UrbanLIFEcircles project aims to improve the conditions of biodiversity in participating cities. FinEst Centre for Smart Cities is a partner in the EU LIFE consortium project aiming at improving biodiversity connectivity at urban areas through citizen engagement activities. The three lighthouse cities of the project are Tartu (Estonia), Riga (Latvia) and Aarhus (Denmark).
News
Communicating biodiversity interventions to citizens via Virtual Reality game
Published on 23.07.2024
Written by Eeva Henna Helena Fabritius & Laura Mrosla, FinEst Centre for Smart Cities
Gamifying biodiversity
One of the tasks of the FinEst Centre’s project team is to create an informative Virtual Reality game of the Jaamamõisa area, especially around the Jaamamõisa stream in Tartu, a project target area for which interventions are being planned to improve biodiversity.
The aim of the Unity game engine-based Virtual Reality application is to provide information for citizen stakeholders on the planned interventions and of the expected biodiversity benefits of the interventions over time, while also providing background information of the knowledge base and assumptions that the future projections are based on. Special emphasis is placed on using biologically correct 3D models of plants, animals and fungi, to be able to communicate biodiversity impacts to citizens.
The development of the Virtual Reality game started by setting the target site terrain and building models, acquiring necessary 3D models (either by purchasing or by developing following the GreenTwins algorithmic approach), and placing trees and herbaceous plants based on field survey data collected by our Tartu colleagues. The planned biodiversity interventions were discussed with Tartu’s experts, to guide details of intervention modelling and the visualization of future projections.
In May, during the urbanLIFEcircles annual consortium meeting in Tartu, we had a chance to visit and photograph the Jaamamõisa site in person and to discuss the planned interventions at their real locations with Tartu’s experts. The visit gave us a chance to plan visualisation solutions and to better understand the context of the interventions.
EU biodiversity strategy 2030
The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 aims to stop the loss of green urban ecosystems and calls on cities with at least 20 000 inhabitants to develop plans including measures to create biodiverse and accessible urban forests, parks and gardens, tree-lined streets, urban meadows, etc. The strategy also foresees the improvement of connectivity between green spaces.
Visiting Jaamamõisa area in TartuUrbanLIFEcircles (Tartu ROHEring) is an international project in the European Commission LIFE program. Our project partners are University of Tartu, Kino NGO, Rohetiiger Foundation, Tallinn Technical University (TalTech) and the cities of Riga and Aarhus.
Read more about urbanLIFECircles project, objectives and FinEst Centre’s tasks.
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