The first regional URSYS workshop took place in Minneapolis from April 21 to 23 and engaged 37 researchers and community stakeholders. The workshop’s goal was to begin creating cross-disciplinary research collaborations among stakeholders in the MRB with the potential to identify themes and sites for future interdisciplinary grant proposals and projects. Participants were encouraged to share stories and examples from their region within the MRB. Panels at the workshop were organized around four themes:
- To improve land use planning for urban communities and adjacent rural areas to reduce sprawl, integrate renewable energy and energy conservation, address needs for housing construction and food production, and support community integrity;
- To enable change of urban-rural interfaces to reduce transboundary flows of nutrients and other pollutants that negatively impact the region’s river system through the use of green infrastructure;
- To address issues associated with vacant land in urban areas and its potential to support urban ecosystem services (e.g., stormwater management, food production, biodiversity conservation);
- To address the urban heat island (UHI) and related urban energy use by considering interrelationships of urban and urban-adjacent land uses as well as urban green and blue spaces under climate change scenarios;
Workshop participants also visited the banks of the Mississippi River in spite of high water flooding.
