PhD JOURNEY: GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE CONFERENCE IN ORVIETO, ITALY
04:05:00
I've never mentioned this in my blog, but I'm doing my PhD in the Landscape Department, University of Sheffield. My research is about mitigating urban flooding through the use of natural elements, i.e. vegetation. It focuses on the roles of low-growing vegetation (shrubs and herbaceous plants) to reduce the impact of stormwater runoff, especially in urban areas where urbanisation and rapid building development reduces the capacity for water infiltration into soils.
Recently, I participated in a scientific conference on 'Green Infrastructure' and contributed a poster on my research. The conference was held in a small Italian town called Orvieto, which was about 1.5 hours away from Rome. It was held in Orvieto upper town, in 2 location venues; Palazzo Dei Congress and Palazzo Dei 7. Orvieto is quite a small town, and I booked a place to stay right in the centre, so it was just literally 3 minutes walk to the conference venue.
Palazzo del Popolo - the conference venue.
The theme of the conference was Green Infrastructure: Nature Based Solutions for Sustainable and Resilient Cities, which is quite the trend in several fields today, namely landscape, architecture, ecologists, hydrologists, urban planners, civil engineering and more.
The conference kicked off with a plenary session with amazing keynote speakers from different backgrounds. We were then dispersed into different sessions according to themes. There are 12 Scientific Sessions which includes climate change resilience, economic impact of green infrastructures, water and soil management (the category my research falls in), and many more that runs in parallel sessions. The presentations were very interesting and informative, given by presenters from all over the world with different research backgrounds and interest.
During plenary session and roundtables with the panels and keynote speakers.
Presentations during parallel session based on different themes/topics.
Lunch provided by the conference was limited for me because there were lots of meat and ham, but the coffee that came alongside the meals... you can never say no to coffee! There was a small coffee stall inside the huge dining hall and the stall was always full of people queuing and waiting for their caffe - I feel sorry for the barista because she was brewing everything all by herself and she couldn't even get her head straight to fulfil everyone's request, haha. That's how much the Italians love their coffee.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Poster session was held on day 2 of the conference, where interested participants will walk around and interact with poster presenters about their research. I had some really good chat with some fellow researcher, and had questions and feedbacks about my research. It was a good way for me to reflect on my research and further increase my knowledge and understanding from a more experienced researcher and experts' point of view. The Scientific Committee came up to me and asked a few questions about my research, and asked if I will be around tomorrow (last day of the conference) - apparently, I was nominated for the Best Poster Award, haha, but unfortunately I didn't win it (winner gets €1000!).
After the poster session, the registered participants walked to a restaurant called Restaurant Al San Francesco for a Social Dinner event, which was organized by the conference (out of 400 of the conference participants, 200 were registered for the dinner event).
Frankly, I'm not a really big fan of fancy dining, but once in a blue moon doesn't hurt, right? The dinner started at 8pm and we were served with Italian appetizers, 3 main courses and desserts. Orvieto is famous for their wine and thus, we were served bottles and bottles of them, which obviously, I didn't have any (no need to clarify that). I also asked that my meals were served vegetarian, and the people at my table helped to make sure that there were no meat in any of my dish - so kind of them.
The people at my table and I got to know each other, as it was my first time meeting any of them. Most of them are Italian, from different province of Italy, some are from other parts of Europe. We talked and talked about until it was getting late - they served the food quite slow (I guess it ain't easy to serve 200 people at a time). The dinner ended at 11pm and we were already tired since we started our day early morning.
Recently, I participated in a scientific conference on 'Green Infrastructure' and contributed a poster on my research. The conference was held in a small Italian town called Orvieto, which was about 1.5 hours away from Rome. It was held in Orvieto upper town, in 2 location venues; Palazzo Dei Congress and Palazzo Dei 7. Orvieto is quite a small town, and I booked a place to stay right in the centre, so it was just literally 3 minutes walk to the conference venue.
Palazzo del Popolo - the conference venue.
The theme of the conference was Green Infrastructure: Nature Based Solutions for Sustainable and Resilient Cities, which is quite the trend in several fields today, namely landscape, architecture, ecologists, hydrologists, urban planners, civil engineering and more.
The conference kicked off with a plenary session with amazing keynote speakers from different backgrounds. We were then dispersed into different sessions according to themes. There are 12 Scientific Sessions which includes climate change resilience, economic impact of green infrastructures, water and soil management (the category my research falls in), and many more that runs in parallel sessions. The presentations were very interesting and informative, given by presenters from all over the world with different research backgrounds and interest.
Lunch provided by the conference was limited for me because there were lots of meat and ham, but the coffee that came alongside the meals... you can never say no to coffee! There was a small coffee stall inside the huge dining hall and the stall was always full of people queuing and waiting for their caffe - I feel sorry for the barista because she was brewing everything all by herself and she couldn't even get her head straight to fulfil everyone's request, haha. That's how much the Italians love their coffee.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Poster session was held on day 2 of the conference, where interested participants will walk around and interact with poster presenters about their research. I had some really good chat with some fellow researcher, and had questions and feedbacks about my research. It was a good way for me to reflect on my research and further increase my knowledge and understanding from a more experienced researcher and experts' point of view. The Scientific Committee came up to me and asked a few questions about my research, and asked if I will be around tomorrow (last day of the conference) - apparently, I was nominated for the Best Poster Award, haha, but unfortunately I didn't win it (winner gets €1000!).
After the poster session, the registered participants walked to a restaurant called Restaurant Al San Francesco for a Social Dinner event, which was organized by the conference (out of 400 of the conference participants, 200 were registered for the dinner event).
Frankly, I'm not a really big fan of fancy dining, but once in a blue moon doesn't hurt, right? The dinner started at 8pm and we were served with Italian appetizers, 3 main courses and desserts. Orvieto is famous for their wine and thus, we were served bottles and bottles of them, which obviously, I didn't have any (no need to clarify that). I also asked that my meals were served vegetarian, and the people at my table helped to make sure that there were no meat in any of my dish - so kind of them.
The people at my table and I got to know each other, as it was my first time meeting any of them. Most of them are Italian, from different province of Italy, some are from other parts of Europe. We talked and talked about until it was getting late - they served the food quite slow (I guess it ain't easy to serve 200 people at a time). The dinner ended at 11pm and we were already tired since we started our day early morning.
After dinner, we walked back to our respective hotels. We walked pass the duomo (Orvieto Cathedral) and it was so beautifully lit at night! You can see all the intricate details of the walls and facades of the cathedral shining under the spotlight.
So the final day was just a closing session and roundtable on some topics - which was also an interesting session where there were Q&As between the panels and audiences. After coffee (which we had a lot of throughout the conference), the chair of the conference just awarded the winners for poster and oral presenters and concluded the conference and future perspectives. The conference also organized a field to to Rome, which I didn't join - the trip includes a visit to Villa Borghese and Castelporziano.
Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and participating in this conference - as much as I enjoyed Orvieto itself. I've met some great people in my field and had useful feedbacks for my research. I've also made some contacts which I'm sure will be useful in the long run in my career path, after all, it is all about networking with the people in your industry/field. I look forward to participating in more research conference in the future and expand my knowledge and network in this field!
P/s: My department at the University of Sheffield just launched a new research centre; the Centre for Designed Ecology. Visit here to view my research profile.
0 comments