The RDI Pahlawan Office welcomes a special visit from Dr. Alex Lechner, a Professor of Landscape Ecology at Monash University Indonesia. He has extensive experience in implementing integrated socio-environmental approaches, along with spatially explicit modelling (i.e. GIS) for natural resource management. His current research includes sustainable urban planning, biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia, and extractive resources. These diverse experiences made him appointed to give a guest lecture on the topic of Mapping Nature Based Solutions (NBS).
The NBS topic was selected because of the awareness that development and industrial progress have often sacrificed nature and increased the climate crisis which is increasingly threatening the world. The way the industry works must be changed with an alternative nature-based approach to managing ecosystems in a balanced way, which is called NBS.
The guest lecture was attended by RDI Officers and several students from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and moderated by RDI's DCR Research Officer, Medhiansyah Putra Prawira. There were four major discussions discussed including NBS in Southeast Asia with Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur as case studies; Urban Biodiversity Connectivity Modeling; Ecosystem Service Model; as well as future research at Monash University in Indonesia. The participants were so interested in the discussion this time that the question and answer session went smoothly and was full of insights that could be drawn.