Urban Nitrogen Cycles: Are we suffocating in nitrogen?
 

Dear Markus!

Human activity has doubled the amount of “fixed” nitrogen circulating in our planet’s ecosystems. Especially in urban areas, the accumulation of nitrogen compounds leads to major problems. Ammonia and nitrate from imported food or nitrogen oxides from traffic and industry pollute air and water, accelerate climate change, impair biodiversity, and endanger health.

A team of scientists from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Peking University (both China) and the University of Zielona Góra (Poland) has been investigating nitrogen cycles in four cities - Vienna, Zielona Góra, Shijiazhuang and Beijing.

For the first time, so-called nitrogen budgets have been developed for major European and Asian cities, showing all flows and stocks of the different nitrogen compounds in urban areas. This provides politicians and planners with an effective tool for identifying problem areas, finding potential for mitigation and closing loops. Together with important stakeholders like urban planners, city authorities, NGOs, companies, and experts, we now want to discuss not only the promising results from Austria, Poland, and China, but also jointly identify and develop approaches for a practical implementation of nitrogen budgets.

We are pleased to announce that the Expert Panel on Nitrogen Budgets under the UNECE Air Convention will also join the conference in Vienna.
We therefore invite you on

to our Stakeholder Conference. In addition to exciting presentations and inputs from international scientists, we will work interactively in small groups and discuss with experts.

Covid-19 information: at the event all, necessary measures will be taken to make participation as safe as possible. Participants will be informed in advance about the current legal requirements.

We look forward to see you in Vienna!