The SURE International Center Urban Ecology was founded in 2015 at the 2nd SURE World Conference in Shanghai, China. At the 3rd SURE World Conference in Poznań, Poland, the Center was confirmed in its tasks.

The aim here is to bring together and coordinate the international activities of SURE in teaching on urban ecology. For this purpose, special teaching concepts and teaching profiles, including online teaching courses, are being developed. In addition, the SURE International Center Urban Ecology should also promote practical implementation of urban ecological knowledge in urban development and initiate research and development projects.

The following were appointed as heads of the center:

– Prof. Dr. Jürgen Breuste, Hildesheim, Germany,

– Dr. Henrys Garay Sarastri, Bogotá, Colombia, and

– Prof. Dr. Martin Sauerwein, Hildesheim, Germany.

The center is connected to the University of Hildesheim:

c/o University Hildesheim, Institute for Geography, Universitätsplatz 1, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany.

SURE members interested in participating, especially those who want to offer (online) courses on urban ecology, are invited to contact Prof. Dr. Jürgen Breuste

News

Online SURE lecture by SURE President

Prof. Breuste, SURE president, gave on 7 December 2021 in the course Sustainable Tourism Development of Human and Social Development Program of Graduate School of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand an online SURE lecture, invited by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Narumon Arunotai, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Suwattana, on Urban Protected Areas and Recreation – Challenges and European perspectives as activity of the SURE International Center Urban Ecology. More than twenty students joint the lecture, followed by a vital discussion on the subject.

The course targets on Domestic and regional tourism development, relationship between tourism and development policies and practices implemented by the government, the local and the private sector; impact of tourism on communities and society; principles and forms of sustainable tourism; study of tourism resources in terms of environment, natural resources, and social and cultural resources and roles of different sectors in sustainable tourism development.

Lecture in Beijing, China

Prof. Breuste, SURE president, gave on 16 November 2021 in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China an online SURE lecture, invited by Prof. Fei Xue, on

Urban Biodiversity – What it is and how we can target it in design and planning

as activity of the SURE International Center Urban Ecology. More than hundred students joint the lecture, followed by a vital discussion on the subject.

The lecture was following up the first part of UN Conference on Biodiversity COP 15 in October in Kunming, China. It was showed that the transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity cannot exclude urban areas as main living sphere of human on earth and cannot wait until 2050 to reach a living in harmony with nature. Now it is time to develop our cities by improvement of urban biodiversity in contact to urban dwellers.