Stefan Stevanovic
Stefan Stevanovic
ZHAW
School of Life Sciences and Facility Management
Institute of Natural Resource Sciences
Grüentalstrasse 14
8820 Wädenswil
Work at ZHAW
Position
Focus
- Research and development activities in projects of the Plant Design research group
- (Tree-)substrates and urban soils
- Urban trees and forestry
- Sponge City
Teaching
- CAS Urban Forestry
- Coordinator of the ‘Sponge City’ module, BSc in Environmental Engineering
- Bachelor modules of the Urban Ecosystems
- Editorial board "Urban Forestry & Urban Greening"
- Plant design course
Experience
- Research Associate
ZHAW Wädenswil
2022 - today - Landscape planner
TGP Landschaftsarchitekten BDLA
2021 - 2022 - Wissenschaftlicher Assistent
ZHAW Wädenswil
2020 - 2022 - Environmental construction supervision & planning
PTB Magdeburg GmbH
2020 - 2021
Education and Continuing education
Education
- MSc Spatial Development and Natural Resource Management
University of Excellence TU Dresden
2018 - 2020 - BSc Environmental Engineering / Urban ecosystems
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
2015 - 2018 - Minor in training and consulting & species knowledge (field botany)
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
2015 - 2018
Continuing Education
CAS Higher & Professional Education
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
08 / 2025
Network
Membership of networks
Awards
European Young Urban Forester of the Year 2023
European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF)
05 / 2023
Social media
Projects
- Sponge City Project Giessereistrasse 2.0 in Zurich / Project leader / ongoing
- Development of Street Greenery in Volketswil / Team member / ongoing
- Sponge City Scheuchzerstrasse in Zurich / Project leader / ongoing
- Schwammstadt Monitoring Living Lab Grüze / Project leader / ongoing
- Implementation of the Sponge City building blocks in Lucerne / Team member / ongoing
- Improving the living conditions of sweet chestnuts in urban areas: Outdoor trial at the Grüental campus / Project leader / ongoing
- Sponge city pilot project Bern Schosshalden cemetery: Development of the storage substrate for root expansion / Project leader / ongoing
- Site development Viererfeld/Mittelfeld Bern / Project leader / completed
- Sponge City Winterthur - Zwinglistrasse infiltration channel / Project leader / completed
- Development of Basel perennial substrate: Scientific biochar outdoor trial in Arlesheim / Project leader / completed
- Structurally Stable Substrates for Sustainable Green Infrastructure and Stormwater Management: A Field Trial with Urban Trees in Wädenswil / Project leader / completed
- Comparison of building development in urban areas and outdoor laboratories and in different substrate compositions / Project leader / completed
- Lucerne sponge city project: Use of sponge city elements in the public street space / Project leader / completed
- Effect on vitality of tree plantings with biochar-enriched substrate: Scientific outdoor trial in Arlesheim (BL) / Project leader / completed
- Development of a new formulation of tree substrate for Grün Stadt Zürich: Scientific development of the substrate formulation / Project leader / completed
- Structural Stable Soils for Zurich / Deputy project leader / completed
Publications
Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed
- Stevanovic, S. (2024) 'Biokohle und Schwammstädte : wie Biokohle den natürlichen Wasserhaushalt fördert und gleichzeitig zur Bekämpfung des Klimawandels beiträgt', Regio Basiliensis, 65(2), pp. 75–83. Available at: https://www.gegbasel.ch/regio-basiliensis.
- Stevanovic, S. and Eggimann, S. (2024) 'Schwammstadt und Superblock : neue Ansätze für die Umgestaltung von Quartieren', Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, 175(5), pp. 250–255. doi: 10.3188/szf.2024.0250.
Other publications
- Stevanovic, S. (2025) 'A journey through China's sponge cities : between tradition and tomorrow', Swissnex in China Newsletter. Available at: https://swissnex.org/china/news/a-journey-through-chinas-sponge-cities-between-tradition-and-tomorrow/.
- Bertschy, A. et al. (2024) 'Hall-like urban forests : sustainable concept for temporal brownfield transformations', in 26th European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF), Zagreb, Croatia, 21-25 May 2024. ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-31455.
Oral conference contributions and abstracts
- Stevanovic, S. (2025) 'State of research on urban trees in Switzerland', in Annual Conference of the Climate Resilience Committee of the Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture, Guangzhou, China, 28 September 2025.
- Stevanovic, S. (2025) 'Role of trees and nature-based solutions in cities for climate adaptation and health', in SB 62 Bonn Climate Change Conference Side Event 'Cities leading the way: advancing healthy and just transitions through urban climate action', Bonn, Germany, 19 June 2025.
Other publications
- Regenwasser-Management - Das Prinzip Schwammstadt
- Sponge city principle for sustainable urban tree growth: innovative substrate and vegetation systems in Zurich’s industrial district
- Structurally stable substrates for sustainable green infrastructure and stormwater management: a field trial with urban trees in Wädenswil
- Climate Species Lists – A combination of Methods for Urban Areas