In October 2025, Elke Mertens and Ralf Löwner from the NetCDA partner Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences visited their partner university, the Federal University of Technology Minna.
The visit took place from October 19 to November 1, 2025, and focused on teaching and hands-on work with PhD candidates.
The course centered on “Urban Development and Green Infrastructure”, addressing key challenges of urban climate adaptation. Together with the PhD candidates, topics such as urban heat, land use, and the role of green infrastructure were discussed and further developed.
In addition to the lectures, practical fieldwork was a key component of the visit. Prof. Mertens brought six data loggers to measure air temperature and humidity, which were installed together with the PhD candidates at selected locations. After only a few days, the first data were collected and analyzed, providing initial insights into local climatic conditions. The devices remain at the university in Minna and are now available for use in ongoing doctoral research.
Another field exercise focused on mapping the lighting infrastructure on campus. Equipped with GPS devices and smartphones, students documented the locations of streetlights and collected spatial data.
What was initially planned as a small exercise quickly gained momentum. “We originally expected perhaps a dozen measurement points,” recalls Prof. Löwner. “In the end, some groups collected data from more than one hundred locations.”
Much of this data is now intended to be integrated into open geodata platforms such as OpenStreetMap, making it available for local planning and future research.