Hace solo unas pocas semanas salio publicado el libro Avances en el estudio de islas de calor urbano en America Latina. El libro fue editado por mi ex-alumno Richard Lemoine Rodriguez junto a Azucena Pérez Vega y Jean-François Mas. El libro recopila en 11 capitulos el estado del arte en islas de calor urbano en nuestro continente, con estudios de casos presentados por destacados investigadores latinoamericanos. Les dejo el link donde pueden descargar el pdf completo.
Author: Dr.habil. Luis
Hace ya treinta años que el premio nobel de química Ilya Prigogine se refirió a la ciudad como un sistema disipativo lejos del equilibrio, incluso proponiendo en su libro Order out of Chaos (Orden desde el caos, 1984) un modelo simplificado de urbanización basado en este principio. El estado lejos del equilibrio al que se refiere Prigogine es desde luego en el aspecto térmico, donde no hay homogeneidad en la temperatura interna de las ciudades, lo que produce un alto dinamismo interno con la consecuente disipación de calor hacia el exterior. Este es un principio básico que establece una relación …
The farewell of a giant
As I’m getting older, I’m also becoming more prone to emotional crashes. During this week, I was often forced to hide my emotions behind a smile, a joke or a simple silence while dealing with feelings of immense gratitude or sadness. Life has been so generous to me, the eternal latecomer, giving me the opportunity to meet interact with, and learn from intellectual giants and beautiful persons. Yesterday (Thursday 21.11.2024) I witnessed Dolf de Groot’s farewell ceremony during the closing plenary of the 5th Ecosystem Services Partnership European Conference. Two times I was forced by strong emotions, to escape out …
Cultural ecosystem services. Some post ESP-LAC conference reflections
Last week was intense. I chaired the ESP-LAC conference in La Serena, from 6 to 10 November. It was a bilingual conference for the first time. I had the honour to count on my side with the Vice-rector Jiri Skladanka and the Dean of my faculty Jiri Schneider, indeed such distinguished support. I also had a team of 9 students from Mendel University. In addition, with the excellent work done by the ESP secretariat, we ensured a high-quality conference, as it has been the seal of ESP conferences for so many years. An extra challenge this year was the bilingual …
Anthropocentrism, Utilitarianism and the Question of Value
Recently, I had the beautiful opportunity to attend the IALE World Congress 2023 in Nairobi—an exhilarating week filled with stimulating exchanges of ideas, networking, and boundless learning. Engaging with remarkable colleagues, we delved into our shared passions, with nature conservation at the very heart of our discussions. Among the many ponderings that continuously captivate my mind is the perplexing misperception of our human nature. How we misconceive human nature often leads to misguided interpretations of concepts like ecosystem services. I must admit, the notion that humans can transcend their very humanity when it comes to our relationship with other species …
Conferencia de ESP en La Serena, Chile!
Este año entre el 6 y el 10 de noviembre celebraremos nuestra conferencia internacional ESP en La Serena, Chile. Por primera vez haremos un evento bilingue, con sesiones en castellano e ingles. Queremos juntar a las comunidades que hacen investigacion sobre servicios ecosistemicos en ambas lenguas de manera de producir fructiferos intercambios de ideas y posiblidades de colaboracion internacional. El tema de la conferencia es educacion sobre servicios ecosistemicos y capital natural para construir un futuro sostenible. Hemos tenido una gran acogida de nuestra comunidad internacional, con mas de 48 sesiones aceptadas! Ademas estamos organizando talleres previos a la conferencia …
A Dragon in my Garage. The myth of the 9 m2 of green space per capita
In a classic book called The Haunted-Demon world: science as a candle in the dark, Carl Sagan presents an appealing history of a person who claims to have a dragon in a garage. The problem with that Dragon is that it doesn’t give any material clue about its existence. Regardless of the insistence of Sagan on the many possible ways to test whether the Dragon is there physically, the “owner” always finds excuses to avoid such trials. The tale ends up concluding that there is no difference between a dragon that cannot be tested and not any dragon at all. …
Understanding the use of language in science. Some limitations on abstractions
The common language used in non-scientific environments tends to be largely vague, at times inconsistent, elusive and recursive. What one person is saying or writing can hold almost uncountable different interpretations. Rather than being a defect, such ambiguity and imprecision underpin the success of language as a communication instrument. These features indeed enrich communication, foster imagination and lubricate social interaction. Language is a fundamental component of human life, making us what we are as animals. Science has a fundamental and undeniable dependence on language. However, scientific language is not perse neutral, objective and free of the aforementioned shortcomings. On the …
Can be cities sustainable at all? My inaugural lecture
On 30 November 2021, I gave my inaugural lecture to conclude the formalities of my habilitation. The inaugural lecture (Antrittsvorlesung) is a very special occasion, a moment of celebration for the successful finalization of the habilitation and a tradition in the German academic system. I choose the title: “The urban ecosystem. Can cities be sustainable at all?” to be broad enough while also provoking students and colleagues. I post here the full video (with subtitles in English and Spanish) and curious to hear any feedback. Abstract – The urban ecosystem. Can cities be sustainable at all? While the urban era is fully determining our lives, as it was announced by Lefebvre in the early ’70s, we continue experiencing increasing challenges to conceptualize, analyze, and measure cities and their impacts. The conceptual apparatus we inherited from theoretical and applied disciplines to deal with the urban question seems overcome by the paramount challenges posed by planetary urbanization, the ecological crises and climate change. However, at the beginning of the XXI century, our urban challenge remains more epistemological than operational. Can urban ecology help in reshaping our understanding of urban systems, guiding us in a process to learn to live with uncertainty and dynamic ever-changing urban challenges? I would like to explore some angles of these questions looking at urban as dynamic systems far from equilibrium, determined by the laws of thermodynamics, having, therefore, a particular metabolism that is materialized in distinguishable spatial structures, that can be conceptualized and measured as ecosystems. I will concentrate on aspects of expansion, informality, metabolic fluxes and heat to explore the regularities that we found present in most urban systems. Using examples from Latin America and Europe I will illustrate some possible entry points for a generalized urban hypothesis that brings ecology from the periphery to the center of the urban epistemological discussion. In the light of the necessary inclusion of humans as a fundamental natural force and an undeniable component of the urban ecosystem, ontological as well as operational aspects for such inclusion will be also discussed using the ecosystem services framework. Being cities the answer to a particular question, I would like to reflect on what type of question could that be.
De la ciencia, las ciudades, los animales y otras cosas. Conversando con Rodrigo Bravo
Esta semana tuve el gran placer de conversar con mi amigo (personal 🙂 ) Rodrigo Bravo, que conduce un entretenido programa de entrevistas a expatriados, gente que comparte la experiencia de haber dejado su pais natal y haber comenzado una vida en el extranjero. Pudimos tocar algunos temas interesantes, conversar de cosas mas personales y tambien algunas reflexiones de la vida cotidiana. Hubo varios temas que me hubiera gustado compartir, como mi fascinacion con la filosofia epicura y porque creo que es fundamental para nuestro futuro, el alto excepticismo y pensamiento critico que guia mi vida o la coherencia que …