Trained as a forest manager and landscape architect, René van der Velde is an Associate Professor of Urban Forestry in the Landscape Architecture Section at TU Delft, where he leads the Urban Forestry research group. He graduated in environmental management from Queensland University, in landscape architecture from Greenwich University (BLA) and the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam (MLA), and completed his PhD at TU Delft.
His research explores how the urban forest is interwoven with the biophysical and socio-cultural fabric of cities, and how it can be leveraged to develop climate-resilient, healthy, and biodiverse urban environments. To this end, his group conducts research on Tree Architecture (the physical form and morphology of trees in relation to ecosystem services such as cooling); Urban Forest Syntax (the typologies and patterns of urban forest mosaics in Dutch cities); Data & Tools for Green Infrastructure (metrics and tools to monitor and model ecosystem services); History of the Urban Forest (the development of cities as wooded environments, and implications for future management and design); Urban Forest Care (human-tree relationships and participatory models for urban forest management); Mobile Urban Forestry (technical innovations for temporary urban woodland installations); and Forest Urbanism (design research around ‘Wooded Commons’, ‘Climate Arboreta’, ‘Novel Urban Ecosystems’, ‘Circular Regio-polis’, and ‘Biocities of the Future’).
He has extensive teaching experience in urban forestry, urban landscape architecture, integrated infrastructure design, landscape design theory, and climate resilience. He advises government, industry, and societal partners on urban forestry and green infrastructure.
A major challenge for Amsterdam is to expand and improve its urban forest and associated green infrastructure as the city transitions to a climate-resilient, healthy, and biodiverse future, within the unique biophysical, socio-cultural, and infrastructural context of its urban fabric.