Meet the partner - TU Dortmund

Who are you? 
“We are Jürgen Schultze and Joachim Müller from TUDO. Jürgen is the Coordinator of the Research Area Transformative Governance in Citizen Regions and the head of the project here. Joachim recently completed his studies in spatial planning with a focus on urban design and has experience working in landscape architecture and architecture offices. Together, we support the team in developing workshop concepts and building the green team.” 

Why did you join this project? 
“We developed the Green Team project together with the Province of Antwerp. Our extensive experience in climate adaptation processes and supporting cross-departmental cooperation made this project a natural fit for us. We aim to make our methodologies available to other municipalities in Europe, especially in rural areas and small to medium cities. Our interest in climate adaptation and the desire to contribute to making our cities more resilient to climate change motivated us to join this project.” 

What has been a highlight for you? 
“For us, the first workshop in Putten was a significant success. The enthusiasm and motivation of the participants were inspiring. Their eagerness to improve their climate adaptation efforts was a highlight for us. Similarly, the workshops in Landkreis Emsland, Germany, were remarkable. The cooperation and enthusiasm of the participants were evident, and they quickly agreed on new projects. We even received excellent feedback from the local climate and environment officials, which was very encouraging.

Additionally, sometimes, we start to understand a few words in Dutch or Flemish during the workshops, which is a fun and unexpected bonus.” 

What are you looking forward to? 
“We are looking forward to completing the evolving roadmap processes adapted to the Green Teams approach. Helping municipalities become more resilient and seeing the cooperation grow will be very rewarding. We are excited to see the final results of our efforts and the progress made by the municipalities over the coming months and years.” 

When will this project be a success? 
“The project will be a success when the participants / municipalities feel more confident in their climate adaptation efforts and believe that we have helped them strengthen their concepts and methods. Additionally, if our success inspires other municipalities to adopt similar approaches, that would be a significant achievement.”