Lena Mutzner, Group Leader in the Urban Water Management Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology discusses the intricacies of stormwater quality monitoring. We learn a bit about how water quality is sampled, different pollutant types that she has focussed on and the ongoing challenge around contaminants of emerging concern. We also discuss the apparent paradox of repeating research cycles despite having done similar work 40 years ago, the importance of a holistic approach to stormwater management and how she is developing her research career into the uncertain future.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Meditative Activities
4:16 Nordic Countries vs. Switzerland
7:36 Lena's Mission in Water Quality
10:53 How it all started - engineering or psychiatry?
13:18 Contaminants of emerging concern
16:48 Studying Water Quality 101
26:28 Which contaminants does Lena focus on?
29:28 Tyre wear leachate and 6PPD-Quinone
33:01 Data issues towards building water quality understanding
36:45 Different types of common micropollutants
40:55 Interplay of Modelling and Water Quality Data Collection
46:18 Effect-based measurements
48:19 The holistic view - integration as a the way forward
51:05 Mitigation of pollution through Blue-Green Infrastructures
54:00 Lena's Future Research Trajectory
56:49 Q&A Start
57:24 What does innovation mean to you?
1:00:30 Key Moment, Person, Event
1:03:52 Women in STEM - Lena's drive to be a role model
1:06:40 Time Management
1:10:24 Favourite childhood memory
1:12:55 Biggest challenge to date
1:18:17 Advice for young researchers
1:20:00 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:21:15 Where can people find you?
1:21:57 Final Message
1:22:15 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #5 delves into the links between water, energy and heat - Yannick Back (ep35) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion (in English) of eight of his publications, all written in German and with different foci. This is the first experiment on this mini-series, which uses multiple sources.

The 8 Papers were published from 2019 to 2024. Full details can be found in the show notes. Their German titles are:

• 2019: Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Geoinformationssystemen in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft am Beispiel Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes
• 2019: Untersuchung und Optimierung der Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln
• 2020: Dezentrale Regenwasserbehandlung zur Entlastung der Kanalisation und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln
• 2020: Urbanen Hitzeinseln und überlasteten Entwässerungsnetzen entgegenwirken
• 2021: Latente Wärme vs. Sensible Wärme
• 2021: Rolle der Energie- und Wasserflüsse im Stadtsystem: Steigerung der Resilienz unserer Städte zur Anpassung an die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels
• 2023: Chancen und Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung klimaresistenter dichter städtischer Gebiete mit Blaugrüner Infrastruktur
• 2024: Die Rolle der Bewässerung städtischer Grünflächen während gleichzeitiger Trocken- und Hitzeperioden

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:27 Guest Intro, Vibe Coding and Catch up
3:20 Guest's prior experience with AI
5:02 How this experiment works
6:32 The human summary
11:19 Live Reaction
54:11 Post-discussion
59:03 Potential Future of AI
1:00:29 Wrap up
1:01:10 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Jarrod Luxton, Senior Lead at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Board Member of Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (finsif) and Founder of First Arrow discusses what a best-practice sustainability strategy looks like in 2025! The key player? Nature! We delve into the topic of valuing nature-based solutions and compare and contrast between Australian and Nordic contexts, especially Finland's priorities and motivations for the practice. Jarrod and I also reflect upon our times in Australia and the transition to Europe.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Nordic Summers and reconnecting via Podcast
4:36 Missing Australian Rules Football ("Footy")
6:14 Jarrod's own podcast creation journey
7:29 Jarrod's interest in ESG
12:58 NBS and Terminology
17:13 Valuation of NBS, Sitra and Jarrod's perspective
34:41 Finland's Adoption of NBS - current status
37:25 Green gentrification and being equitable with NbS
39:55 The role of spatial data
41:36 What does a best practice sustainability strategy look like in 2025
48:22 Unpacking the importance and thinking of circular economy
51:00 The TNFD-LEAP Framework for financing
55:01 Jarrod's current endeavours
56:34 Investing in nature - are nature credits a thing?
58:24 The importance of communication and Jarrod's new company
1:02:18 Q&A Start
1:02:39 What does innovation mean to you?
1:05:28 Key event, person, book
1:08:20 Time Management
1:10:43 Favourite childhood memory
1:11:39 Biggest Challenge to Date
1:14:02 Advice for young professionals
1:15:56 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:17:35 Where can people reach you?
1:18:31 Final Message
1:18:46 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" - Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise.

Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 3
4:39 How this experiment works
5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far
12:25 The Experiment Structure
13:07 The human summary
16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM
31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM
36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview
52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview
55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI
57:50 Wrap-up
59:10 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story!

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour
4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration
7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project
12:59 Green Roofs 101
22:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure
28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs
32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology
35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs
41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses
53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels
1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability
1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours
1:12:47 Q&A Start
1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you?
1:13:53 Key event book person
1:14:43 Time Management
1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory
1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date
1:18:37 Advice for young professionals
1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:20:27 Where can people find you?
1:21:08 Final Message
1:21:36 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing
5:58 Nature and energy?
9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics
20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan
29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy
33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest
36:35 Is there a favourite renewable?
38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization
42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization
44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools
46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project
54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making
1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency
1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis
1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory
1:14:30 Q&A Start
1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you?
1:16:00 Time management
1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory
1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date
1:23:45 Advice for young researchers
1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for?
1:30:16 Where can people find you?
1:30:58 Final message
1:33:06 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #3 delves into "Different perspectives on urban nature-based solutions" - Veljko Prodanovic (ep13) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion on an opinion piece around human, ecological and AI perspectives of urban nature based solutions, this time guided by a focus prompt.

Full Reference to the Paper: Prodanovic, V., Bach, P.M. and Stojkovic, M., 2024. Urban nature-based solutions planning for biodiversity outcomes: human, ecological, and artificial intelligence perspectives. Urban Ecosystems, 27(5), pp.1795-1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01558-6

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and callback to main series
3:31 How this experiment works
4:31 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:50 The human summary
11:20 Live Reaction
49:18 Post-discussion
53:40 Potential Future of AI
55:54 Wrap up
57:21 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #2 delves into "Tools for urban heat mitigation" - João Paulo Leitão (ep1, ep40) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion of a fairly long and comprehensive literature review paper that we co-authored along with colleagues.

Full Reference to the Paper: Probst, N., Bach, P.M., Cook, L.M., Maurer, M. and Leitão, J.P., 2022. Blue Green Systems for urban heat mitigation: mechanisms, effectiveness and research directions. Blue-Green Systems, 4(2), pp.348-376. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2022.028

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
1:25 Guest Intro
1:57 Guest’s prior experience with AI
4:06 How this experiment works
5:17 Live Reaction
49:22 Post-discussion
52:12 Thoughts on the future of AI
53:49 Final remarks
54:39 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/