Right: A cooperatively owned high-rise building in Halle听has a market at its base听with three identical abandoned buildings behind it. Photo by Josh Neubauer

This summer, 13 master鈥檚 students from 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Environmental Studies travelled to Berlin and Leipzig to participate in a graduate urban planning course, co-taught by a team of 91亚色 faculty members under the directorship of environmental studies Professor Ute Lehrer and urban studies coordinator Douglas Young, as well as CITY postdoctoral fellow Will Poppe. The students learned first-hand how German planners are responding to large-scale population decline in urbanized areas.

鈥淭his workshop gave me the opportunity to go to Europe for the first time, and Berlin simply blew me away,鈥� says Nishanthan Balasubramaniam, a student in the Masters of Environmental Studies (MES) Planning Program. 鈥淚 learned a lot about German planning and culture. This course abroad was an unforgettable experience.鈥�

From June 24 to July 9, the students spoke with urban researchers, local planners, activists and residents. Through these conversations, along with many hours of exploring Leipzig, Berlin and Halle-Neustadt on foot and by bike, and taking hundreds of photographs, the students pieced together a picture of how East German cities are working to adapt to their shrinking populations and socio-economic challenges, and what these changes have meant for the everyday lives of residents.

Left: 91亚色 planning students consult a map of Halle-Neustadt with local planners. Photo by Josh Neubauer

The students learned that many of the biggest changes are taking place in neighbourhoods that are visibly similar to parts of Toronto 鈥� demolitions are taking place in the clusters of pre-fabricated apartment towers on the edges of the city. These communities, like Toronto鈥檚 high-rise neighbourhoods, are often stigmatized even though many of their residents are relatively content. MES planning student Gwen Potter says residents are concerned about the way their community has been targeted for demolition. 鈥淔rom our conversations with local residents, we heard about their deep pride in their community,鈥� says Potter.听

Despite the challenges that population decline has created for residents and planners, it has also produced unexpected benefits in communities like Gr眉nau. With fewer apartment blocks, there are now more open spaces, and the community is surrounded by lush meadows and forests. Throughout Leipzig, residents are making the best of the shrinking population by turning demolition sites into new green spaces. As they walked and biked through these neighbourhoods, the 91亚色 planning students were struck by how differently plants and trees were integrated in the community than in Toronto鈥檚 manicured neighbourhoods. 鈥淚 was introduced to a new way of discussing the urban landscape and the importance of urban ecology,鈥� says MES planning student Christine Furtado, who sees the benefits of this practice.

For the students, the course provided an important international perspective where they learned about the contradictions of new developments at the periphery at the same time that population decline is occurring in the core city. With continued sprawl and decreasing populations, planners in many German cities now work with community members, property owners and developers to shape their urban spaces with a focus on quality rather than quantity. The students indicated they were inspired by the innovative approaches to community building that have emerged as a result of these collaborations and hope to carry these lessons into their future planning work in Canada.

Right: Population loss leaves room for an abundance of green space in Gr眉nau, Leipzig.听Photo by Josh Neubauer

During the course, the students also had the opportunity to learn about the challenges of suburban neighbourhoods and outlying tower districts all over the world. They observed a two-day conference on suburban governance organized as part of 91亚色鈥檚 Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded major collaborative research initiative (MCRI) 鈥� Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land & Infrastructure in the 21st Century, which brought together international researchers studying suburbanization processes around the world. The direct link between the themes of the workshop and the conference were an essential component of the learning experience in Leipzig.

As Lehrer says, 鈥淭his course had a different approach than your normal planning workshop because it was trying to make a regular course part of an international research project. This innovative teaching approach allows both students and researchers to learn from each other in ways that are not possible in a regular classroom. It was a huge success and we hope to replicate it by taking students to Montpellier, France, next year and to Shanghai in 2014.鈥�

Left: Large apartment buildings being demolished in the Gr眉nau neighbourhood in outer Leipzig. Photo by Josh Neubauer

The 91亚色 students also shared findings and research interests with a group of Polish architecture and sociology students conducting their own analysis of the Leipzig-Gr眉nau housing estate, which added another important international dimension.

The MES students are now producing a final report, aimed at planners and policy-makers in Toronto and the GTA, that will draw on their research in Germany to make recommendations for how Toronto鈥檚 tower neighbourhoods might be transformed.

This graduate course was a component of the Global Suburbanisms project based at 91亚色鈥檚 CITY Institute under the direction of Professor Roger Keil. The course was made possible with generous financial support of 91亚色 International and the German Academic Exchange Service and benefited from institutional, academic and personal support of Professor Sigrun Kabisch and Professor Dieter Rink, as well as other colleagues from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, a partner in 91亚色鈥檚 Global Suburbanisms project.

By 91亚色 MES students Gwen Potter and Josh Neubauer, who travelled to Germany this summer

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Right: As part of their involvement with the Ontario Health Study, researchers will take physical measures such as blood pressure during a series of mini clinics that will be held this fall

One of the most ambitious community-based medical surveys ever conducted, the听study will track the听health of Ontario residents over the course of their lifetimes.听A community health project, the is aimed at establishing听the largest population-based听longitudinal cohort study ever attempted in North America, and will be the first major epidemiological survey听to be conducted online.听

The study will focus on identifying gene-environmental听determinants of different chronic diseases, including cancer, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, mental health disorders and more.

As part of 91亚色鈥檚 involvement, researchers from the School of Kinesiology & Health Science and the psychology program will be holding mini clinics this fall to collect physical measures from volunteers from 91亚色 and its neighbouring communities. The mini-clinics will also provide a venue for the distribution of health information and health promotion materials. The 91亚色 researchers involved in the study are: 听

• Professor Chris Ardern (Kinesiology & Health Science),听whose research is听focused on the epidemiology of physical activity, obesity and cardio metabolic risk.听
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• Professor Sherry Grace听(Kinesiology & Health Science), a researcher听specializing in cardiac psychology and the utilization of health services.
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• Professor Jennifer Kuk (Kinesiology & Health Science), whose research looks at听obesity and related health risks (cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes) and听the influence of physical activity using both exercise interventions and epidemiological approaches. |
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• Professor Jane Irvine (Psychology), a researcher whose work focuses on stress and cardiovascular disease, and modifying cardiovascular behaviour and psychosocial risk factors.
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• Professor Paul Ritvo (Kinesiology & Health Science), head of the Ritvo Lab and a researcher specializing in health behaviour change.

The questionnaire, which is completely voluntary, takes about 30 minutes to complete and will ask participants about听their general health, genetic history and lifestyle.听The study听will then follow participants over their lifespan to听determine how a variety of factors influence participants' health over a long period of time. The data听collected will in turn help听researchers听develop strategies for the prevention and treatment of diseases, as well as to inform health-policy changes.

Irvine听chairs the听social health component of the听survey and will work with Ritvo and Grace. Ardern and Kuk听are leading the obesity and physical activity component of the survey.听As part of their involvement with the study, the听researchers will have access to听the data听collected.

More information on the clinics will be forthcoming. In the meantime, 91亚色 community members interested in learning more about the听study should visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post 91亚色 researchers lend expertise to Ontario Health Study appeared first on Research & Innovation.