Analysis and Development of Sustainable Urban Production Systems
Manufacturing of products in urban production sites is connected to unique potentials, yet also to specific challenges. Urban factories can provide functional diversity and contribute positive impacts to a city. The concept of urban production receives rising attention in research and industry and it is recognized in its interdisciplinary nature. With a holistic approach from both the urban perspective and the factory perspective, negative impacts can be minimized, positive effects enabled and mutually beneficial, symbiotic combinations created. The presented framework and methods for the evaluation and implementation of sustainable urban production systems allow the assessment of impacts and provide the means to control and utilize the unique strengths of urban factories for cities and industry. This will allow a structured derivation of methods and measures from the concept of urban production for producing enterprises and the urban stakeholders.
Biological processes associated with impact events
The biological effects of asteroid and comet impacts have been widely viewed as primarily destructive. The role of an impactor in the K/T boundary extinctions has had a particularly important influence on thinking concerning the role of impacts in ecological and biological changes. th During the 10 and final workshop of the ESF IMPACT program during March 2003, we sought to investigate the wider aspects of the involvement of impact events in biological processes, including the beneficial role of these events from the prebiotic through to the ecosystem level. The ESF IMPACT programme (1998-2003) was an interdisciplinary effort that is aimed at understanding impact processes and their effects on the Earth environment, including environmental, geological and biological changes.

