EuroSDR 2024: Knowledge sharing across Europe

DARe’s Research Associate, Kristina Wolf, travelled to the EuroSDR Board of Delegates meeting, held at Aalborg University’s Copenhagen campus in Denmark in November 2024. After collecting a prestigious award for her PhD, ‘Geospatial data infrastructure for multi-agency incident management’, Kristina recounts the highlights of her trip.

Kristina’s PhD was funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Geospatial Systems, and Ordnance Survey, the National Mapping Agency of Great Britain.

My PhD work was awarded by the European Spatial Data Research (EuroSDR), an organisation comprising national mapping and cadastre agencies, geographic information organisations, research institutes, and universities across Europe. I had the honour of presenting my research at the Board of Delegates meeting in front of the European representatives and engaging in an interactive Q&A discussion afterwards.

The meeting provided a whole three-day experience filled with various topics. Day 1 was the country day, where we heard about ongoing research in Denmark and Greenland. Further presentations from the Danish Agency for Climate Data highlighted the digitalisation of open basic data and the importance of data sharing. Data sharing can help streamline and support collaboration and provide a solid basis for climate protection and sustainable development decision-making.

Days 2 and 3 consisted of scientific sessions and talks from partner companies, updating the audience on current developments in geospatial hardware and technology. The days also featured some fantastic keynote speakers, and we learned the importance of a “skilled, sustainable citizen,” including skills for mutual understanding amongst the participating partners, collaboration, and problem-solving.

From a DARe perspective, it was exciting to hear about how other European countries manage topics such as climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, and the implementation of technical tools for impact assessment and better collaboration. We talked about sustainable mobility and different sustainable transport modes, i.e., those that consume less energy, emit less CO2, consume less space during movement and parking, and make the population healthier.

Researchers presented the growth of urban cycle networks, missing links in existing networks, strategies for optical bicycle network growth, and how to build bicycle networks from scratch in other international cities. Perhaps this is something to consider in the UK as well?

We also discussed more technical topics, such as required data management, solving “legacy problems” in traditional urban sectors, and the opportunities and challenges of digital twins. The Danish hydrological information and prediction (HIP) system is an example that can serve as a ‘digital twin’ for climate change adaptation, water management, and disaster risk reduction.

In summary, it was a remarkable experience presenting at the Board of Delegates meeting, learning about ongoing European research, different municipalities’ adaptation approaches and climate action plans, and discussing the importance of systems thinking to increase the success of our projects across disciplines and sectors.

As well as greatly reducing your overall carbon impact, considering a multi-modal journey is also a great option if you can interrupt your journey for a stopover, meaning you can spend some time exploring European cities. For example, if you are travelling over a weekend at this time of year, you could take the time to enjoy local festivities like Christmas markets.

Helpful and user-friendly websites like eco passenger, can aid in planning the best routes to take, comparing the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and other environmental impacts for planes, cars, and trains for passenger transport.

See below a map with the breakdown of my own multi-modal journey, from Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK to Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital city.

The first leg of my journey was the only flight of the whole trip, from Newcastle (UK) to Düsseldorf (Germany). I next travelled on the Intercity Express (ICE) and Euro City (EC) trains from Köln (Cologne) to København (Copenhagen).

We had a 45-minute layover in Hamburg – just enough time to pick up some local pastries from the bakery before jumping back on the EC train for a further five hours. Seats on ICE trains have plenty of legroom and power sockets at every seat, and it’s also possible to reserve a seat in the ‘quiet zone’, which offers a comfortable place to work or relax undisturbed.

When I arrived in Copenhagen, I took the S-Tog regional train to Sydhavn, just two stops away. Copenhagen has a fantastic public transport system and bicycle network. Multiple all-day tickets can be easily purchased at any vending machine or via the DBS app in English.

For my return journey, I took the Intercity Express (ICE) from Cologne to Brussels. Once I arrived in Brussels, I went to the international train terminal and checked in for the Eurostar connection to London. As the Eurostar departs almost every two hours, check for the best connection, and there might be enough time to try a delicious Belgian waffle. After just over two hours and one stop in Lille, France, I arrived at London St Pancras. After lunch, I continued my journey to Newcastle on the Lumo train.

I booked my train tickets via the German railway Deutsche Bahn’s international website, which provided an overview of affordable tickets from Cologne to Copenhagen. I suggest looking at the website when you have flexibility because prices can be stated as €19.99 (~£16.60) for a two-hour trip from Cologne to Brussels or the special Europe price of €59.99 (~£49.80) for a journey from Cologne to Copenhagen. For my train ticket to Newcastle, I used the Lumo app.