Jena from a new perspective

The Jena City Forestry Office has presented a new interactive 3D relief model that vividly conveys Jena's landscape and the diverse connections between forest, climate and nature experience. The model combines real terrain structures with modern geodata and scientifically processed climate data, which is projected directly onto the relief. This creates intuitive access to geographical, ecological and climatic processes, making even complex topics easy to understand and experience.

One of the first guests to visit the new model was a 2nd grade class from Dualingo School. The pupils were able to explore the relief model as part of an initial educational event on their project topic "Water". The projections were used to clearly illustrate how rainwater is distributed in the Jena landscape during heavy rainfall, where it collects and which areas of the city can be particularly affected by flooding. The children were thus able to directly understand the connections between terrain, water flow and flood risks and interactively explore the effects of extreme weather events. The potential of the model to communicate complex environmental and climate issues in an understandable way and to sensitize young people in particular to the effects of climate change was already evident at the opening.

The project was developed in close cooperation with the Thuringian Institute for Sustainability and Climate Protection (ThINK) and the Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. As a pilot project, it combines scientific findings, digital geodata processing and environmental education and opens up new ways of imparting knowledge.

During the opening ceremony, Dr. Luise Eichhorn, Carolina Reinhold and Olaf Schubert (KSJ, Jena City Forestry Office) presented the new educational and information service. The ceremonial opening was performed by Kathleen Lützkendorf, Head of Department, and Uwe Feige, KSJ Plant Manager.

Olaf Schubert, city forester and head of the Jena City Forestry Office, emphasized: "With the 3D relief model, we are creating a bridge between science and nature in practice. The combination of real terrain data and current climate information makes it possible to make developments in the forest and landscape directly comprehensible. Our aim is to sensitize young people in particular to ecological relationships and give them direct access to scientific findings."

The primary target group is children, teenagers and young adults. At the same time, the offer is aimed at all visitors interested in nature and the environment. In future, the 3D relief model will be firmly integrated into the educational work of the forum natura nature experience center. This will provide low-threshold access to current nature and climate topics and promote understanding of the special features of Jena's landscape. The model can be viewed by prior appointment at naturerlebnis@jena.de.