News

Five projects granted seed funding at SLU Urban Futures

Published: 23 May 2025

To enhance the urban discourse at SLU and support landscape-oriented urban research, SLU Urban Futures has awarded seed funding to five projects focused on publishing inter- and transdisciplinary research. Each project is linked to one or more of the Urban Scapes themes: health-, forest-, food-, energy-, and waterscapes.

The Projects

From residue to resource – exploring the role of art and artistic process in dealing with complex urban waterscapes

In Western culture, we have had a tendency to perceive the sea as practically limitless in resources and absorbency, as well as something separate from society. Research has shown that changes in the marine environment are much more difficult for human senses to observe and understand than changes in, for example, agricultural landscapes, forests or urban environments.

The aim of this paper is to report to the MASSA project, which explores how artistic perspectives and values can affect the handling of millions of tonnes of excavated rock generated by the expansion of the Stockholm subway system. The project investigates new uses for excavated stone, including the creation of reeves and islands, as well as new public spaces and habitats for both humans and non-humans. How can we rethink the image of the city and curate new forms of water urbanism that reconnect people with their aquatic environments? How can we raise awareness about what is often invisible yet vital to our long-term survival?

The paper will contribute to Stockholm's relationship with water and highlight the urgent condition in the Baltic Sea, where erosion and quay construction have led to collapsing ecosystems and large-scale loss of important habitats.

Main Applicant: Hanna Erixon Aalto, Division of Landscape Architecture, Department of Urban and Rural Development

Combining fishers’ knowledge and monitoring data to understand the status of the blue urban commons in Stockholm City

Historically, many cities have been established in coastal areas with abundant resources to feed a growing local population. Over time, these waterbodies are often drastically altered by humans though construction, input of nutrients and hazardous substances, and the introductions of exotic species. Despite these pressures and physical alterations to the environment wildlife can persist – or, in some cases, even thrive. A recent study has shown that recreational fishing in European cities is popular, and that fishers’ motivations can be purely recreational with the aim to enjoy nature or subsistence, with fish contributing significantly to their diet.

The aim of the paper is to gain a better understand of the condition of urban waters in the city of Stockholm city, to outline the value of inner-city waters and their use by urban fishers for both recreation and food provisioning. This will be achieved by comparing the state of these urban waters with less impacted regions of the abutting waterbodies, such as Lake Mälaren and the outer Stockholm archipelago

Main Applicant: Matilda Andersson, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment

How seasonal changes influence the perception of health-promoting environmental qualities defined in the Quality Evaluation Tool

The main focus of the paper is to explore how seasonal changes relate to environmental qualities known to support health and well-being, as identified in environmental psychology research. Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field, and this paper takes an applied approach, targeting practitioners in landscape architecture and planning who design, develop, and manage outdoor environments aimed at promoting human health and well-being.

The paper aims to provide these practitioners with a deeper understanding of how seasonal variation influences the experience of such environments. In particular, it seeks to clarify how seasonal changes affect—and interact with—the descriptions of the nineteen environmental qualities defined in the Quality Evaluation Tool (QET).

Main Applicant: Anna Åshage, Department of Urban and Rural Development

Development of a proposal for a national strategy for access to outdoor environments and outdoor stays at residential care facilities for older adults in Sweden

Extensive research shows that access to and contact with nature play a vital role in supporting health and well-being, particularly among older adults and individuals experiencing illness. Research reviews indicate that treatment interventions in outdoor environments have a positive effect on older people's health, quality of life, and physical capacity. They also promote social interaction and cognitive abilities, while helping to reduce stress and depression.

Despite this evidence, Sweden currently lacks a national strategy to ensure access to outdoor environments and outdoor activities for older adults in residential care facilities. The aim of the paper is to propose such a strategy and to gather ideas for its implementation.

Main Applicant: Anna Bengtsson, Department of People and Society

Certification for recycled source separated nutrients

70-80% of the nutrients in domestic wastewater originate from human urine, making it a valuable resource. However, it is currently treated as waste and flushed away. Since municipal wastewater treatment plants cannot fully clean wastewater, excess nutrients end up polluting our waterways.

To address this issue, researchers from SLU, Sanitation360, RISE, and Ecoloop launched the RECAPTURE project (2022–2024), funded by FORMAS, to explore how to overcome the existing regulatory hurdles and build a more circular fertiliser market.

At the time, the only relevant certification—SPCR 178—was set to be discontinued due to low use. The consortium revised it and proposed a new version, the “new SPCR 178.” In 2024–2025, this proposal and a Low-Impact Fertiliser concept were presented to Gotlands Bryggeri, LRF, the Swedish Mill Association, Svenskt Sigill, Svenskt Vatten, and Avfall Sverige, who all supported the initiative.

The planned research paper will summarise these results and suggest a way forward for policy and practice to support a more circular fertiliser market.

Main Applicant: Jenna Senecal, Department of Energy and Technology

Facts:

Energyscapes refer to relationships of energy consumption, production, distribution, governance and space. Exploring urban energyscapes allows investigations especially the ‘green energy transition’, renewing energy systems above ground rather than beneath, influencing markets and sources with their spatial imprints, thus shaping an understanding of shifting relationships and consequences of contemporary transitions for societies, ecosystems and landscapes.
 
Waterscapes refer to the inter-relationships of water and society and their spatial consequences. Studying urban waterscapes explores water access, values, control and movements in space and time, shaped by climate, nature, culture, geography, technology and markets, representing (changing) water systems, landscapes and discourses.
 
Healthscapes refers to the interrelations between humans and planetary health nested into places and emphasizing the various conditions shaping human-nature relationships. The studies of Healthscapes aim at the promotion of a holistic view of health (mental, physical health and well being) beyond the focus on disease. It explores the interplay between individual human experiences and the cultural, socio-economic and physical landscapes. Taking an Urban Healthscapes approach can contribute to understanding the complex links between health and sustainable and equitable urban development.
 
The study of forestscapes explores the complex relationships between forests, people and cities. It refers to the way forest ecosystems and urban development are interconnected by diverse social, economic, cultural and environmental processes in different contexts. Forestscapes place emphasis on the diverse meanings and values forests have to different stakeholders, humans and non-human species and the impacts of these relationships on the formation of the urban landscape. Studying Urban Forestscapes allows perspectives on urban forests to be lifted in sustainable urban development issues.
 
Foodscapes refers to the complex inter-relations and connections between people, place and food. The production and consumption of food shapes, and is shaped, by social, spatial and discursive processes that play out across space, and over time. These processes take place within and across territories populated by multiple human and non-human actors operating at different levels and scales. Studying Urban Foodscapes offers a lens on sustainable urban development issues.