The COVID-19 pandemic will leave its mark on many historic city centres. Consequences for the urban space can already be assessed and solution strategies developed. Using the example of the Historic Towns Working Group, Erik Mann, a graduate of the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), has investigated in his Master's thesis what influence the Corona pandemic could have on the inner cities and their further development. The most important results are summarised in a policy paper. The work was supervised by Prof. Dr. Robert Knippschild from the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER).

The next Spatial Science Colloquium of the Leibniz Research Network "Spatial Knowledge for Society and Environment" will focus on the consequences of the Corona pandemic for the spatial development of cities and regions. The network partners invite interested persons from politics, science and administration to the online conference on 11 May 2021. Participation is free of charge, registration is required by 6 May. Further information is available in German.

Biodiversity in our immediate surroundings is the focus of this year's Girls' Day on 22 April. We invite interested schoolgirls to find out more about greenery in the city at a virtual event. Female scientists will explain what tasks they work on as geographers or biologists at the IOER. Further information is available in German.

For the first time, researchers from various institutions, including the IOER, have systematically examined the stock of non-residential buildings in Germany. The result is the "Research databank on non-residential buildings". It will be the focus of the final project conference on April 28 and 29. The conference will be held in digital form. Interested parties from politics, administration, business and science are invited to discuss the results with the project team. The deadline for registration is 18 April.

What potentials as well as what challenges arise from the cooperation between Transition Town initiatives and municipal actors? What contribution do the initiatives make to sustainable urban transformation? The IOER has investigated these questions in the project "New partnerships in sustainable urban development? Potentials of Transition Town Initiatives" on behalf of the vhw - Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung e. V. The final report with recommendations for action for both the initiatives and the municipal level has now been published. Further information is available in German.

A new cohort of the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS) started at the beginning of March. The fellows of the DLGS 2021 will spend three years researching challenges of spatial sustainability transformations. DLGS 2021 focuses on "heat and drought in urban contexts". The application period for cohort number 12 starts in June.

In the EU project SPOT, the IOER is conducting research on new forms of cultural tourism in Lusatia, a region in the south of the federal state of Brandenburg. The research also includes investigations in the case study areas. In October 2020, a team from the IOER surveyed the population in the Lieberose/Oberspreewald district. Initial results are now available.

Since autumn 2017, an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practice partners has been investigating how urban districts and buildings can be better adapted to summer heat in the project "HeatResilientCity". The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now funding the project for another two years. Phase II will focus on the practical implementation of adaptation measures. The project also focuses on the issue of health.

Görlitz and similar small and medium-sized towns far from large metropolises have the potential to offer creative people, freelancers and young families a new home. The special characteristics of these municipalities play a central role in this. The Corona pandemic and the associated trend towards working from home also offer opportunities for small and medium-sized cities. However, some framework conditions also stand in the way of an influx from the big city. These are some of the scientific results of the accompanying research in the project "Testing the City - Living and Working in Görlitz", which researchers from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Ecological and Revitalising Urban Transformation (IZS) presented on Tuesday in a virtual press conference.

The editors of the journal "International Journal of Coal Science & Technology", published by Springer, have honoured three scientists of the Leibniz-Institut of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) with the "Certificate of Best Papers 2020". Peter Wirth, Ralf-Uwe Syrbe and Wolfgang Wende received the award for their paper "Green infrastructure: a planning concept for the urban transformation of former coal-mining cities". They had published the paper in 2018 together with Chinese colleagues Jiang Chang und Tinghao Hu from Chinese University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou.

Many great potentials are lying dormant in historical towns and small cities along the Saxon-Polish border. Their cultural heritage could be exploited to raise the attractiveness of these locations and their quality of life of. How to achieve this was the objective of the EU project "REVIVAL! – The revitalization of historical towns in Lower Silesia and Saxony", led by the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER). Strategy recommendations are now on hand for the region as well as the four Saxon and six Polish towns involved in the project.

Another paper on policy advice within the BMBF project "Transformation Lausitz" has been published. It documents a public hearing in the Committee for Regional Development of the Saxon State Parliament. Professor Robert Knippschild from the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) was invited as an expert. Further information is available in German.