March 2023

On 8 June 2023, the seven research groups of the D-BAUG lighthouse project "E-Bike City" invite to a full-day colloquium at the Audi Max of ETH Zurich. The goal is to present preliminary results and to actively involve participants in shaping the research questions by means of various workshops. In addition, a bicycle tour will take place on 13 June, which will focus on planning issues related to a bike city.

The rETHink project was initiated in 2020 by ETH President Joël Mesot to be the roadmap for the university’s ongoing institutional and organisational development. Now, the project is moving into its implementation phase. The project managers have explained what is going to happen next at the “rETHink Switch” event, which took place on 22 March.

A new edition of the D-​BAUG Urban Research Seminar is coming up: led by professor David Kaufmann, the new initiative aims to build a bottom-​​up network that brings together early career researchers and their ongoing urban research projects. On 3 May 2023, five short talks will present the variety of perspectives and methods from which urban research is approached across ETH Zurich. An exciting networking event for all early career researchers!

Urban water management is confronted with substantial sustainability challenges (climate change, new pollutants, ageing infrastructures). Recent technological advances would enable radically more decentralised and modular solutions to tackle these problems. A prerequisite would be the strategic innovation of regulatory and operational standards. This is demonstrated by a research project co-led by professor Max Maurer. Read the full article in the annual report of the ETH Board.

Focusing exclusively on new housing developments to counter the housing crisis is not sustainable, says David Kaufmann. His research group has has been able to show that vulnerable persons are displaced to a much greater extent than previously thought in the Swiss canton of Zürich.

In the Forest Laboratory "Waldlabor" on Hönggerberg, D-BAUG researchers investigate the storage and transport processes of water in the forest. Recently they showed that forest-​floor litter and deadwood have a far larger influence on the forest water balance than expected.

The ALEA – the Art of Leadership Award – has been conferred by ETH Zurich since 2017 in recognition of leaders who facilitate modern and innovative working conditions and who actively encourage and support the reconciliation of work, family, and part-time commitments. This time the award was for the first time jointly presented at an independent event by AVETH and VPPL. This year's winner is Thomas Meierhans, manager of the metal workshop at D-BAUG.

A research team led by Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Professor of Planning Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS), shows for the first time how a relaxation of Swiss spatial planning policy would affect the locations of wind turbines. If the aim is to have as few wind turbines as possible in the Alps and in Switzerland in general, it would be worth considering using windy agricultural areas on the western Swiss Plateau.

At its meeting of 8 and 9 March 2023 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed computer scientist Bernd Bickel as Professor of Computational Design and granted environmental engineer Stephan Pfister the title professor.

There is a wide variety of initiatives dedicated to selected sustainability topics at ETH Zurich. ETH Sustainability makes these visible and has created a new offer for encounter and exchange with the biweekly Open Office Hours.