Last week, Master's students from 17 countries were on the road at HTW Dresden, in the state capital, in the region and in Berlin, using public transport and on foot. The topic is the interaction of soil, water and vegetation in the design of urban spaces, buildings and green areas. The aim is to ensure climate impact, water retention, flood prevention, biodiversity and recreation. The two-week programme is part of the module "urban Ecosystems and Nature Based Solutions" in the Erasmus Mundus programme "Master of Science in Urban Climate and Sustainability - MUrCS+1.5".

The students of the current cohort come from 16 countries in Asia and Africa, the Middle East, North, Central and South America and Europe. In addition to their university degrees, they also bring professional experience from various disciplines such as civil engineering, urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture and environmental sciences. During the intensive programme in the second semester at HTW Dresden, they attend lectures and work in the laboratories of the faculties of civil engineering and agriculture/environment/chemistry. On excursions and at expert lectures, they get to know the cooperating Dresden scientific institutions and practical partners such as the Leibniz Institute for Ecological Spatial Development (IÖR), the State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology and the engineering company Prof. Dr. Sieker mbH Berlin.
"We have rarely experienced such an interesting programme, but we have also never been on foot so much" says a student and shows the smartphone screen with the pedometer. 11,200 steps are displayed.
Students from the last year enrolled at the HTW as part of their master's theses and are jointly supervised by the teachers in the MUrCS team and the practice partners.

Presentation and discussion of the results

On 28 April 2023, the students presented the results of their work at HTW Dresden: For example, how ecological and technical aspects can be combined in climate-oriented sustainable urban and open space development with regard to soil, water and vegetation, or how building greening, traffic greening, stormwater retention and revitalised watercourses are considered in context when planning urban districts and green infrastructure.

MUrCS+1.5 Master in Urban Climate and Sustainability

Together with Glasgow Caledonian University (Scotland), LAB University of Applied Sciences in Lahti (Finland), Universidad de Huelva (Spain), HTW Dresden offers the two-year Master's programme MUrCS+1.5. Further information on the Master's programme can be found at https://murcs.eu/