial Image in the Nordhausen area.
SURE at the IOER Annual Conference 2022
SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research ProjectAgota Barabas and Joerg Rainer Noennig will give a presentation on the topic “Transformation research: A cross-cutting perspective on tools, technologies and approaches for sustainable urban regions development projects” at the IOER Annual Conference 2022 in Dresden on 23 September 2022 on behalf of the SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research project.
5th World Planning Schools Congress and 16th Asian Planning Schools Association Congress 2022
PolyUrbanWatersPartners form South East Asia and Germany will host a panel discussion titled “Water-sensitive transformation of secondary and tertiary cities in South East Asia” at the 5th WPSC and the 16th APSA Congress in Bali, Indonesia.
5th World Planning Schools Congress and 16th Asian Planning Schools Association Congress 2022
FloodAdaptVN, IMECOGIP, PolyUrbanWaters, SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research ProjectThe three research projects FloodAdaptVN, IMECOGIP and PolyUrbanWaters as well as the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research project will host a parallel session on the topic...
Science Workshop of WP #2 Sustainable Building: “Energy-Efficient & Sustainable Building Design for a Tropical Climate"
Build4PeopleOn 18 August 2022, the WP#2 “Sustainable Building” 2nd Science Workshop took place within the one day seminar on “Sustainable Development, Sustainable City, Smart City, Cambodia “ at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), Phnom Penh.
SURE at the AESOP Congress 2022
SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research ProjectMai Ahmed will give a presentation on the topic “Unknown knowns: Knowledge mining for sustainable transformation research and practice” at the AESOP Congress in Tartu, Estonia on 27 July 2022 on behalf of the SURE Facilitation & Synthesis Research project.
Co-Development Workshop
FloodAdaptVNThe first in-person Co-Development Workshop of the FloodAdaptVN R&D Phase took place on 27th July 2022. The progress and the ongoing activities were presented to the attending stakeholders. The Vice President of Hue University Assoc. Prof. Huynh Van Chuong and the...
SURE Hosted a Networking Event at the World Urban Forum
SURE hosted a Networking Event at the #WUF11 on “Science Meets Policy: New Approaches for Multisectoral Collaborations to Build Urban-Rural Resilience for Sustainable Futures”. Thank you to all participants for the insights and the fruitful discussion!
Dissemination Event with Center for Khmer Studies
Build4PeopleJoint Build4People Webinar with Center for Khmer Studies: »The role of environmental psychology in promoting urban quality of life in Cambodia«
Time for Change – The Role of Environmental Psychology in Promoting Sustainable Urban Environments
Build4PeopleMost of the world’s population lives in urban areas, which provide people with resources that meet their daily needs to a certain extent. At the same time, ecosystems in urban regions – and at the global level – are threatened...
Understanding Water Infrastructures. Participatory Workshops in Sam Neua, Laos
PolyUrbanWatersThe PolyUrbanWaters team has continued its work in the field with participatory workshops, this time in Sam Neua, Laos, to discuss the current status of water in the city (based on the findings of the baseline study report).
Water in the Neighborhood. Building Water-sensitive Visions. Participatory Workshops in Sleman, Indonesia
PolyUrbanWatersOn the 9th of June, the PUW team organized participatory workshops in Sariharjo Village, Sleman, Indonesia to discuss the current state of water in the city – based on the results from the Baseline Study Report – and to develop the first water-sensitive visions for the village.
Presentation of Study from Build4People at the Living Planet Symposium
Gulam Mohiuddin, Research Associate from Build4People Work Package 4 Urban Green Infrastructure at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development has attended the recent Living Planet Symposium in Bonn, Germany, from 23-27 May 2022.
4th Build4People Curriculum Development Summit Meeting with Representatives of Royal University of Phnom Penh
On 18 May 2022, representatives of Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) met with representatives from the Build4People project to discuss a potential cooperation in the field of joint curriculum development.
Dissemination Event with Center for Khmer Studies
Build4PeopleJoint Build4People Webinar with Center for Khmer Studies: »Urban Climate in the Planning Process«
Sustainable Building Arena Workshop
Build4PeopleCo-development of sectoral vision and of a preliminary Transition Agenda with sustainability-oriented frontrunners
WP#4 Science Workshop 2022
Build4PeopleKick-off meeting »Designing MSc and PhD curriculum for regional and urban planning«, hosted by Royal University of Agriculture
Ecocity Transition Lab @ Phnom Penh City Hall
Build4PeopleTo conduct a collaborative and trans-disciplinary planning workshop that aims to create an understanding of the relevant local issues within the dynamically growing Chbar Ampov District, located at the urban-rural edge in the Southeast of Phnom Penh
PolyUrbWaters Thursday Talk – Stormwater Management in Hamburg: Shifting to a New Approach in Urban Water Management and Stormwater Management
PolyUrbanWatersOn 3 January 2022 Dr. Sonja Schlipf gave a Thursday Talk on new approaches for urban water management and stormwater management in Hamburg. In order to address the increasing accumulation of storm water events, droughts and hot spells, HAMBURG WASSER and the Hamburg Environmental Authority (now BUKEA) launched the collaborative process of RainWaterInfraStructureAdaptation (RISA)...
Dissemination Event with Center for Khmer Studies
Build4PeopleThis event shall inform on the state of the art of academic field of sustainable urban transformation, introduce case studies of sustainable urban transformation from other Asian cities (New Dehli, Singapore) and discuss the sustainable urban transformation approaches of Build4People in Phnom Penh.
Kick-off Workshop of the »Huế Initiative – Green Space, Green City« Design Competition
GreenCityLabHueIn the afternoon of December 11, 2021, the Mientrung Institute for Scientific Research (MISR) of the Vietnam Museum of Nature (VNMN), the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) in collaboration with the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU, Berlin) and the Faculty of Architecture, Huế University of Sciences (HUSC) implemented the Kick-off Workshop for the »Huế Initiatives – Green Space, Green City« Design Competition...
FloodAdaptVN discussed at the 11th International Forum on Green Technology and Management (IFGTM 2021)
FloodAdaptVNThe University of Tuebingen team presented results of their research on urban heat effects in Vietnamese metropolitan areas at the 11th International Forum on Green Technology and Management (IFGTM 2021), Can Tho, Viet Nam.
Urban-Rural (Dis-)Continuities
URAFollowing the call for new integrated territorial planning approaches and people- and place-based development at the urban-rural interface that is aligned with the localisation of SDG’s and the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the session takes stock of recent attempts to develop new approaches which accounts for the manifold interrelations and linkages ...
PolyUrbWaters Thursday Talk – Towards Climate Resilient Semarang: From the City Scale to Resilient Kampung (Neighborhood)
PolyUrbanWatersOn the last session of Thursday Talks, Rizqa Hidayani, an Urban Planner and Program Manager at Kota Kita, gave a presentation via Zoom on the topic: Towards Climate Resilient Semarang – From the city scale to resilient kampung (neighborhood).
57th. ISOCARP World Planning Congress
LIRLAP, Build4People, URA, PolyUrbanWaters & SURE Facilitation ProjectThe session introduced innovative planning approaches from a newly setup long-term funding priority of BMBF called Sustainable Development of Urban Regions (SURE). In total it stretches over a period of more than eight years with different funding phases incorporating 10 large research consortia involving ...
Disaster Risk Reduction Conference 2021
MYriskProf. Dr. Kraas participated in the panel discussion on »Urban Resilience in Germany and in an International Context« at the Disaster Risk Reduction Conference (DRC), which took place digitally on 25-26.10.2021.
PolyUrbWaters Thursday Talk – Building Climate Resilience in Bremen
PolyUrbanWatersOn the 30th of September 2021, Dr. Christof Voßeler was the guest on PolyUrbWaters Thursday Talk – a practice oriented science-policy dialogue – and gave a presentation on Building climate resilience in Bremen.
Trialog 2021 Conference
PolyUrbanWaters, Build4People & SURE Facilitation ProjectAt the Trialog 2021 Conference: Changing Voices, PolyUrbanWaters, together with SURE and Build4People Team discussed the role of civil society organisations in action research. During the session, several projects of the research programme Sustainable Development of Urban Regions (SURE) supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) introduced ...
Virtual Stakeholder Workshops with Thailand and Vietnam Partner
LIRLAPThe project conducted its first two online stakeholder workshops with the project partners from Thailand and Vietnam. The aim was to introduce the project and discuss future joint work steps in the two new partner countries and to tackle several topics with the ...
Virtual Kick-Off Event
FloodAdaptVNThe FloodAdaptVN team presented the experiences and results of the 21-month Definition phase and provided an outlook on the collaborative activities of the Research and Development phase in next four years. The Kick-Off ended with an active and fruitful discussion of the FloodAdaptVN participants and stakeholders ...
First International Conference
PolyUrbanWatersThe first international conference within the framework of the PolyUrbanWaters research and development project will explore the political, ecological and social relevance of integrated approaches in management of urban waters on a global scale.
Closing Workshop of the Definition Phase
GreenCityLabHueOn March 11th 2021, the MienTrung Institute for Scientific Research (MISR) together with its project partners Humboldt University Berlin (HUB), the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU), the Hue Institute of Development and Studies (HueIDS), and the Faculty of Architecture of the Hue University of Science (HUSC) successfully ...