International Environmental Planning Exercise

Under the direction of Dr. Stefan Rüter (IUP) and Prof. Vivek Shandas, a joint "International Environmental Planning Exercise (IEPE)" was held for the first time from 15 October to 5 December 2012. The aim of this extracurricular course was to exchange knowledge and experience and to network Master's students from both universities.

At the IUP (Master's programme in Environmental Planning), students in the ongoing project "Bioclimate and Green Space Network in Hanover (Potentials of Urban Green Spaces for Climate Compensation in Hanover)" participated in the IEPE. At Portland State University, students from the Master's course "Urban Planning - Environmental Issues" were involved, who, like the students in Hanover, work on semester-long study projects in small groups. The project topics of the students in Portland were "Mitigation Banking", "Stormwater Cycles" and "Stormwater Management in Portland".

Within the framework of the IEPE, video messages were produced and exchanged via the internet, explaining the background, objectives and methods of the project work in Hanover and Portland, as well as the basic framework and working methods of student projects in the two degree programmes. The students at IUP were technically supported by the eLearning Service Department (elsa) of LUH during the video production.

The videos provided by the partner university were analysed and subjected to a professional review. Here, the project work was discussed and reflected in its own specific national context. The results of the reviews were in turn sent back as feedback so that the international partners could integrate them into their own work.

IEPE was established within the framework of the EU-funded Atlantis project PLAN-ED: Educating Planners for the New Challenges of Sustainability, Knowledge, and Governance.