In a new episode of the “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone” series, professor Cristian Iojă, PhD, professor and director of the Department of Geography and Environment within the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest, spoke to us about urban ecology and possible green solutions for Romania’s big cities, as well as about the most important editorial projects and of research that he coordinated or participated in.
The third episode of the microSCOPE series: UB researcher at the microphone can be accessed here.
Co-author of the volume “Green solutions for Romanian cities” and co-editor of the volume “Making Green Cities – Concepts, Challenges and Practice”, Professor Cristian Iojă linked his activity to the identification and promotion of those solutions that could contribute to reducing pollution and its destructive effects in the congested cities of Romania.
Starting from the promotion of simple solutions, such as urban gardens and green roofs, passing through the awareness of the importance of conserving nature near us (whether it is a tree or an insect), and reaching the importance of developing public policies in the field, Cristian Iojă identifies those feasible formulas that could slow down and maybe even reverse the process of destruction of urban nature.
As Cristian Iojă shows, although the solution to this major challenge lies primarily in the development of local, national and regional strategies that propose effective and long-term solutions, the phenomenon also depends on each of us, on the attitude we adopt against the process of destruction to which the environment is continuously subjected to.
Details on the volume “Green solutions for the cities of Romania”, signed by Ioan-Cristian Iojă, Mihai-Răzvan Niță, Diana-Andreea Onose, Constantina-Alina Hossu, Denisa-Lavinia Badiu, Sorin Cheval, Ana-Maria Popa, Cristina-Gabriela Mitincu and published during 2020, are available here.
Details on the international volume “Making Green Cities – Concepts, Challenges and Practice”, co-edited by Jürgen Breuste, Martina Artmann, Cristian Iojă and Salman Qureshi and published in 2020, which proposes a comparative approach to both the various environmental problems faced by cities in different areas of the world, as well as potential solutions to them, are available here.
Cristian Iojă is a professor and director of the Geography and Environment Department at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest, but also a scientific researcher at the Center for Environmental Research and Impact Studies (CCMESI). He obtained his qualification in Geography at the University of Bucharest in 2017. He is also the treasurer of the Society for Urban Ecology and the president of the Society for Urban Ecology – Southeastern Europe Chapter.
His scientific works focus on the assessment of the relationship between environment and society, in particular on understanding the relationships between gray and green infrastructures, assessing the environmental impact of different uses of space and evaluating the effectiveness of the environmental planning process. Many of the research he contributed to were transferred to planning, relevant in this sense being the contributions to the development and/or revision of documents such as the National Strategy for the Conservation of Biodiversity 2014-2020, the Local Environmental Action Plan of the municipality of Bucharest, the management plans of protected areas or town planning plans.Cristian Iojă was the director of several national projects. He has published his results in numerous books and articles addressing issues related to environmental planning, environmental conflicts, green infrastructures, land use or environmental impact assessment.His current research aims to assess the role of green solutions for the sustainability and resilience of cities, as well as the assessment of ecosystem services related to different uses.
More information on Cristian Iojă is available here and here.
Part of the science communication program developed by the University of Bucharest, the “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone” series aims to present in a dynamic and concise manner information on the concrete results of notable research efforts within the UB.Through its format and objectives, the “microSCOPE: UB researcher at the microphone” comes to complete the science communication program within the University of Bucharest, which also includes the UB Conferences – Science for All Understanding and the UB Dose of Science. It aims at promoting those research projects (patents, articles and books) which, through the major contribution to the field they belong to, have come to benefit from international recognition, thus encouraging the connection between UB and various universities and research institutions abroad.
The microSCOPE, whose guests are primarily UB researchers awarded for their research results, aims to contribute to informing the Romanian academic milieu, but also other categories of interested public, on the main research projects carried out inside UB, thus stimulating the development of future collaborative initiatives.