Martine Alexandra Andersen Hennig

About

My work fouces on the restoration of biodiverse and valuable soils in transport construction projects. Topsoil is a non-renewable resource, which is inevitably lost when paving the way for new infrastructure. Meanwhile, moving and restoring these soils elsewhere can be an environmental compensation measure and contribute to restoring degraded nature.

Previously, I did my MSc in Natural Resources Management in biology at NTNU, which was funded by the interdiciplinary research project GreenMove (2022-2026), supervised by Bente J. Graae and Martijn L. Vandegehuchte. In short, I analysed the vegetation and topsoil response to topsoil translocation from a road construction site into the urban landscape of Høgskoleparken at NTNU. Not only did the project increase the biodiversity in the park, but also saved some of the doomed plant communities from degradation.

Now as a PhD within the same project, I have one leg at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the other leg at my former Department of Biology. Along with my main supervisor Rolf André Bohne and in co-supervision from SINTEF by Hrefna R. Vigdisdottir and Katrin Knoth, I analyse the step-by-step impact of soil relocation using life cycle analysis (LCA), both for agricultural and natural systems. The overall goal is to find more sustainable ways to manage soil in infrastructure projects for humans and nature, as the last resort effort to minimize human impact on the scarce agricultural soil and fragmented and degraded nature.

Honors/awards:

Best presentation at the "First European PhD and Postdoc Symposium on delivering the future of Infrastructure Research", hosted by the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR), 2024

Best Master thesis in sustainable development at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, 2023

Publications

2026

Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; Vetnes, Alexander Grødum; O'Born, Reyn Joseph; Bohne, Rolf André. (2026) Something to re-peat? Reusing peat in infrastructure projects for natural restoration - an LCA-approach. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (EES)
Academic article
Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; Vandegehuchte, Martijn L.; Graae, Bente Jessen; Lum, Eryn; Vignisdottir, Hrefna Run; Knoth, Katrin. (2026) A road toward nature neutrality? Incorporating biodiversity restoration into life cycle assessment of road construction. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
Academic article

Journal publications

Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; Vetnes, Alexander Grødum; O'Born, Reyn Joseph; Bohne, Rolf André. (2026) Something to re-peat? Reusing peat in infrastructure projects for natural restoration - an LCA-approach. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (EES)
Academic article
Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; Vandegehuchte, Martijn L.; Graae, Bente Jessen; Lum, Eryn; Vignisdottir, Hrefna Run; Knoth, Katrin. (2026) A road toward nature neutrality? Incorporating biodiversity restoration into life cycle assessment of road construction. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
Academic article

Outreach

Sustainable Built Environment, SBE2025

Something to re-peat? Repurposing peat in infrastructure projects – a life cycle assessment approach, oral presentation, Trondheim, Norway 26.11.2025

Conference of Urban Transitions 2024

Thrift shopping biodiversity? Moving of biodiverse topsoil from a road site to enhance biodiversity in an urban area, poster presentation, Barcelona, Spain 06.11.2024.

Symposium on delivering the Future of Infrastructure Research 2024

Translocation of valuable and biodiverse soils in transport construction projects – a thrift shopping approach, oral presentation. Hosted by the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) in Dublin, Ireland 16.04.2024.

2025

Academic lecture

Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; Vetnes, Alexander Grødum; O'Born, Reyn Joseph; Bohne, Rolf André. (2025) Something to re-peat? Reusing peat in infrastructure projects for natural restoration - an LCA-approach. SBE25 Trondheim Cities and Climate Change , Trondheim 24.11.2025 - 27.11.2025
Academic lecture

Vetnes, Alexander Grødum; Hennig, Martine Alexandra Andersen; O'Born, Reyn Joseph. (2025) Road Decommissioning: A Path to Sustainability or an Uncertain Mitigation Strategy?. SBE25 Trondheim Cities and Climate Change , Trondheim 24.11.2025 - 27.01.2026

Språkvelger

Martine Alexandra Andersen Hennig