CIRCULAR URBAN WOOD
Amsterdam is one of the most tree-rich cities in the world, home to around one million trees of more than 600 different species. Every year hundreds are cut down and replaced with new ones, when they obstruct the use of the city or become a threat to public safety. What happens to them afterwards? And what opportunities can be found to use this material? This is one of the biggest organisational challenges the city faces. Let's take a closer look.
OVERVIEW
Absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it for decades, wood is a key material in the transition towards low carbon economy and is therefore highly valuable. Moreover, urban wood that comes from the trees standing in public places has social value. It represents local heritage, and holds stories and memories from communities. That is why the City of Amsterdam has recently established an auction system for the collection and distribution of this precious material, to provide everyone with equal access to urban wood. Nevertheless, as the City has adopted the goal of being circular by 2050, this new system of urban wood distribution should be structured around the circular economy. On this basis, the Circular Urban Wood Living Lab helps the City explore how to achieve circularity in urban wood flow in Amsterdam.
CITY OF AMSTERDAM
WOOD
BUSINESSES
GREEN
CONTRACTORS
& RECYCLING
ARTISTS &
WOOD WORKERS
END USERS
CO-CREATION
As a complex concept, circularity requires a holistic approach that involves dealing with both material and social dynamics of urban wood flow. That is why the Circular Urban Wood Living Lab project is built on co-creation with stakeholders to work towards shared solutions. In this regard, many co-creation sessions were organised to better understand the needs, requirements and capacities of the stakeholders involved in urban wood flow, such as wood businesses, contractors, artists and small scale wood workers. Many insights were gained through these sessions into how to achieve circularity in urban wood flow while ensuring that the stakeholders' needs are met. On this basis, the products of the living lab were cultivated to provide information, structure and stimulus to those looking to create circular urban wood flows.
PRODUCTS
As the essence of Circular Urban Wood Living Lab Project is understanding the material and social dynamics of urban wood flow in Amsterdam, three different products were developed on this basis. Each product focuses on a different component of urban wood flow in order to deliver a complete plan to help the City of Amsterdam develop a circular system for the distribution of urban wood.
I. URBAN WOOD MODEL
Understanding aging patterns of the population of trees within a city is crucial for optimising the material usage of the wood derived from the trees, when they eventually need to be chopped down. By understanding which trees are getting old and will need to be chopped down due to safety risks, a proactive wood handling system can be designed.
To achieve this, the Urban Wood Model Amsterdam has been made. Based on the municipal trees database the model is able to predict the aging of trees and present this data in absolute numbers within certain age groups, and in a geographical form by implementing the results in a geographic information system. By using
historical datasets containing tree chopping records, the model is also able to predict how many trees will be needed to be chopped down in the future. The results from the model indicate that the age of trees in Amsterdam is rising, suggesting an influx in trees that need to be chopped down in the coming decennia. Geographical analysis shows an uneven distribution of the age of trees throughout the city; certain neighbourhoods contain relatively young trees while others contain almost only old trees.
The Urban Wood Model Amsterdam can be used by policy makers and municipal departments to help them in decision making for tree planting and maintenance strategies. Besides that, the results from the model can be used to design and implement a wood distribution system that is able to deal with the dynamics associated with urban wood; an increase of wood availability and change in neighbourhood from which the wood originates. Finally, the model can be used to predict how many trees need to be planted, to maintain a healthy age distribution of trees in the city!
Click on the icon to read the Urban Wood Model report.
II. URBAN WOOD POTENTIALS
The Urban Wood Potentials report focuses on the possible uses for urban wood of all quality types. Based on co-creation sessions with artists and woodworkers in Amsterdam, this product outlines viable stakeholder arrangements to handle Amsterdam's urban wood. The report centres on uses for lower quality woods, which are currently composted or used in biomass energy generation. Whilst it is concluded that there is some place for composting in Amsterdam's urban wood system, using wood for energy generation overlooks the value that can be generated through other use structures. The use of urban wood for artistic, educational and recreational purposes can create value in different ways; through the functional purpose it serves, the income it can generate and the heritage that is maintained in created products.
The creation of systems to facilitate the distribution of (lower quality) urban wood to artists, woodworkers, institutions and communities in Amsterdam should be of high priority for the Municipality. Similarly, the collectivisation of the above groups is important, to create demand for urban wood. Through collaborative relationships between policy makers and citizens, more value can be generated from Amsterdam's urban wood.
Click on the icon to read the Urban Wood Potentials report.
Click on the icon to read the Manifest for the Amsterdam Wood Awareness Collective formed as part of the Urban Wood Potentials study.
III. SCENARIO ANALYSIS
As the City of Amsterdam aims to transform urban wood flow by developing an auction system on the basis of fairness and circularity, it is required to harmonise this goal with the material and social dynamics of urban wood flow for a successful transition. In this regard, a scenario analysis with three different auction systems was developed through this study to reveal the potential options for the City. Identified as the Centralised Auction System, the Decentralised Auction System and the Online Green Auction System, these scenarios were assessed according to the criteria formulated through the inputs from the stakeholders. As a result of this assessment, the strengths and weaknesses of each criteria-based scenario were outlined to understand which option would be the best fit to achieve circularity in urban wood flow in Amsterdam.
Click on the icon to read the Scenario Analysis for Circular Urban Wood report.
centralised auction system
decentralised auction system
TEAM
We are three young professionals and master's students in the Metropolitan Analysis, Design and Engineering program at Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. If you have questions and would like to know more about Circular Urban Wood Living Lab Project, please get in touch with us!
Melih Fırat Ayaz
melih.ayaz@wur.nl
Sam Amin
sam.amin@wur.nl
Yannick Schrik
yannick.schrik@wur.nl
PARTNERS
