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Welcome to the Urbanista podcast!

The podcast for urban designers and city planners who want to know more about city water management and sustainable urban development.
The episodes cover topics like potable water management, stormwater management, urban development and sustainability in water industry. A collaboration with Global Water Intelligence provides you industry's latest news and events. Stay tuned and follow Urbanista in your favorite podcast app!

Listen our most popular podcast episode: How to go from gray to green infrastructure? 

In this episode, we discussed the main challenges of transition from gray to green infrastructure, new carbon neutrality requirements and regulations with Tallulah Lutkin, Utility Performance Editor from Global Water Intelligence.

 

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Potable water episodes

Why do we need to invest more in drinking water?

In this episode, we talk with Magnus Lundin - Business Director, Potable Water Solutions at Uponor.  We discussed the main challenges that we have right now in cities with drinking water and why we should invest more in the water industry. 

Is technology improving water monitoring?

An interview with Patryk Wójtowicz, Research Manager at Savonia University of Applied Sciences, and Water Network Modelling Expert in the field of environmental engineering, about technological innovations that could help with measuring and modelling.

Efficient water networks

With Klara Ramn – Executive Committee member of EurEau, the European Federation of National Associations of Water Services we talked about water regulation, water loss, the cost of running and renovating water networks and how money is generated from tariffs, taxes and transfers. 

Are we paying too little for water?

Ilari Aho, the Vice President of Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs at Uponor, was caught up by Delfin Vassallo to discuss about the most important topics from the IWA High-Level Summit, whose theme this year was "Partnerships for Smart Liveable Cities – water as a key to Action on Climate and SDGs.”

Stormwater management episodes

Monitoring Water Quality: The Paris 2024 Olympics

n this fascinating conversation, Dan tells the Urbanista about how Fluidion monitors water, about their work with the Paris Olympics and the Seine River, and how the EU needs to improve its water monitoring standards. 

Challenges in building stormwater systems nowadays

What are the challenges in water management nowadays? What is the impact of ageing water networks on the residential areas? We talked with Ebba Waernbaum - Strategist within VA SYD, a regional wastewater organization working in the Southwest Skåne, and also head of waste management in Burlington and Malmö, a municipal organisation with a focus on stormwater about the hidden infrastructure and the process for planning of a new system.

Why do we need to separate oil from the stormwater?

Rickard Granath, Solution Manager, Stormwater, at Uponor Infra elaborates why it is important to separate oil from the stormwater.

How to treat polluted stormwater?

How can we treat stormwater correctly? Why it is important to separate stormwater from oil, heavy metals and other suspended solids before it reaches a water body? Here are the best approaches of treating the polluted stormwater

Reduce flooding risk in cities in a sustainable way

This episode we focus on stormwater management with Rickard Granath and Jean Saarinen, the experts of Stormwater management at Uponor Infra. How do we properly treat, filter, and reuse rainfall water?

Urban development episodes

Unlocking AI’s Potential in Urban Design: Practical Insights for City Planners

In this episode, we talk to Damiano Cerrone, co-founder of the UrbanistAI platform, about how AI is transforming urban design and planning. He shares insights on how AI can facilitate collaboration among stakeholders, speed up decision-making, and enhance public involvement in urban planning.

Urban utopia: The Ideal City doesn't exist

In this episode, we discuss with Mustafa Sherif - host of Urbanistica Prodcast "Cities for people" about several key topics regarding urban development and liveable cities in the Nordic context. 

What role water plays in urban design?

In this episode we talk with Päivi Raivio, Helsinki-based designer who has dedicated her career to creating better public spaces through urban interventions and placemaking. 

Data-driven urban design. How to collect data for city planning?

Natalia Rincón – Co-Founder and CEO at CHAOS, an AI startup focused on location intelligence forecasts to improve the liveability of cities, explained us what is sustainable urban development and data-driven urban planning. 

How can children teach us to solve climate change?

Lars Nørgård Holmegaard – CEO of the water utility of Lemvig, Denmark shared with us the challenges they are facing in north Denmark with rising sea levels. What sustainable solutions they are considering and how he sees the future of water management in cities. 

Sustainability episodes

How to execute a sustainability-driven project?

Martin Lundholm, a Project Engineer at Skanska, has focused on sustainability and innovation within infrastructure projects. He has worked with the Skellefteå Municipality in northern Sweden which has the clear and ambitious goal of becoming the most sustainable city in Europe. Martin tells us how to actually implement (build) a project with a strong sustainability focus.

New EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

This episode features Ella Tanskanen, Head of Sustainability Services at Greenstep, discussing the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and its impact on companies.

Circular economy is NOT only waste management

We took the opportunity to ask Michael Hanf, Lead, Sustainable Business at VTT and host of The Circular Coffee Break podcast, about the definition of the Circular Economy and its principles, challenges it brings, how consumers can engage in it, its role in urban planning, and the power of society. 

The Truth Behind Data Quality in LCA

What kind of data is behind Life Cycle Assesments (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)? We talked with a sustainability expert Panu Pasanen, CEO of One Click LCA to find the truth behind the data.

9 criteria for sustainable infrastructure

Riina Känkänen, Head of Sustainability at Ramboll Finland shared with us the 9 criteria for sustainable infrastructure covering the ecological, social and economic sustainability of infrastructure. 

Why do we all need to have EPDs for products?

We reached out to Judith Masip Calle, Technical Support Specialist & Sustainability Responsible at Uponor for some answers and more on the subject of EPDs. What exactly are EPDs, and what do their use mean?

How to go from gray to green infrastructure?

Tallulah Lutkin from the Utility Performance Editor at Global Water Intelligence discussed with us about the main challenges of transition from gray to green infrastructure, new carbon neutrality requirements and regulations. 

How the city of Lahti became a European Green Capital?

How Lahti became Environmental Green Capital of Europe? An insightful discussion with Jenni Rahkonen, Environmental Coordinator at The city of Lahti, shared us the formula of Lahti's success.

Recycled materials - second class quality?

During this conversation with Franz Cuculiza, Business Director of Denmark’s first plastic recycling company we discussed recycling plastic materials and the circular economy. 

Collaborative approach to Life Cycle Assesment

During this conversation with Gregory Norris from MIT and Harvard University, we discussed the collaborative Life Cycle Assessment concept and several approaches of measuring the environmental impact of products and services. 

Carbon footprint offsetting

A conversation with Nicklas Kaskeala, Co-Founder & Chief Impact Officer at Compensate about carbon offsetting, how it works and how it is regulated.

Urbanista & Global Water Intelligence

Water Utilities Face Climate Whiplash & Workforce Challenges

The third episode of the GWI News series, we talked about climate change, customer engagement and workforce challenges in water utilities. Tallulah also elaborated on how Ukrainian utilities are navigating the conflict's impact and highlighted an innovative initiative where wastewater is used to heat an IKEA store.

Sustainability mandatory reporting has financial impact

In the second episode of the GWI news series, we discuss some conclusions from COP 28 in Dubai, developments in Direct Potable Reuse, the EU’s new corporate sustainability reporting directive, Germany’s sludge management and the Swedish case which asks, ‘Who is responsible for PFAS?’

Tariffs for water are increasing by 8%

First episode of the new series in the Urbanista podcast, Global Water Intelligence, GWI, News. In this episode we talk with Tallulah Lutkin, the editor at GWi about the recent news and events in water industry.

Want to catch up with the Urbanista? Check the previous seasons' summaries