How the Internet of Nature can protect, restore, and enhance urban nature, Nadinè Galle, UCD, December, 4th

Interesting interview with Nadinè Galle, who is on a mission to regenerate cities, and works with academics, civic leaders, and CEOs to deploy the technology to make it possible. She coined the term the “Internet of Nature” (IoN) to bridge ecology and technology in an era where sustainable urban development is failing.

Since 2018, Green City Watch, which Nadinè co-founded and manages as its CEO, supports 30+ (mega)cities, from Jakarta to Amsterdam to Houston, to understand, monitor, and improve their urban forests through geospatial AI and computer vision.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

After learning that the life expectancy of urban trees is just 13 years, while their rural counterparts can live up to 100 years or more, I coined the term the “Internet of Nature” (IoN) to provide the framework for applying technology to protect, restore, and enhance urban nature. The application of one such technology came to fruition through Green City Watch, which I co-founded and manage as its CEO. Since 2018, Green City Watch supports 30+ (mega)cities, from Jakarta to Amsterdam to Boston, to understand, monitor, and improve their urban forests through geospatial AI and computer vision.

The Internet of Nature, UCD, December 4th

I am further developing the “Internet of Nature” (IoN) as a Ph.D. candidate in Ecological Engineering, jointly at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Senseable City Lab, University College Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin. My novel research, which was awarded a Fulbright scholarship, uses sensors to track the city’s underground network of microbes that connects trees, which holds vast potential to increase urban tree longevity.

How was the last year, what worked well, what didn’t move as quickly as you would have liked?

What are your plans for the future?

Every week, three million people move to cities, which are fast becoming humanity’s dominant ecosystems. Simultaneously, our cities are going digital. Smart cities are putting data and technology to work to drive efficiency and improve the quality of life for all citizens. Yet, the natural capital upon which cities rely on risks being left behind by the digital revolution. In the future, I hope the “Internet of Nature” (IoN) will continue to bridge the gap between greener and smarter cities. Researching and incubating this new frontier of ecosystem management in an age of rapid urbanisation and digitisation is critical to building (and living) in the sustainable cities of the future.

What will you be talking about at this event? 

Through research, design, and real-life success (and not so successful) stories, I will show how the IoN is already being applied to build better cities. I believe that by weaving biology with the modern world of technology, my audience will look at cities with a new perspective, as only then can we truly call cities the future biotope of humankind.

What inspired you to attend it?

The diversity of speakers. Creating smart sustainable cities and communities of the future will require academics, practitioners, and citizens alike to put their heads together and take the action required to drive change.

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

For research, I follow high-impact academic journals (e.g. Nature; Sustainable Cities & Society; Urban Forestry & Urban Greening; Urban Technology) and trailblazing researchers (Dr. Timon McPhearson at the New School for Social Research; Dr. Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch at the University of British Columbia; Dr. Lucy Hutyra at Boston University; Alessandro Ossola at Macquarie University).

In the more “popular science” realm, I love The Nature of Cities, Grist, ScienceDirect, and following some of my favourite urban ecologists on Twitter.

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

They can visit my personal website (www.nadinegalle.com), follow me on Twitter, connect with me on LinkedIn, or visit Green City Watch’s website (www.greencitywatch.com) to learn more about our vision, and current and past projects.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

People tend to think “greening” our cities is just about planting more urban trees. But it is, quite literally, so much deeper than that. As societies move toward nature-based solutions to provide critical ecosystem services for sustainable cities, we need to understand the basis for these solutions: soil. Nature-based infrastructure can only exist if we repair and restore the very basis this infrastructure is supported by. Sensor networks and other IoT solutions can revolutionize how we monitor the quality of our urban soils.

Another challenge facing future urban ecology is the fact that some 50% of the typical urban canopy resides on private lands, where cities have little jurisdiction, despite these trees offering significant benefits to the whole community. Emerging technologies like frequent, sub-meter resolution satellite imagery, drones, and LiDAR will allow tree ordinance officers to protect and retain privately-owned trees in a just way.

More about Nadine

Her novel Ph.D. research, jointly at MIT Senseable City Lab, University College Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin, uses sensors to track the city’s underground network of microbes that connects trees, which holds vast potential to increase urban tree longevity. Nadinè is an award-winning ecologist; published academic author; a TEDx and keynote speaker; a climate activist featured in the likes of Newsweek and ELLE; and holds international degrees in ecology, evolutionary biology and earth sciences from the universities of Toronto, Singapore, and Amsterdam.

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