p>
Figure 1 Barcelona seen from the Collserola Park. Source: City of Barcelona.
Barcelona is highly populated and one of the busiest tourist destinations in Europe. In 2012, the city fell well short of the European Union’s recommendation on access to green space (6.82 m2 per capita compared to the 26 m2 per capita target recommended by the EU (Laghai, 2012)).
Air quality in Barcelona is poor. It is estimated that 3500 lives could be...
The demo considers a baseline or business as usual strategy and two alternative strategies combining a different set of NbS with soft measures to test the effect on several impact indicators. The strategies were developed following a stakeholder co-development process combined with a feasibility analysis by technicians from the river basin authority with support of the modelling results. During a series of participatory workshops, a list of NbS, soft, and grey or hybrid measures were selected and ranked by preference by the stakeholders. These were then combined into three different...
The objective of the Demo is to assess the potential and impacts of a series of selected Nature Based Solutions (green and blue infrastructure) for the recovery of the groundwater levels and associated ecosystem services, and to generate adaptation capacity for the regional agriculture against...
To investigate the extent to which green screens (helix hedera) may provide regulatory ecosystem services. This includes acting as a buffer against airborne particulate pollution and reducing rainfall runoff rates compared to normal plywood construction hoarding.
One of the eight pilot projects that have received funding from Nordic Council of Ministers programme on nature-based solutions is the Danish project “More Nature - Less Waste” lead by Renosyd. They have set out to build 21 fences in Denmark in collaboration with local schools in two...
Xochimilco is an important tourist attraction for Mexico City and because of thi,s public policies have been focused in conservation, tourism infrastructure and ecotourism. Therefore there is now a priority to address social and environmental challenges including: the dredging and cleaning of...
The Schansbroek area was also ‘adopted’ by local residents for unofficial grow-your-own activities. The area has since been redesigned in collaboration with local citizens/workers. The aim was to create a multifunctional neighbourhood park for recreation, biodiversity and to restore water management. The 2013 design plan included measures to recreate a ‘wet ecotope’ by restoring a natural dam and ponds, and transforming an artificial reservoir from the former mine. Local citizens requested allotments, children’s play areas, cycling/hiking trails, picnic and meeting areas which were all...
Schansbroek lies near the source zone of the Stiemerbeek River and near the coal mine of Waterschei. Former mining activities severely affected natural water management contributing to pollution and flooding for local residents. This was partly related to a change in the topography of the area...
Given competition of land uses in urban areas, the scarcity of the resource soil endangers urban environments. Contamination, poor chemical, physical and biological fertility and high heterogeneity are common traits of urban soils. Previous and ongoing projects have typified soils, fertility and...
The case study site provides connected multi-functional green space that maximises ecosystem services for the sites and the local communities. Objectives include:
The development of a resilient city pleasant for the life of citizens of all ages and the satisfaction of their needs is one of the goals of the City, but also of other institutions. The City of Sarajevo faces challenges in achieving these goals (often insufficient financial resources, shared...
The environmental condition of Vejle Fjord has been categorized as bad in the inner and outer fjords. For the past 40 years, the Vejle Fjord has struggled to mitigate the runoff from industries and cities around the area, causing eutrophication and biodiversity loss.
The 5-year-project (...
LaBiomista is a nature-based solution that is re-using a disused zoo to provide a studio, exhibition and public space. LaBiomista is a public-private partnership bringing art, wildlife and people together. The old zoo infrastructure and greenspaces are being retained to provide a unique environment in which to support people in understanding their relationship with the natural world around them and how they influence it.
PROAmazonia is an ambitious, five-year collaborative initiative to transform the agriculture and forestry sectors in the Amazon region to more sustainable management and production practices. It is an inclusive, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiative seeking a just transition to...
The project aims to build social capacity amongst the Barking Riverside community in form of a Community Interest Company (CIC). It seeks to actively engage residents in the design, management, and maintenance of local mainly green but also social assets. However, as the project is looking for multi-dimensional long-term benefits and a slow but sustainable build-up of the company, and as the local situation is constantly evolving (e.g. because of a change in local actors or based on experience from TURAS) the short-term objectives (e.g. fostering...
Establishing a resident-run enterprise to manage Barking Riverside's community assets.
Promoting the improved management of the "montado" multifunctional ecosystem, reconciling resources use with conservation interests. This will be achieved by bringing the ecosystem services and natural capital concepts into practice.
The Lake Mogan Pondscape aims to conserve biodiversity, improve water management, and provide recreational spaces. It also plays a critical role in flood mitigation, provides nature’s contributions to people such as habitat provision and water quality regulation.
A de-construction project where a failed attempt of urbanization was substituted by a fully functional salt marsh ecosystem. La Pletera is a coastal salt marsh located in a very touristic zone and was affected by building works for a residential estate in the late 80s, and then discontinued in...
This pondscape plays a critical role in flood mitigation, water management, and biodiversity conservation in the Gölbaşı region. It supports urban and peri-urban ecosystems, enhances water quality, and provides recreational spaces, offering significant environmental and social benefits.
To deliver an exceptionally sustainable healthcare facility, delivering long term environmental, social and financial benefits for patients, visitors, staff and the local community.
The CLEVER Cities project identified the primary planning goals for Neugraben-Fischbek district located in the South-West of the city of Hamburg was to: (a) creating a connective ‘Green Corridor’ to link a system of NbS interventions; (b) establishing horizontal greenery through the construction...
In its 2016-2022 Development Plan the city has set out a vision for a ‘Sustainable, Resilient Dublin based on economy, environment and equity’ (1). The Development Plan’s principles for green infrastructure include sustainable buildings which should use ‘sustainable energy technologies and...
Conducting an integrated assessment and valuation of urban ecosystem services, which supports urban management and decision-making in Oslo. This scrutinises the potential and limitations of the concepts of ecosystem services and natural capital in an urban and Norwegian context.
This NbS aims at improving the usability of the area:
The Kaunertal concept case is an innovative research project with the aim of revegetating barren slopes in high alpine areas, such as those left by road construction or ski slope development, devoted to reducing erosion from these slopes.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS the stabilizing...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
A market study of regional tourism demand aimed at providing recommendations to government agencies, including the protected area agency. The main question that guided the study was: What are the attributes that attract tourists to specific locations in the study area?
The peri-urban forest Ostend in Belgium aims to provide a publicly accessible space for recreation, offering educational facilities for local residents and tourists.
Through the afforestation of previous agricultural land and being part of a Green Ribbon (Groen Lint) network surrounding...
Favoring of environmentally sustainable materials and solutions has been the main objective in the construction and services of Village Elves Hideaway. The newest ecological knowledge is integrated with mythology of Lapland in order to produce fascinating stories for guided tours. For this...
Installation of sport and exercise devices in the Eastern part of an open public park (Gustav-Heinemann-Park) in Dortmund’s district Huckarde which will be mainly useable for Huckarde citizens and pupils from an adjacent school. Devices will be publicly accessible and shall invite every person...
The plans of the municipality and the local civic organzation were to develop a pleasant, ecological park filled with different kind of leisure activities from the neglected gulf.
The objective is a...
RENATURALIZE THE LAGOON AND DEVELOP A NEW MODE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
The Serra de Collserola Natural Park aims to regulate urban microclimate, enhance biodiversity and offer opportunities for education, recreation and leisure, sense of place and aesthetic values.
To untangle the tracks approaching London Bridge station reducing delays and to achieve net positive biodiversity.
The regional Green Infrastructure Strategy (GIS) is to be established as an informal, planning basis for the further development of green infrastructure in the Ruhr area...
Water scarcity and low availability of water present a real obstacle to implement and maintain nature-based solutions such as urban agriculture and other peri-urban farming practices. The use of reclaimed water (i.e. treated wastewater) is an alternative water resource with many benefits...
The aim of my research is to provide evidence to forest planners and policy makers on the effects of alternative woodland management and expansion strategies on the delivery of a range of key ecosystem services, using the public forest estate in Lochaber as a case study.
The lifespan of...
By 2100, under a high greenhouse emissions scenario, the temperature is projected to increase by about 4.5 ºC in comparison to the 1990s. This means that every second summer will be as hot or even hotter than the temperatures reached during the 2003 heat wave which caused severe loss of life...
The project aims to protect and restore the biodiversity of the Duwa and Sutebwo forests and to increase household incomes, contributing to poverty reduction in 41 local communities in the district of Tominian.
The Llobregat river basin, with an area of 4,930 km2 and a total length of 175 km, is the largest inland basin in Catalonia. The course of this river has been widely exploited for various uses: agricultural, industrial and consumption, among others, for many decades. The part of the Llobregat basin that belongs to the metropolitan area represents only 4.74% of the total and corresponds to an intensely humanized space. However, this area plays a key role in the ecological and social connectivity of the metropolitan area. We are facing a space with different demands, with great potential...
• For adaptation to climate changes : understand and promote the resilience of natural habitats to
fire risk, in the context of climate change and share knowledge and involve people in fire risk awareness.
• For biodiversity : Support the...
The Greater London Authority (GLA) participants in the BRIDGE FP7 project identified the primary planning goals for the Central Activities Zone (CAZ)[1] as to: (a) increase green space; (b) improve air quality; (c) reduce the UHI...
The Ntakata Mountains Project aims to protect 216,944 ha of threatened forest by developing Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) with local communities.
Szeged is a mid-size historic city in the south of Hungary, the temperature is...
The city’s green and blue areas have a long history, and are even today seen as an important and integrated part of the city of Malmö, as reflected in the recent Master Plan. The ambitions are to create a close, dense, green and mixed functioning city, with densification as a driver, rather than...
To restore a Victorian cemetery from a state of neglect to provide a community green space, whilst maintaining and celebrating the heritage of the site as well as its conservation and ecological value.
Application of the pilot version of the Standard Protocol for the Classification of Cultural Ecosystem Services through Social Media data to the urban park of Kishon in Haifa, Israel.
Many land plots across Glasgow currently have contamination issues which prevent housing or commercial developments from taking place due to the cost of remediation. The Stalled Spaces project gives communities the opportunity to temporarily use a plot of such land in a way which brings benefit to the community, when the contamination issues do not prevent such re-use. The community can choose to adapt the plots for uses such as pop-up gardens, urban gyms, play or art spaces. Many of these initiatives represent nature-based solutions. Over 100 sites have been taken over by local residents...
The D4RUNOFF project’s goal is to create a novel framework for preventing and managing diffuse pollution from urban water runoff. This will be achieved by designing hybrid nature-based solutions (NbS) and a data-driven AI-platform to support policy and decision making.
The case studies...
The community at Nutsbedrijven Regio Eindhoven aimed at rehabilitating the old industrial area to a livable urban space. This initiative served as a participatory planning and governance, and social capacity building action as citizens were driving the development of the area and NbS...
Vestdijk has been transformed from a busy grey street mostly used by cars into an urban boulevard - creating more space for pedestrians and cyclists, targeting urban heat and air quality. The street now features more green areas such as street trees, rain gardens, and green strips with...
The project promotes urban butterflies conservation, thanks to the involvement of fragile people as citizen scientists. It aims to create and connect Butterfly oasis, to allow butterflies to cross the city; and to involve people with mental or physical disabilities, to fight the social stigma
Constructing and maintaining semi-fixed dunes on heavily used urban beaches to optimize the flows of ecosystem services, through collaboration with administrations and stakeholders. Dunes play a central role in coastal defence and protection against sea level rise linked to climatic change....
The hazard at the Capet Forest site is from snow avalanches along the 'Midaou' avalanche path.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS afforestation by planted trees of 9 different species have been implemented. The trees will eventually grow high enough and develop a stem thickness to act as...
The Bogotá Life-Lab focuses on the challenges faced by urban-rural transition zones in the Southern and Northern borders of the city, whose settlements and strategic ecosystems have been negatively impacted by urban expansion processes. These territories grapple with an array of challenges...
The Nordic Council of Ministers programme, Nature-based Solutions in the Nordic Region, is financing a project in Åland to improve four multifunctional wetlands for better water quality, sustainable food production, climate adaptation and increased biodiversity.
For several years,...
The above-mentioned challenges are addressed in Oradea’s plan for a green area within a 5 minute walking distance from anywhere in the city, evaluated in its Urban Development Plan 2030. Oradea’s main objective is to improve quality of life for its citizens, including by prioritising the...
The Interreg North-Sea Region project BEGIN accelerates climate adaptation by reducing urban flood risk in the North-Sea Region while promoting social innovation. BEGIN is substituting traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ such as concrete for ‘blue-green infrastructure’ (BGI) such as parks, rivers, and lakes. Preliminary results from BEGIN’s pilot sites indicate a flood risk prevention of over 30%.
About BEGIN
Since 2016, the project has been implementing BGI pilots in 10 cities in Germany, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. To...
The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue-Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.
BEGIN’s driving ambition is to...
The project invests in climate-proof infrastructure to improve urban environments and climate resilience for the Bao Ninh peninsula and along the Co Co river. The aim is developing climate-proofing structures through improvements to stormwater and flood management, erosion prevention, and...
The Skurdalsåa River is one of many steep tributary rivers to the main river Gudbrandsdalslågen. The river has its outlet from an old dam (1870) in Lake Svintjønna. Due to the relatively small catchment, Skurdalsåa responds rapidly to precipitation and snow melt. Roads, houses, a school, a...
The HECO programme will contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation through 5 components are as follow:
1. Adaptive governance in sustainable and resilient landscapes: This component will reduce the current fragmentation of governance, increase territorial integration and improve the financial sustainability of landscapes, through the generation of social agreements and articulation of environmental and sectoral policies, for example through agreements to pay for environmental services. It includes the following sub-components that complement or add to activities already...
Heritage Colombia (HECO) is a paradigm changing programme, that through a resilient landscapes approach and a long term financial scheme, will strengthen the adaptation and mitigation to climate change of rural Colombia through the, protection and sustainably management of important ecosystems...
The central Uzbek government needed to be convinced that investments in the Amu Darya delta would make social, ecological and economic sense. Ecosystem services of the delta were valued for three situations: the situation before degradation, the present degraded and the potential restored...
The very recent interest in Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) from the Peruvian Ministry of Environment MINAM, provides opportunity to strengthen policies and to create synergies between different initiatives to manage the city's water security and climate change challenges; tackling – at the same...
This national case-study assesses the use of Geocaching data to assess recreational ecosystem service delivery in the small island state of Malta. More specifically, the objectives of the study are to assess:
After around 21ha of floodplain area were passively and actively restored under the LIFE FLUVIAL project, an enlarging of the intervention area is now being implemented. The floodplain forest restoration intends to develop/demonstrate an ecological restoration approach for fluvial floodplains...
The Landscape park Tivoli, Rožnik and Šiška hill aims to enhance health and well-being of citizens and visitors while conserving natural values and landscape diversity.
The urban green infrastructure of the Landscape Park area further...
Bátya vízhiányos területen fekszik, a talajvízszint alakulását a Duna vízállása és a beszivárgás/párolgás határozza meg. A települést hőhullámok, aszályos időszakok, ezenkívül extrém csapadékesemények veszélyeztetik. A cél a fentiekhez való alkalmazkodás a...
The project proposes an integrated people-centered approach, with a particular focus on women, to address the triple crisis – poverty, climate change, and nature – at the local level.
With a green and blue framework that supports ecosystem benefits, Utrecht aims to promote healthy urban living through an integrated and systemic approach that combines local climate regulation, noise reduction, recreation and cleaner air. Currently, its main instrument for protecting and...
Leipzig is the largest city (a municipality with city status due to its size) in Saxony, Germany, with an area of about 30,000 ha and currently almost 600,000 inhabitants benefiting also from protected riparian forests, stretching from the south towards the north. The city was affected by massive population loss, increasing vacancy numbers and unused brownfields after 1990. Population losses slowed down by the turn of the millennium. Since 2012 Leipzig re-grows by around 10,000 citizens (2%) per year. Consequently, pressures on the city’s remaining open spaces are strongly increasing....
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The objective is to demonstrate how nature conservation can be integrated into practical forest management. Steinkreuz is part of the “European demonstration site network for integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management” (https://www...
Create healthy bee communities and work to preserve the biodiversity. By tracking the beehives and thus gathering information about the bee communities and their behaviour, extreme weather events can be predicted.
Identification of the health of the coral reef of St.Eustatius. The reefs are important drivers for dive tourism, they support local fisheries and they protect against storms.
Biotope City is an integral concept of the Biotope City Foundation Amsterdam based on the integrative combination of Flora + Fauna + Humans to realise the dense city as nature.
World's first official...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
The ReDuna project aims to restore the natural capacity of the Almada sand dune ecosystem to healthily respond to natural drivers, enhancing its resilience to sea level rise and storms, and providing an excellent teaching tool to demonstrate, in a practical way, the benefits of nature-based...
To create a riverside park, reconnecting the city centre to the riverside and to mitigate flooding for more than 100 existing properties.
Technical Solutions
Step 1: Define the nature-based solution.
Park "St. Trinity" is located in the eastern part of the residential area "Slaveykov" on an area with a size of about 146 decares. From the beginning of the XX to around 1960 the city cemetery is located on this territory. Due to the rapid development of the city, the cemetery was relocated.
This happened in the period 1960 -1975 and after the relocation the park was created in its present form. The orthogonal alley network of the former cemeteries has been completely erased and a new...
The development and maintenance of the green system on the territory of the municipality of Burgas is a main task and priority of the local administration. Over the years, most of the main green areas in the city have been renovated, incl. the sea garden, parks in the residential complexes,...
The Breathe/Respirar Program (BRP) is a research and action project in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in schoolyards and their impact on the general well-being and learning process of children. To reach its objectives, the program builds on the collaboration between...
In response to the social challenges and environmental impacts caused by urban growth, Bogota adopted the incorporation of green and blue infrastructures in several urban planning instruments. The most important action was the implementation of the local concept of Main Ecological Structure (EEP...
The Universitá Agraria has successfully conserved forests and pastures throughout the 20th century. The reconversion of the Solfatara di Manziana provides the opportunity for the Universitá to redefine the relationship between the community and the environment.
Manziana has changed from a rural agricultural village into a small town linked to the labour market of Rome. This requires a reinterpretation of the traditional relationships between the community and the environment....
One eye on the future, the other on the past.
The commons managed by the Università Agraria will be permanently conserved for future generations because they generate sustainable socio-economic opportunities today.
Restoration of wild pollinators populations (wild bees) by creating shelters, nesting sites and meadows. The overall objective of this project is to protect and provide long term benefits to biodiversity and then to all the network...
Az Ökoház Farm 2015-ben fogott bele látványos eredményeket hozó agrárerdészeti projektjébe, amelynek keretében az ipari és energetikai célú császárfa ültetvényt fás sávos köztesműveléssel társították, és fokhagymát termesztettek a fák árnyékában.
A gazdálkodók az interneten történő...
- For adaptation to climate changes : Evaluate the feasibility, impact and benefits of setting up
sylvopasture systems with grazing donkeys to replace or complement mechanical scrub clearance
operations on combustible biomass.
- For biodiversity : Reduce pressure on the...
Landscape transformation, through new plants and signposting, to enhance the area of historical-environmental interest (green area adjacent to the ruins of the Castle of Mirafiori and the altar inside the area of the Bela Rosin Mausoleum).
To provide farmers with a sustainable alternative to traditional fertilizer and to help close the loop between food waste, sewage and agriculture to sustain a circular economy.
The pilot project aims to reduce the impact of climate change on marginalized communities by providing localized, water-sensitive interventions that address issues related to sanitation and water management.
The municipality of Pavlos Melas is located in the Northern Greece, in the Region of Central Macedonia, in the northwestern part of Thessaloniki. The municipality faces challenges in addressing issues in environmental, economic and social cohesion section. Through nature-based solutions, Pavlos...
The main purpose of the project is to design a promande among the Danube quays in Budapest, planting plants, building installations, and awareness rising. The goal is the sharing of the...
The floodplains of the River Thames are characterised by high land prices and intense urbanisation, with few options for creating extra flood storage. A number of tributaries of the fluvial Thames suffer localised flooding in urban reaches, affecting local inhabitants,...
Application of the 2nd version of the Standard Protocol for the Classification of Cultural Ecosystem Services through Social Media data (Flickr) to the coastline of Barcelona, Spain. The coastline application falls within the scope of the NICHE project, aiming to assess changes in CES benefits...
To turn environmental challenges into economic opportunities, the regional administration for environment and energy mandated by the Brussels Region government adopted new roles of facilitating and coordinating bottom-up and top-down approaches. Together with agencies in charge of the region’s economic development and other public administrations from the Brussels region it co-elaborated a development concept in which environmental and economic issues are closely connected. Two large programmes have structured the transition: the Employment-Environment Alliance and the Regional Circular...
A grounded economy in symbiosis with the environment at different scales that provides for qualitative jobs anf healthy, inclusive and sustainable lifestyles.
The region will harness local economic opportunities and employment while also addressing environmental...
The objective of the project is to investigate the future possibilities of green area development, by exploring the functionality of green areas on the roofs of apartment buildings and to gain insight into the impacts green roofs may have on housing and the sense of community.
Application of the 4th version of the Standard Protocol for the Classification of Cultural Ecosystem Services through Social Media data (Flickr, Foursquare, Google reviews, Instagram, Panoramio, Tripadvisor, Twitter and Wikiloc) to Ramat HaNadiv park.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
To address these challenges, Budapest has drafted several strategic documents, in which NbS are promoted as a way to improve the environment, sustainability, and quality of life. These documents include:
Rapid urbanisation in the Philippines has given rise to many challenges as increasing infrastructure developments contribute to reduced open spaces and increased energy consumption.
Both the public and private construction sectors are responding by reshaping the cityscape and designing...
Implementation of an ecological building (low-energy building...
The objective of the LIFE-EnviFriendly project was to demonstrate low cost, nature based solutions that if used by all farmers within a watershed it will improve the water quality of the waters significantly. The NbS used in this case was a riparian forest restoration coupled with a river bank...
Exploring how ecosystem services can be integrated in a land-use planning process using a real-life planning case. A special focus is on multifunctional green infrastructure and applying new tools to operationalise ecosystem services in the plans in a participatory way.
Las Vegas Park in the city of Portoviejo, Ecuador can be considered as an example of the Build Back Better* concept on an urban scale. After the 2016 earthquake struck, the city allocated a part of the funds received from the central government for reconstruction and economic revitalisation to...
Several training and scoping workshops with stakeholders guided an assessment of the Taï Park’s multiple ecosystem services, and helped align it to the purpose of drumming-up support for conservation. This case illustrates the importance of intensive initial scoping prior to examining ecosystem...
This Pondscape is in a suburban area of Aarhus, with 18 ponds and about 10,300 inhabitants. The ponds reduce flood risk and enhance biodiversity, supporting amphibians, birds, and aquatic plants. It also offers walking paths and educates people about nature and environmental protection.
Medellín, like many other cities, faces rising temperatures, worsened by the urban heat island effect—concrete and tarmac absorbing the sun’s power, radiating it out as heat and keeping the city warm long after the sun has gone down. It doesn’t have to be that way, as Colombia’s second-largest...
Kraków with its surroundings. City map taken from the document “Directions for the development and management of green areas in Kraków for 2017-2030” and showing different catogeries of green areas in Kraków
Kraków is a strong urban unit with a population of over 800k and a cultural, academic, industrial and touristic center of national significance. It is a part of Metropolia Krakowska - an institutionalized platform of cooperation for Kraków and 14 surrounding municipalities, which main task is to implement Integrated Territorial Investments in the Kraków Functional Area...
Breathe/Respirar Project (BRP) began with a clear objective of addressing local air quality concerns in a school community of Sheffield, UK. The project’s implementation in Buenos Aires required a participatory process with several rounds of trial and error to identify and enrol stakeholders in...
Despite their critical importance for biodiversity and potential as nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation, ponds and pondscapes are not well represented in policy. Most freshwater legislation is biased towards rivers, with ponds largely being ignored.
The...
Exploring how to successfully integrate a community garden into a cemetery, thereby regenerating underused green space in a city and introducing multifunctional uses.
Flooding problems during heavy precipitation in the Trobekken Creek may affect a development project to establish 220 family housing units.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS the Trobekken Creek has been opened and re-meandered. A buffer zone is established around the re-opened creek...
The objective of the Info center, implemented within the proGIreg project, was to create a new community center for Sesvete, the largest neighborhood in the City of Zagreb, where the inghabitants of Sesvete would be able to openly discuss topics that trouble them on a daily basis, but also...
Maintaining a CSA initiative with 80 members with a special discount for low income households and social initiatives.
Genk’s multi-annual strategic plan for 2014-19 is a response to the closure of the Ford car manufacturing company. The main objective of the plan has been to use Genk’s natural and human capital for sustainable value creation. Nature-based solutions are an integral part of the plan, used to...
The aim of NatUR-W is to address urban challenges brought about by energy poverty and climate change, in particular extreme heat events and water scarcity. Through this project, the city of Lorca in Murcia is developing and implementing ‘NatUR-W Plans’ to meet these challenges. The proposed...
1 Restore a more natural hydrological functioning that reconnects the surrounding hydrosystems (including the lagoons located further inland, the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhône River).
2 Restore the natural ecosystems characteristic of coastal lagoons and sandy...
To mitigate the development of a 3.2km bypass by building a green land bridge to enable the historic West drive to be reinstated on its original line and provide landscape and habitat connectivity.
The project aims to establish a long-term mangrove payment for ecosystem services scheme to reduce deforestation and degradation, and restore mangroves in the Bay of Assassins in Madagascar.
Høje-Taastrup Municipality is a follower city in the URBiNAT project. The municipality is sharing its urban regeneration experiences with other cities as well as learning best practices that will reinforce the implementation of the ongoing plans. Within URBiNAT Høje-Taastrup wish to explore the...
Quantifying the links between the ecological status and the provision of ecosystem services for a freshwater lake. Focus is on understanding environmental quality needed to deliver recreation and fishing services provided by the lake, and the value of these two services.
To work with landowners to improve habitat management for wildlife and to promote soil management to help mitigate flooding, improve water quality and increase habitat for wetland birds.
By around 2010, increasingly vocalised perception had emerged through Poznań’s citizens that the city had turned its back on the River Warta. Such was the extent of public opinion on this matter that a public consultation was carried out to develop a strategy around connecting the city with the river. This came from a desire to re-connect with the river for recreation and to experience the ecosystem service benefits that such an ecosystem can provide.
The City of Poznań’s reaction to this was to develop a series of interventions along the river banks that promote social engagement...
Application of the 5th version of the Standard Protocol for the Classification of Cultural Ecosystem Services through Social Media data (Flickr) to Mount Carmel National Park (IL).
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
Controlling and mitigating the heat island effect in Arará slum, northern Rio de Janeiro, based on the development and monitoring of green roofs, using epiphytes or lithophytes. Given the common uses of cement or metal, tiles required the development of specific techniques and materials to allow...
This exemplar aims to: Map and describe existing and potential use and non-use community-held values of the estuary; Elicit community-held preferences and willingness to pay for coastal land use and management on landscape-scale; Test impacts of deliberation on preferences for estuarine land in...
Heempark is a community-driven nature and sustainability agriculture park established on disused land. The history of the park dates back to the 1970s when Genk City Council bought 5 ha of former agricultural land in order to expand Molenvijver City Park. Local citizens were consulted on the park development and expressed a desire to retain the natural character of the site rather than convert to ‘formal’ park greenspace. A collaborative city citizens model for ‘Heempark’ was developed. The model represented a small-scale model of the former agricultural landscape with a focus on...
Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020). Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens. As a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal mines...
The overall goal is to test aquaponics systems in an urban context in the post-industrial district Mirafiori Sud. In synergy with diverse stakeholders including professional farmers, social and nonprofit organization and citizens in participatory, scalable, technologically advanced and...
Persina Nature Park has high conservation value but is also of importance to local economies through its fish resources, climate regulation and biomass production. However, the societal, economic and environmental value of this wetland is not well recognized by local and national stakeholders...
The city’s Grünlandkonzept (green space strategy) provides detailed strategic indications for local land use and infrastructure planning (Stadt Linz, 2013). Enhancing and protecting urban green areas is seen as a way of increasing the city’s attractiveness, and will also form part of...
The Lez river (29 km long) is a small coastal Mediterranean river with a watershed of 746km2. Its spring is the outlet of a large karst aquifer. It then crosses natural and agricultural areas before reaching the plain of Montpellier (with 290 000 inhabitants)...
The aim of the project is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Green and Blue infrastructure (GBIs) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs...
Water management: Retain water in the pondscape to prevent dry-out of ponds
Human health: A refreshing place to walk and relax, and to educate people about nature.
Biodiversity enhancement: Especially amphibians, insects, birds, and (semi)aquatic vegetation.
Protecting areas to protect biodiversity: The IBRM is home to several remarkable protected sites, high biodiversity richness and an important cultural heritage. However, pressures from human activities in the area are threatening these distinct values. Our aim ...
The city of Lorient has developped an urban and local forestry partnership to supply the city in firewood chips and building timber. This project is based on local economy and on collaboration with local foresters to provide a sustainable management of this resource.
The project will involve the creation of two green-blue infrastructure corridors which will connect to the large Seven Lochs Wetland Park. The green networks will provide communities in the Greater Easterhosue area with a green connection to the larger wetland park but will also provide them...
Riverbank restorations are implemented on a stretch of approximately 800m shoreline of the Danube to increase lateral river-floodplain connectivity and the functioning of the floodplain as an ecosystem. The aim is to reach a good ecological status of the river as well as good navigation status....
Municipality of Stuttgart
Office for Environmental Protection, Department of Urban Climatology
Gaisburgstraße 4, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany
Verband Region Stuttgart – Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts
Kronenstraße 25
70174 Stuttgart
Green corridors are linear parks that help renature cities by connecting green areas to one another to form urban green infrastructure networks. They are often retrofitted along areas of abandoned traffic infrastructure, e.g. railway lines, or waterways to create interconnecting parks. Green...
The NbS addresses multiple dimensions:
Incorporating social learning in collaborative decision making processes within which the development of multifunctional, multi-services delivering Green Infrastructure is included in local level planning.
Identification of the Green Infrastructure at high resolution, i.e. not using land use cover, with GIS and assessment of the Ecosystem Services through the MAES (Mapping Ecosystem Services) methodology in urban area.
The study analysed also human-environment interactions, according to the...
Use of vegetation in urban areas in the Mid-Atlantic watersheds of Washington DC, Montgomery County and Baltimore County MD, has reduced flooding and nutrient runoff. The ‘stormwater green infrastructure’ in these municipalities includes green roofs, bioswales, rain gardens and stormwater ponds...
The project aims to encourage public participation during the planning process in order to avoid potential misunderstandings that can take place at the beginning of projects and thus, gain public support for the implementation stage. To this end, it promotes the quality improvement of plans and programs as well as the creation of strong professional relationships between the administration and public organizations.
The Sofia Ombudsman has been the main facilitator together with part of Sofia municipal administration....
Encouraging public participation in the planning and implementation processes of urban projects in Sofia.
City of Dortmund, Department of Urban Renewal
Installation of sport and exercise devices in the Eastern part of an open public park (Gustav-Heinemann-Park) in Dortmund’s district Huckarde which will be mainly useable for Huckarde citizens and pupils from an adjacent school. Devices will be publicly accessible and shall invite every person...
This project consists in two main areas :
- the northern portion : object of the first phases of extraction ended in 2007
- the southern portion : subject of the cultivation plan and recovery of recent years
The proposed project involves the areas cultivated in the northern...
Eindhoven is facing rapid population growth. Critical issues for the city, which are exacerbated by climate change, include flooding, urban heat stress, air pollution, and lower quality of life. The rapid urbanisation in recent years has also led to the disappearance of significant blue zones,...
The ongoing urban resilience project aims to improve living standard and resilience to extreme natural events through supplying flood management, water, and sanitation infrastructure.
The main objective of the project is to increase the biodiversity of a peri-urban area, re-naturalizing it through the creation of an urban edible forest.
The Anchor Project of Reunion Island region is the Biological corridor of Mare Longue Nature Reserve of the municipality of Saint-Philippe located in the southern area of the island. The MAES process has been undertaken to map Ecosystem Services, especially cultural benefits and services...
As part of Tjóðsavnið (the Faroe Islands National Museum), Lendisbati initiative aims to prevent erosion, protect biodiversity and restore wetlands for carbon storage. The first Lendisbati restoration project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers programme and will lay the foundation for...
MONITORING PROGRAM:
The urban dominant model in Spain, which is characterized by the diversification of activities and population increase, has aggravated the urban risks and environmental problems that already existed, such as the high consumption of soil, energy, water, and air pollution. It is also important to...
Using the widely used Policy Support System tools at www.policysupport.org as a basis, we built an insurance industry-relevant policy support system called Eco:Actuary. The objective of this project is to to co-develop and test the Eco:Actuary with...
The urban project of the Sofia Healthy Corridor focuses on building green connections, understandings, co-implementation and use of public spaces. The involvement of citizens in the creation of living public spaces is expected to contribute to overcoming urban fragmentation by removing physical...
The aim of this case study is the creation of ecological flood retention by changing land use, reconnecting floodplains and change of sluice management in summer dikes. Floodplains are reconnected and side channels restored or their creation supported, with longitudinal main channel dams...
The aim of the project is to assess the impact on ecosystem service provision of moving from industry standard green roof designs to designing roofs for locally important biodiversity.
University of East London (UEL) took the lead on the project with support from the project's main partners, Barking Riverside Ltd, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the Green Roof Consultancy, the Environment Agency, ABG Ltd and Hertalan Ltd.
Researching and experimenting locally contextualised...
Boosting ecosystem service performance through green roof design in Barking Riverside.
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
Through the implementation of a quick and simple method called "stress test" or quick scan, it was intended to raise community awareness of potential threats and possible opportunities caused by climate change. According to the results of the test, small-scale cities can decide whether or not it is urgent and/or useful to design and execute a climate adaptation strategy and if so, what are the most important issues to take into account. In this regard, the stress test shows which information is lacking in order to make a well-thought of decision....
Stresstest to raise awareness of threats and opportunities of climate change in the Rotterdam region.
This exemplar aims to: Map and describe existing and potential use and non-use community-held values of the estuary; Elicit community-held preferences and willingness to pay for coastal land use and management on landscape-scale; Test impacts of deliberation on preferences for estuarine land in...
Célunk az esőkertek létrehozásával a városi villámárvizek problémájának kezelése, amellyel egyben enyhíteni tudjuk az időszakos csapadékhiányból adódó zöldfelület fenntartási nehézségeket. Az egyes mintaterületeken megvalósult fejlesztések az alábbi célokat...
We mapped ecosystem services at different scales in Costa Rica and analyzed the spatial congruence and tradeoffs between biodiversity and several services, by considering the biophysical potential of service provision and socioeconomic demand. We also analyzed tradeoffs over time.
Supporting sustainable land use and water management practices. By identifying the main problems and involving local stakeholders the basis will be laid for the later resolution of the water-management conflicts in the area and the introduction of an ecosystem services perspective.
Pollok Country Park is Glasgow’s largest park and the only Country Park within Glasgow. Pollok House and Estate were gifted to the City in 1966. The park represents the rich natural, built and cultural heritage of the Pollok containing extensive woodlands and gardens. It has been awarded Europe’s and Britain’s Best Park and is listed as a nationally important landscape in Scotland.
Housed within the park, Flower Power is a nature-based solution based around a social cohesion wildflower nursery. In response to the 97% loss of Britain’s wildflower habitat, a community-run wildflower...
The project aims to create a sustainable new community, by including the community in the design process of their homes. The project strengthens community identity, by increasing the sense of belonging to the community. In addition, the project aims to reduce housing costs by cutting the developer's costs while maintaining the high quality customised houses.
The project team consisted of professionals with diverse expertise such as Igloo Blueprint, the developers of the site; researchers from the University of...
Offering collaborative design processes for the design of individual homes.
The land was in a vacant and derelict state and safety concerns were raised due to vandalisation, fly tipping, vehicle abandonment and fires. The conversion of the site into a new urban park presented an opportunity to address the anti-social behaviour and make the site a desirable area for...
A newly built multi-functional urban wetland in the Nabben area, Åland, recently won the Nordic Council Environmental Prize 2022 focused on nature-based solutions. The wetland, which was finished in 2019 and lies adjacent to the coast, aims to increase the biodiversity in the area and contribute...
The pondscape ‘Grote Getevallei’ comprises a variety of landscape characteristics that result in high biological diversity. There is a strong focus on nature and biodiversity conservation, including strengthening biodiversity, restoring eco-hydrology and nature experience.
Berlin has approximately 40 % of green (parks, forests etc.) and blue (rivers, channels, lakes, ponds, etc.) areas within its borders. It aims to create connectivity across the city and a ‘green belt’ as a border boundary for urban growth and a protection against urban sprawl.
Berlin has...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Naturfelder Dortmund e.V. was founded in order to convert urban spaces into pollinator friendly habitats. The structure of the association allows long-term existence beyond proGIreg. Main goals of the NbS implementations include:
Viridian were asked to model an entire lowland catchment of approximately 750 km2 for a basket of ecosystem services, so the client could better understand where to focus effort on the ground, assist with planning, inform stakeholder engagement and influence policy formation.
The overall objectives are to enhance drought resilience and food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations of the Bale Eco-region, by protect biodiversity, ecosystem services and increasing resilience and well-being of highland/lowland communities.
The aim is to develop a realistic framework of indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Urban Green-Blue Infrastructure (U-GBI) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs...
The project aims to create an innovative multifunctional green urban space which fosters climate change adaptation measures that contribute to enhancing urban climate comfort on heavily sealed surfaces.
The Verband Region Stuttgart (VRS) formerly acted as a regional coordinator whose main role was to find a partner city which could offer an appropriate location for the pilot implementation. Along the way, both the ILPOE (University of Stuttgart) and Helix Pflanzen assumed the leading role while the VRS mainly...
Innovative multifunctional green urban space on heavily sealed surfaces of an inner city location.
The NbS addresses societal and environmental issues that improve living conditions inluding:
The “Landschaftspark Region Stuttgart” understands multifunctional green infrastructure as a locational factor, a basis for biodiversity enhancement and a tool for climate change adaptation.
The Stuttgart Region comprises 179...
A network of attractive open spaces as a counterpoint to the region's grey infrastructure.
The vision is to create a network of attractive, accessible, welcoming and diverse open spaces that functions as a counterpoint to the region’s grey infrastructure.
The VEG-GAP Information Platform is a web-based multi-purpose information platform exploiting the final results of the project. The platform uses Atmospheric Modelling Systems outputs. It is a collaborative framework among end-users (which can interact with data analytics), governance (...
The main problem to solve with the implemented NbS measures is the runoff of soil and pollutants from the farmland to irrigation canals and from there to the nearby Lake Massaciuccoli on the Tuscan coast.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS buffer strips have been implemented to prevent...
SABICAS (SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions) aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify the benefits and co-benefits of nature-based solutions. The goal is to facilitate dialogue and decision making among...
Presentación de la red de micro espacios en el área metropolitana de Mérida, con el propósito de fomentar la rápida recuperación de espacios infrautilizados y generar un impacto positivo en la comunidad.
Püspökszilágy fokozottan érzékeny villámárvíz veszély szempontjából, mindeközben nyáron gyakori az aszály. A villámárvizek és az aszály komoly károkat okoz a településen. A projekt célja a két probléma kezelése természetalapú megoldások által.
To restore approximately 10,000 acres of bog within the area of concern, which covers approximately 60,000 hectares of land within Scotland's Cairngorms National Park.
On September 2021, the mayor and the District Planning Secretary presented the proposal for the Territorial Ordering Plan (POT ) 2022-2035. This POT responds and involves the Sustainable Development Goals in land use planning. Based on these areas, the plan incorporates on four pillars,...
To achieve regional goals we need to work together, cross-sectoral and coordinated at all levels of governance: national, regional and local. Thus obtained solutions are better and also easier to implement. It is important that all who will later have a function in the implementation of strategic tasks are involved in the preparation of the strategy from the beginning.
Green engine of development, metropolitan region of knowledge.
The vision was developed by key stakeholders in the process of preparation of the Regional Development Programme for the period 2014 – 2020.The Ljubljana urban region will respect the natural and cultural...
Restoring river-floodplains to protect biodiversity: The Danube’s river biodiversity is threatened by changes to hydrology and geomorphology (so-called hydro-morphological alterations), such as disconnection of floodplains. Multiple human activities, including the construction...
The public-private Coastbusters consortium aims to study and translate desired coastal protection functionality into designs that make use of the capability of ecosystem engineering species. In other words, does ecosystem creation and Nature-based Solutions’ technical design provide a more...
This pondscape of newly created ponds is located in a floodplain meadow on Thames Water's Farmoor Reservoir property, on the banks of the River Thames, near Oxford. It was designed by Freshwater Habitats Trust to maximise freshwater biodiversity and has been closely monitored as a partnership...
Ecohydrological engineering is used here to enhance the self-purification capacity of a small stream polluted by urban rainfall discharges. The demonstration site, realized in collaboration with the stakeholders, shows the positive effect on the chemical quality of the stream
The Nature-Based Solutions in the Nordic region programme has chosen to finance a pilot project in Sweden to implement and test a floating system for wetlands to remove excess phosphorus from seawater.
For almost 30 years, until 2022, the Emscher river, flowing through Germany's larges metropolitan region, the Ruhrgebiet, has been restored from a heavily sewage loaded system to a vital river. As the river is located in a densely populated area, dykes and other flood protection structure are...
To reintroduce beavers into the wild and to assess their potential to provide natural flood management, water quality improvements and improved biodiversity.
What is rural landscape curation? How can nature be curated by sustainable science and technologies? From July 17 to 31, 2023, we launched Curated Nature: Rural, Nature, Art and Technology - Interdisciplinary Research Tour, supported by Pro Helvetia. Swiss artists from the critical...
Restore the stone reef on Læsø Trindel (part of the Læsø Trindel and Tønnesberg Banke Natura 2000 site). Restore and stabilise the structure and function of cavernous boulder reefs; boost awareness among managers, planners and the general public about marine nature restoration, protection and...
Objective was to create an environmental community and movement for an ecological, socially and self-organized city quarter with a lot of green spaces and affordable...
The main problem to solve with the implemented NbS measures is the runoff of soil and pollutants from the farmland to irrigation canals and from there to the nearby Lake Massaciuccoli on the Tuscan coast.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS sedimentation basin have been implemented to...
The aim of this research was to understand how private sector natural capital investments could be increased and diversified in the Spey catchment. The focus of the study was on businesses that do not primarily manage land, but nevertheless rely on the Spey landscape, e.g. for their supply chain...
The aim of the project is to safeguard the historic and local heritage of Creekmouth by developing a collaborative project that brings the community together.
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) and Barker Langham Consultants were both the main facilitators of the project. In addition, many other participants from different fields were involved such as the Barking Riverside Ltd., the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Creekmouth Preservation Society, the Barking Riverside Residents Association, the Environmental...
Promoting sense of place through the collaborative celebration of local heritage.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
Exploring which policy strategies can balance the supply of and demand for mountain ecosystem services in the future? Mountains provide many ecosystem services to both, people living in and outside the mountains. In the Swiss Alps study area, the number of farms abandoned is increasing and...
In the scope of the REGREEN project, the Aarhus Municipality aims to promote urban liveability, by systematically enhancing and restoring ecosystem services and biodiversity as the basis for Nature-based solutions (NbS):
In this regard, Aarhus aims to improve water quality, water...
Amidst resource scarcity, Nottingham understands the need to build housing which adapts to climate change as a tool for the regeneration of derelict sites and the provision of sustainable, affordable and aspirational housing.
The provision of sustainable affordable housing poses a challenge for many European cities or urban regions. Furthermore, the need to mitigate the effects of, and adapt to, climate change has put additional pressure and demands on residential...
Provision of innovative energy efficient homes within resilient communities.
Our vision for Nottingham is to provide high-quality affordable homes within communities that promote the health, happiness and wellbeing of their occupants and encourage the efficient use of...
Peatland sites within carstic catchments in Bosnia and Herzigovina are to be restored through channel restoration and rewetting, thereby protecting these hotspots for (endemic) biodiversity. The case study aims at achieving an amicable transition from the current heavy hydropower usage and...
Designing conservation strategies and adaptive management for the French Alps region. In particular, management options are targeted to support stakeholders and policymakers in making choices.
This case study examines in particular the interface between four sets of plans and strategies, providing important context for further examination of meso- and micro-scale interventions covered in subsequent sections. This case also touches on other formally adopted plans and strategies only in...
Tiszatarján a víznek nagymértékben kitett település. Tavasszal jellemzően a belvíz vagy árvíz, nyáron az aszály okoz mezőgazdasági károkat, segítve az inváziós növények terjedését. A projekt célkitűzése az ártér árvízbefogadó-képességének növelése, a...
The city is currently revising its urban Master Plan, which aims to make Bilbao i) an example for other cities around the world; ii) a city in continuous renewal; iii) a sustainable city; and iv) a socially balanced city.
Extreme climate events in the recent – and not-so recent – past...
This case illustrates how ecosystem service assessments can help to catalyse changes in conservation and development policy and management practice − but are rarely the sole factor. In the Upper Tuul example, the intention was to “make the case” for a higher policy and budgetary priority to be...
The Urban Resilience project aims to supply flood management, sanitation and water infrastructure, a major resilience and a climate strategy to the most vulnerable households.
Design and construction of an eco-district with the ecological networks and biodiversity as starting point. The implementation of this project is based on environmental...
We analyzed relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services. We surveyed vegetation and monitored soil loss in various land uses to assess, model and map tree diversity, soil erosion control, and climate change mitigation.
A Green Infrastructure Plan of Llanquihue, which includes the Baquedano Wetland Park, was developed through the joint working of the Landscape Architecture Master Program Universidad de Chile and the NGO Legado Chile Fundatio. It is a response to several socio-ecological pressures created by...
“Let’s Crop...
Bois de Jussy is managed to maximise the biodiversity, and to welcome the public for walks, jogging and biking to relax, cool off, reconnect with nature by observing ponds.
In 2005, the UN agency UNESCO approved Kristianstads Vattenriket as a biosphere reserve covering 100 000 ha, and one of 700 in the world. This means Kristianstads Vattenrike is an internationally recognized model for sustainable development. The Vattenrike encompasses two thirds of the...
The Strategy on adaptation to negative effects of climate change within the territory of Bratislava the Capital of the Slovak Republic (2014) and the forthcoming Action plan for adaptation to climate change in Bratislava 2017-2020 focus on the following goals: assess the vulnerability of the...
With the aim to enhance the management and utilisation of Urban Forests as Natural Heritage in Danube Cities, the URBforDAN Interreg Danube project fosters innovative and participatory approaches to build recreational infrastructure that also serves an educational value...
|
The present ecosystem services assessment and mapping has been mainly scientifically-driven, with the objective of this study being that of carrying out a first assessment of the capacity and flow of ES in the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean). ES capacity is defined as the |
Operatie Steenbreek is a foundation that organizes awareness raising campaigns and offers assistance with regards to greening private gardens. Many gardens and streets in the Netherlands are covered with tiles that cannot absorp the rainwater from heavy rainfall.
The idea behind...
To build a school that would blend into the surrounding hillside and to ensure that all water would remain on site to prevent flooding of the local drainage system.
A biofilter was implemented in Vuores to treat urban runoff and runoff from a nearby dog park. The biofilter uses sand as filtering media and the vegetation planted on top of the filter includes plants that tolerate changing moisture conditions. The biofilter is equipped with the information...
The Forest Landscape Restauration (FLR) measures will be implemented on the selected site in Gledić, due to the high risks of flood and soil erosion, decrease or complete loss of biodiversity, weak forest resilience, and negative effects on the community livelihood, especially for women and...
A Coruña is a seaside city located in the Ártabro Gulf, north-west of Spain, with a population of 244,000 inhabitants, stunning landscapes and built on over two thousand years of architectural heritage. A Coruña has a diverse economy, mainly based on the service sector, ranging from tourism to...
An implementation focused on combining blue and green infrastructure, with predominant use of native species and minimizing maintenance effort.
Key aims:
To create a green, quick, frequent and reliable bus service and improve walking and cycling opportunities which will ultimately help to reduce traffic congestion, noise and air pollution.
Testing the feasibility of a green infrastructure, instead of a traditional grey infrastructure, to treat sewage overflows, and investigating the multiple benefits that the green infrastructure provides and its relevance for water management.
After peat extraction in the Komppasuo bog, Finnland, was initiated in 1987, it was stopped in 2021 and restoration projects are aiming at bringing the landscape back to a functioning and sustainable ecosystem. The objective is to establish wetland conservation areas from previously drained...
Improving the wetland and forest coverage and urban greenspace connectivity and therefore securing important biodiversity;
Providing recreation and educational facilities for local residents and visitors; ...
The Project provided recommendations for an NbS pilot intervention in Elbasan Municipality through the NbS Baseline Assignment - the process that included consultation, identification of potential sites for implementing pilot NbS measures and a multidisciplinary assessment.
The Park 500 Natural Treatment System (NTS) was constructed as a voluntary effort to provide a low-energy, low-maintenance alternative to reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in the process’s wastewater, which is high in nitrate-nitrogen, organic nitrogen and total phosphorus.
The project...
The Lower Danube demo case has as main objective to create an efficient network of national, regional and local stakeholders in order to apply collaborative approach for water security measures and extreme meteorological events mitigation by using the ecosystem service and green infrastructure....
The study also aimed at enhancing the wider understanding of the significance of pollination services to the mountain agricultural economy. Institutional capacities at provincial and national level needed to be strengthened to promote honeybee pollination management.
This study is the first order estimation of urban ecosystem services in France by using i-Tree Eco model.
The aim is to assess ecosystem services provided by trees by characterizing the structure of urban trees in Strasbourg city.
Quantified ecosystem services: Air pollution...
Space for retention of the urban runoff in the times of heavy rain to complement the measures for enhanced stormwater quality and quantity management in the Vuores area. Vegetation is selected from the local species to support biodiversity, including perennials suitable for wet conditions....
Removing sediment from reservoirs is an important part of the costs of hydro-power generation. Farmers adapt and diversify land-use, based on PES scheme with hydro-power company in Sumberjaya.
Supporting the design of policies and planning instruments to ensure the sustainable management of natural capital stocks and the delivery of critical ecosystem services in the Natural Park. Engaging local stakeholders and decision makers throughout the process to promote awareness raising and...
The GREEN DEAL Groene Daken (Green Deal Green Roofs) is a cross-sectoral initiative whose ulimate objective is to upscale the implementation of green roofs, whilst at the same time remove barriers that inhibit their implementation . This initiave aims to develop new revenue models and apply them...
River bank renaturation and stabilization through live staking and vegetated dikes
Riparian afforestation
Phytodepuration basins
Zero-energy flood retention system (no
One of the big long-term development goals of Sofia is the resilient and sustainable polycentric urbanization at the metropolitan level based on existing settlements and limitation of the promiscuous consumption of land. Retaining the population of smaller towns and villages of the Northern part of Sofia municipality and attracting new investments there is very important.
Introducing better regulated and innovative governance approaches for obtaining trust and involvement of the local community is at the core of a strategic tool set for achieving this big mid- to long-term goal....
Resilient growth of peripheral settlements.
SUPPORT FOR CONCENTRATED DECONCENTRATION. Sofia General Master plan with timescale 2030 has as one of its major goals to alleviate the investors’ development pressure to the capital City. It creates spatial preconditions for...
Several streets around the Eindhoven city centre (Waagstraat, Bilderdijklaan, Willemstraat, H. Boexstraat and Dommelstraat) have been rehabilitated and nature-based solutions such as bioswales and street trees have been introduced to address existing problems with heat stress and flooding, and...
Global urbanization trends have made people move to cities where they tend to have less access to nature. Urban nature is important for human well-being and biodiversity, therefore urban planners are increasingly integrating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) projects in urban environments.
...
The Finnish River Management Association Virho (Virtavesien hoitohidstys Virho ry), was nominated for the Nordic Council Environment Prize 2022 with the theme of nature-based solutions. The Finnish River Management Association has the goal to revive and secure the living conditions of the entire...
The common objective of all partners is a more coherent and ecological management of organic matter. This objective entails not only circular flows of organic matter between agricultural and urban consumers but also the potential production of energy from biowaste.
A large group of environmental NGOs were invited to express their views on the topic and participate in the process. The lead stakeholder was the Urban Ecology Centre Brussels, a regional NGO, who worked closely together with another NGO specialised in...
Reforming organic waste management In Brussels
In the context of the CONEXUS project, 47 of the 189 municipal allotments are being monitored by the Observatori d’Horts urbans (or ‘Urban Allotment Observatory’), a key legacy of the city’s Strategy for Urban Agriculture 2019-2030. Led by Barcelona Regional, a...
The overall objectives of the Bari city authorities are to improve urban quality, reduce the urban heat island effect and manage storm water.
Improving green areas and their functions is a crucial part of achieving this goal and is addressed by several plans within Bari’s multi-level...
• For adaptation to climate changes : restore the hydraulic functioning of the fens to enhance flood retention and low water support.
• For biodiversity : restore the hydraulic functioning of the fens and conserve biodiversity.
A multi-actor process of co-creating a blueprint for socioeconomic and environmental development decreasing the high unemployment rate in the Málaga region.
Overdependency on a handful of economic sectors combined with uncoordinated steering of the socioeconomic development has made Málaga’s economy vulnerable and unsustainable
Prior to the financial crisis of the late 2000s, the regional economy was to a considerable extent driven by the construction sector. This...
Malaga takes the region's socioeconomic destiny in its own hands.
A robust and sunny coastal economy takes advantages of environmental resources and complements tourism with a range of other opportunities such as community-based businesses.
LISGREEN embodies the following objectives:
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
• For climate change adaptation : improve farming resilience by favouring tree species that are adapted and resistant to local soil and climatic conditions, and which contribute to the infiltration of run-off water into the soil.
• For biodiversity: use trees as...
Despite legal protection, mangroves were being cleared for shrimp farming by non-local investors. In a multi-day workshop, the ideas was to learn from local community stakeholders and participating scientists about the problems surrounding the conversion of mangrove ecosystems to shrimp...
At a building scale, the goal of the project is to create an "ecology of temporary uses" whereby there is co-dependence between actors. On a larger-scale, the main goals are to reach out to existing local residents and look forward into the future of the site.
OSMOS facilitated the process which was supported by a wide number of local organisations. Even though the most active stakeholder is the building owner (the regional developer citydev.brussels), the local community plays a significant role too. In addition, the...
Converting underused real estate assets into local economic hubs.
Examining management scenarios related to the maintenance of a marina at the Dutch Wadden Sea Island Schiermonnikoog. Identifying how ecosystem services (ES) in a Natura 2000 area would be affected by different ways of depositing the dredging sludge. Gathering stakeholder feedback to advance the...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
A Kóspallagon működő Pallagvölgyi Biokert alapvető célja az, hogy jó minőségű és vegyszermentes zöldséget termesszen oly módon, hogy egyúttal széleskörű kommunikációs és figyelemfelhívó tevékenység révén a gazdaság által magáénak vallott, talajkímélő, a talajélet...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
A vertical greening system installed on the facade of an office building built early in the last century and renovated in the 1980’s, owned by INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance) and located in the city center of the Genova neighborhood of Sestri Ponente.
INPS Green Facade is a...
To create a roadmap for communities who want to activate projects or practices to solve issues or implement ideas in urban areas.
The local task force comprised the Dublin City Council, the University College Dublin (UCD), local authorities, different community groups, Code for Ireland and local small and medium enterprises (SME's).
The project is researching and observing active projects that were initiated by communities. It currently organises the acquired data into useful resources,...
Activating community based projects in a deprived neighbourhood, Mountjoy Square.
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
Through its participation in INTERLACE, Granollers sought to gain new knowledge and skills...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy will prevent erosion by strengthening slopes and edges with nature-based solutions (NbS). The aim is to improve local environmental conditions and increase water quality and biodiversity in streams and rivers.
In many creeks and streams, both large...
The Connecting Nature project in Malaga is part of developing a new perspective for urban planning and in the Lagunillas neighborhood. The implementation of this new perspective can cover the three types of interventions:
The renovation of three public squares in Lagunillas
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
The aim of the project is to address the different steps of the transition of Málaga´s economic model, through the organisation of several workshops which provided the necessary input to overhaul the economic development strategy of the city.
Fundación CIEDES and PROMALAGA were the main facilitators of the workshops, while OSMOS and Brussels Environment contributed with the facilitation of one of them. In addition, local community, businesses, the University of Málaga and, the Municipality of Málaga were invited to...
Addressing the steps needed to overhaul the economic development strategy of Málaga.
Milan is located in northern Italy, nestled between the River Po to the south and the majestic Alps and vast lakes to the north. It serves as the administrative and commercial center of Italy's largest metropolitan area and is the main city in Lombardy, which is not only Italy's wealthiest region but also its most densely populated, with a population of about 10 million (source: Istat).
The CLEVER Cities Milan vision is one where the city harnesses innovative natural...
Greening Milan and creating an innovative and sustainable urban environment by implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the city's neighborhoods, buildings and infrastructure, together with the citizens, was the main objective of the CLEVER Cities project in which Milan participated....
The landscape plan, which is currently under development following the incorporation into the city of some surrounding areas, is intended to bring about a compact city, accommodating further development within the existing borders, and including a network of functional green spaces. The draft...
Creación de la red de paradas verdes en el Municipio Libertador del Estado Mérida, a fin de desarrollar soluciones integradas para enfrentar los desafíos del cambio climático en la Ciudad.
To create a sustainable service station which has minimal impact on its surroundings and is sensitive to surrounding environment of the Cotswolds (AONB).
The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city.
LEAFSKIN® is an ultralight green roof set up over pedestrian streets or squares, in order to create shadow areas in urban spaces.
The tecnhology can also provide interesting implimentation like carring lighting system or advertising on the bottum.
Assessing the co-beneficiary management of seagrass ecosystems for Blue Carbon around the Balearic Islands. Blue Carbon is the term used to refer to the carbon captured and stored by coastal ecosystems, including mangrove forests, tidal saltmarshes and seagrass meadows.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
Developed as part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Athlete’s Village is a purpose-built, low carbon village. Set in Glasgow’s East End, the site hosted athletes during the games but now provides homes for a new community. A site of approximately 35 hectares, post-games over a thousand homes were provided. In addition to public greenspace and private gardens, a comprehensive SuDS plan was developed for the site. Comprising permeable paving, swales, rain gardens and balancing ponds, the athlete’s village SuDS represents a comprehensive integrated stormwater management system...
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
Through its participation in INTERLACE, Envigado aimed to improve environmental and...
The URBES project focusses on functional diversity, urban ecosystem services and NbS, institutions, economics and resilience science and worked to translate research insights into principles, landscape designs and applications. It explores the drivers behind loss/enhancement of urban ecosystem...
The aim of Slovenian demo is to prepare a comparison of Nature based solutions and grey scenarios for the Glinščica catchment area, valuate the ecosystem services provided by implementation of restoration and management measures developed within the project and to develop and deploy economic and...
15 large ponds (5000m2 to 30’000m2) as well as many medium and small sized ponds have been created between 1970 and 2018. Some ponds have been dug to rehabilitate and recreate natural habitats in brownfields and others to create recreational...
The Jezyce District pocket park is an example of a co-developed urban greening project. The cocreation aspect of the project resulted in a greater nature-based solution outcome than would have been achieved had it not been co-created.
The pocket part was created in the Jezyce district of the city as part of a residential development project. As a condition of the planning consent, the developer was required to enhance a greenspace in close proximity to the development. Design consultation with the local community, prior to the improvements being carried out, identified that...
Urban redevelopment was an opportunity to adopt solutions and achieve different targets through nature-based solutions. Carta of Milan, the city's strategic environmental plan, recognises ‘green infrastructure’ as the best way to achieve environmental targets, promote...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
This exemplar aims to identify and communicate areas and management solutions that synergistically support biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, as well as the growing demand to feed an increasing global population, using the ecosystem services concept.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The Council’s Open Space Strategy of 2011 identified the Drumry and Linnvale area of Clydebank as lacking access to natural or semi-natural green space. 80% of people in the area live within 500 metres of vacant and derelict land, 31% of children are living in poverty and the area has a higher...
Project introduction:
Restoration of the banks of the Huangshi River to protect human activities against torrential floods and protect biodiversity.
Creation of ecological habitats for fish and amphibians, and roads and public places for the inhabitants.
1 / Protection against the risks of a mountain torrent
- To stop bed shrinkage due to agricultural and urban pressure;
- Protection of human activities and dwellings against the violence of the torrent;
- Establish the limits of the natural areas to be protected and protect the...
River restoration for flood protection and ecological habitat creation, Tiantangzhai, Anhui, China
This pondscape is located in a farmland near Leicester. All waterbodies in three upper catchments have been monitored since 2010. The results show an underlying landscape-wide decline in freshwater plant biodiversity of 0.5-1% pa. However doubling the number of clean-water ponds turned the...
The area is characterized by by the presence of two separate lakes connected by a tree-lined pathway. The first lake is used for the fishing while the second one is characterized by a more spontaneous development of wild flora and is the home of different bird species.
It aims to include...
Application of the 3rd version of the Standard Protocol for the Classification of Cultural Ecosystem Services through Social Media data to the urban parks of Rome, Italy. The protocol was applied to compile a dictionary for automatizing the analysis of tweets geocoded within the UGS and, on...
Votlendissjóður was established in 2018 with the goal to restore and reclaim wetlands in Iceland through cooperation with landowners, municipalities, the Icelandic state, companies, NGO’s and farmers. The fund provides finances, and in some instances equipment and personnel, to parties...
• Adaptation to climate change : Resistance to coastal recession through the restoration and sustainable management of dunes
• For biodiversity : Restoring the biodiversity of dune flora and fauna
Analysing the expression of socio-cultural values in a coastal setting, considering the contribution that ecosystem service approaches can make within the land use or spatial planning arena. People attach socio-cultural values to the natural environment just as they do to other aspects of life....
Xinyu is adopting an integrated approach to flood control and waste management that seeks to safeguard communities against warming temperatures and increased precipitation.
Dongpo Wetland Park aims to allow for the provision of connected multifunctional green spaces and to ensure the sustainable development of the city while retaining the original wetland environment.
It further aims to provide a new green and open leisure space for urban residents. The...
The wetlands in Kampinos National Park, Poland, are restored in order to slow water runoff and protect Natura2000 habitats as well as species.
This case study is one of 17 that are part of the EU Horizon2020 project MERLIN - Mainstreaming Ecological Restoration of freshwater-related...
Sweet City aims to create the conditions required to improve the quality of life of all the inhabitants of the territory, humans and other species alike, e.g. pollinators, by providing better conditions for them to thrive and, as a result, obtaining a more biodiverse, comfortable, clean,...
In the scope of the REGREEN project, the Aarhus Municipality aims to promote urban liveability, by systematically enhancing and restoring ecosystem services and biodiversity as the basis for Nature-based solutions (NbS):
In this regard, Aarhus aims to improve water quality, water...
Evaluating how recent and forthcoming EU policy developments affect the levels of ecosystem services (ES) and natural capital (NC) in Europe. Many of Europe's natural habitats and species are in decline. While the EU has a number of policies in place to safeguard habitats and species, losses are...
To improve and validate a portable, modular, enery-free, decentralized water treatment system, the PM-NBSTM, to remediate source water to high quality for resuse, filling a major gap in small agglomerations and remote areas where good quality waters are needed and no other solution is feasible
One of the activities foreseen by the Uforest project is researching innovative Urban Forestry initiatives across Europe. For this reason, the Uforest team has selected and analysed some of the most interesting urban forestry projects in the continent, with the aim to illustrate...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
To reduce the flood risk, calm traffic and increase community involvement and awareness of sustainable urban drainage systems. To improve water quality in the River Trym.
The goal of the transversal planning of the Parco Agricolo is to transition the area towards a coherent and inclusive development. The Parco Agricolo, as imagined by the local stakeholders, can function only if the different dimensions make complementary contributions, hence it is important that the plan is inclusive to all these dimensions.
The lead of the project was the Municipio Roma XIV. The team of the municipality was supported by BIC Lazio and OSMOS Transversal Planning, a spin-off from TURAS. A large number of...
Employing the Transversal Curatorial Approach to create a future for The Parco Agricolo.
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
The goal was to bring university stakeholders together such as relevant administration staff, academics, and students in order to clarify the objectives of the project and develop a common vision for the site. This allows for a constructive contribution to the future of the project and can be used to communicate the main ideas and sketch out the main themes for the architectural tender documents.
The process was facilitated by OSMOS’ while the leading stakeholder (the institutional entrepreneur) was the Brussels...
Co-Creating the adaptive re-use of former military barracks based on principles of circular economy.
Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020). Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens.
As a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal...
Project introduction:
The Changyuanhe river is in Qixian, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, in North and Middle China and become the main axis of the project, both by its cultural and ecological important for the country. In the past, there were large areas of marsh wetlands along the river...
The aim is to establish a network of demonstration sites covering a broad range of European forest types in which integrative forest management measures are being practiced. Having such sites will help train and eventually improve decision making capacities related to integrating biodiversity...
The project aims at investigating whether and how a scientific knowledge on soil quality can be integrated into urban planning so as to allow soil quality to be taken into account in all its dimensions, which has not been the case so far in France.
Its objectives are: ...
In Uruguay, rural artificial ponds (tajamares) are primarily constructed to support cattle production and secondarily for the irrigation of crops or other purposes, mostly since the early 2000s. Studies on their environmental impact are extremely scarce and incipient.
After degradation of the river due to straightening, bank enforcements, navigational use and intensive agricultural land use along its banks, the Zwalm river basin is now to be restored at several sites. The case study aims at restoring the river to a healthy and functioning ecosystem while...
Objective of these prototype moss installations was to find out the possible challenges of using moss in different locations and structures. We need to know what type of moss can be used and what are the actual costs of building moss green roofs and walls.
Treatment (retention and sedimentation) of urban runoff from new housing around Tervaslampi park to complement the measures for enhanced stormwater quality and quantity management in the Vuores area. Vegetation is selected from the local species to support biodiversity. Additionally, the area...
Nature Based Solutions can protect but their implementation requires specific management rules. For instance, forests (including riparian forests) have recognized positive effects on hydraulics, ecological habitats preservation, etc. However, they remain vulnerable (to wildfires for instance) and may induce drawbacks. A realistic and objective assessment is proposed in NAIAD. From a technical point of view, a strong and quite precise take-home-message of our demo site is that large wood recruitment and clogging of bridges cannot be dealt with by annual management of dead and titling trees...
Nature Based Solutions management is more than a technical problem: specific design and integrated decision-making frameworks are needed. From a more global point of view, choice of Nature Based Solutions and effectiveness assessment require specific principles mixing pluridisciplinary...
AteNas is built around 3 demonstration sites, covering urban and periurban zones of Łódź, Lyon and Vantaa/Helsinki and sharing the challenge of enabling water to citizens and nature, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Utilize of cities water resources to secure regulating ecosystem...
This is a new initiative in a wealthy...
The restoration of peatlands is part of the LIFE Elia-RTE project 1. The main objective of this project is converting forest corridors of the high-voltage power lines into ecological corridors by restoring stable natural habitats that will require minimal intervention in the future. These...
The main objective of URBiNAT in the Municipality of Siena is to identify a Healthy Corridor for the Ravacciano neighbourhood, as a way to develop the neighbourhood as well, and to make the green spaces present more viable and accessible.
The local diagnostic has allowed the...
Extensive community engagement sessions were conducted from 2015-2016 by Scottish Canals and Glasgow City Council, including a charrette at Port Dundas which recognised the role green and blue infrastructure could play in regenerating the area. As a result of this, plans to develop the area...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
The outline of a study area was developed by the Local Taskforce of Porto, according to the previously established commitment by the municipality of Porto to develop the project URBiNAT in this area. The first criteria were to ensure the inclusion of Cerco, Falcão, Lagarteiro, and other social...
Identifying the ecosystem services and their connections to biological diversity and forest ecosystem functioning, to support local communities and their traditional activities.
Residents in Poznań have a strong desire for more opportunities for social and physical exercise activity in greenspaces. To meet this demand, the local authority has been scoping opportunities for creating more public greenspace. As part of this programme, a series of social gardens (open gardens) have been established across Poznań. For each of these gardens, the community have been involved in the design, construction and management of the spaces. The focus of this initiative has been on unlocking new public spaces by using underused spaces such as kindergarten grounds, parts of city...
This case study aims at a comprehensive restoration of a river and its adajcents land, including developing sustainable businesses, tourism and transport whilst not increasing carbon emissions or negatively impacting on biodiversity of the area. River connectivity and water quality are to be...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America. The INTERLACE project goes hand in hand with Chemnitz’s work on its masterplan for urban nature....
Nature-In is an artistic, technical and historical research, that will gain knowledge from our architectural heritage to inform us of a Contemporary Design, through Landscape, Architectural Interior and Biophilic Design approaches, as a resource to mitigate an urgent problem. The overall aim is...
This project aims to reverse the deterioration of soil fertility and natural resources, contributing to reduce household hunger in the Talensi District, Ghana.
To regenerate a brownfield site into a vibrant public space and reconnect the city with its waterfront, integrating art and ecology.
Analysing the effects of the landscape planning scheme in ecosystem service performance, and exploring the ways in which ecosystem services can be explicitly incorporated in the management of the protected areas of Donana and the surrounding landscape.
A kevés csapadék és a magas nyári középhőmérséklet miatt Ruzsát gyakran sújtja aszály, melynek gyakorisága és mértéke egyre nő. Tulajdonképpen egy félsivatagos területen fekszik, ahol a talajvízszint folyamatosan süllyed, a belvízelvezető csatornák az év...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
To raise awareness of NbS and the importance of NbS going forward to achieve a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy. Explore synergies between educational professionals, NbS practitioners, communities and policymakers.
The landscape park aims to fulfil a variety of functions:
The provision of recreation and educational facilities for local residents and visitors, and the encouragement of tourism to the area. Socio-cultural and economic benefits focus on education, culture, sports and...
The target area is located in the heart of Budapest. This pioneer project was realized before urban planners would have recognized the importance of urban green spaces. At the...
Mobilizing the local community and government functionaries for a collaborative Participatory Biodiversity Management plan and the conservation of the natural capital.
Quantifying how well Nature-based Solutions can offset anthropogenic climate change impacts is important for adaptation planning but has rarely been done. This report aims to show that a widely-applied Nature-based Solution in South Africa – invasive alien tree clearing – reduces the impact of...
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service...
INNOQUA is a four-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project. Bringing expertise from multiple disciplines, the 20 project partners are seeking to demonstrate a novel, modular system for wastewater treatment based on the purifying capacity of earthworms, zooplankton and microalgae, operating under real...
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service...
The Nature-based solutions in the Nordic region programme has allocated 650,000 DKK to a pilot project in Iceland that aims to increase biodiversity in Reykjavík.
Grasagarður Reykjavíkur is the name of the outdoor collection of living plants located in the capital of Iceland. The...
Vigie-Nature École is a biodiversity monitoring program focused on multiple groups of organisms. The primary goals of this data collection is to provide data to researchers in urban ecology and provide education to children in all the subjects related to biodiversity that we can cover. Our last...
Develop and test usable methods for valuation selected ecosystem services at the local and regional level, and promote their incorporation into the spatial planning process and in the broader decision making process in Slovakia.
Place-based studies around peri-urban Edinburgh are working with policy makers to better understand society's socio-cultural values of green space. The exemplar aims to: Understand appreciation of ecosystem services in the Pentland Hills; Understand potential to offset urban development in East...
Three small-scale NbS projects were awarded innovation vouchers in summer 2019 by the City of Tampere. Two of the vouchers were used to develop garden areas near residential housing. Through this initiative, the city encouraged citizens to take the initiative to plan and implement the NbS that...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
As the PI of NATURE-IN, I am developing an innovative independent research project “New Sustainable Nature-Inclusive Architectural Devices for the Transformation of our Interior Dwelling Space:...
The previously stone-covered Clausplein square is located in a dense urban area in the city centre of Eindhoven and is greatly affected by extreme weather events. After reconstruction, the square has become a small urban park with an underground water retention basin.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Landslides and rockfall from a steep, ca. 35 m high slope consisting of loose glacial till, threaten an important road between France and Spain, the A-136 (RD-934 in Freance).
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS the slope has been reshaped through terracing techniques, with the...
In 2010, WWF-Brazil, Banco do Brasil, the National Water Agency, and Fundação Banco do Brasil joined forces for the Água Brasil Programme. The aim of the project was to increase forest restoration around the watersheds, foster the development and dissemination of sustainable rural production...
To tackle these challenges, the city has taken a series of measures in the context of the Master Development Plan. The plan sets out guidelines and objectives for specific planning and local...
The overall objective of the implemented NbS is to contribute to increasing the resilience of buildings used for education in the Extremadura region to the increasingly frequent periods of heat and water scarcity caused by climate change in southern European countries, improving the well-being...
Enabling more rational farm management and planning space for green corridors in the agricultural land, together with all relevant stakeholders at landscape level. The context of this case study is explained by a short YouTube clip: http://youtu.be/...
Rehabilitation of an existing building by adding, among other rehabilitation measures, a semi-public green space on the roof with a positive influence on the health of users, positive effects on urban climate against the heat island effect and positive effect on water by it storages in the deck...
Creation of a air quality map from the taxonomical diversity and the geographical distribution of lichens by using a lichen index. Lichens are sensitive to pollution and therefore can serve as air quality indicators.
This technology is commercialized by the company...
As a Delta city Rotterdam will face several climate change effects like heat stress, intensifying rainfall, sea level rise. Proactively, the city turned over these possible threads towards opportunities to counteract climate change and - in the meantime - enhancing the quality of city life and improving the economical prospects of the city. Rotterdam will be climate proof!.
A climate proof city that is economically strong and attractive.
Through climate change adaptation the city of Rotterdam can improve its social and ecological value.
Protected areas and other conserved areas, such as indigenous and community conserved lands and sacred natural areas, have played a critical role in biodiversity conservation for the past century. Beyond providing a haven for species, these areas also provide vital ecosystem services that sustain livelihoods, connect landscapes, capture and store carbon, and inspire people to value the natural world. Governments, protected area managers and conservation groups alike often neglect the increasing risk that climate change poses to protected areas and the ecosystem services they provide. Most...
Managing socio-ecological landscapes as natural carbon sinks and resources for adaptation is increasingly recognized as a necessary, efficient and relatively cost-effective strategy. Protected areas store 15 % of terrestrial carbon and supply ecosystem services for disaster reduction, water...
To create a development on a brownfield site where Green Infrastructure (GI) is integral to the layout of dwellings and create a sense of place whilst delivering a rich mix of housing tenures with a focus on affordability for local people.
The NbS aims to improve environmental, spatial and social issues in the Mirafiori district:
The challenge for Poznań is to improve the quality of life in those areas that do not have equitable access to greenspace due to being very urbanised and with higher population densities. By focusing on nature-based solution approaches to deliver this, it is possible to reverse the city’s trend...
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
Through participation in INTERLACE, CBIMA sought to build a platform to foster systemic,...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
This project aimed to utilise nature-based solutions to restore wetland habitat at Rostherne Mere, delivering water quality improvements via reduced nutrient loads entering the mere, alongside wider environmental benefits through a habitat that can support a range of species and ecosystem...
The so-colled Border Meuse or "Grensmaas" Project has three main objectives: reduce flood risk, healthier and more diverse nature, and the commercial benefit of both gravel extraction and nature-based economic development.
Seawalls are usually seen only as flood alleviation structures rather than as having other possible functions to benefit the wide environment. Where new walls are being installed there is opportunity to include more sympathetic “nature friendly” textured finishes to improve or maintain...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The Project ‚Baumstarke Stadt‘ Leipzig aims to generate financial resources to allow tree planting and further to establish a long-term engagement of citizens with the urban green areas they live in. The project, therefore, aims to provide multiple ecosystem...
All of the challenges identified in the Bristol Development Framework Core Strategy (1) concern areas which would benefit from NbS. Furthermore, the 20:20 plan – Bristol’s Sustainable City Strategy (2) – has identified climate change as one of three key challenges. It acknowledges the potential...
RENATURALIZE THE LAGOON AND DEVELOP A NEW MODE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
LEAFSKIN® is an ultralight green roof set up over pedestrian streets or squares, in order to create shadow areas in urban spaces.
The tecnhology can also provide interesting implimentation like carring lighting system or advertising on the bottum.
The objective is to make the Montpellier agricultural systems more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as increasing temperatures or droughts, water and biotic stresses and more extreme events.
Main benefits can be summarized as follow:
INRA (Institut Nantional de la...
Removing sediment from reservoirs is an important part of the costs of hydro-power generation. Under the “Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services” project (RUPES), an initiative by ICRAF, upstream farmers changed land-use practices for reducing soil erosion and sedimentation load in...
Foster sustainable urban planning and management through the integration of ecosystem services in existing decision-support tools, focussing on both the provision and the demand of the ecosystem services.
To improve public space functionality and use, to increase access to green spaces for district residents (Eixample), to contribute to higher biodiversity in the city, and to promote more and different retail activity at the ground floor of buildings, so to rejuvenate/boost the local economy.
The three green wedges around the City of Jiaxing aim to regulate urban climate and to provide space for recreation by enhancing the structure and socioecological multi-functionality of the green infrastructure in the city.
Trees as nature-based...
This study assesses the benefits of a multi-purpose nature-based solution for water pollution control in a peri-urban area located in Gorla Maggiore (northern Italy), using an ecosystem service approach and applying an integrated valuation based on MCA for local water management. This solution...
In the second part of the 20th century, three major challenges led towards a new thinking and the implementation of river restoration as a nature-based solution at the Isar.
First, after decades of river regulation, water diversion and hydro-morphological modifications, the resulting...
The aim of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project is to restore a previously deforested area and contribute to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Green Growth Initiative. Two approaches of protected natural regeneration and planned afforestation were set in motion. Moreover, the project aims to support...
Paper abstract: Urban gardening is now booming. Local authorities are taking part in this dynamic to meet the demand of inhabitants but also because they see it as a solution to many of the challenges of the sustainable city. As a result, they are faced with the issue of soil quality. Urban soils are a rarely highlighted environmental compartment and are subject to numerous constraints: loss of agronomic potential or pollution. Based on experiences in Nantes, the article explores the process by which cities establish a diagnosis and then intervene on soil quality,...
The municipality saw an opportunity in URBiNAT as a preliminary to the Global Project. The two projects indeed share the same general objectives of improving the health and the well-being of the inhabitants. URBiNAT also meets the municipality concerns of the co-creation process: the so-called...
The 2010 city-region plan ‘Structural Vision: Amsterdam 2040’, managed by the Department of Physical Planning, set the investment and project ambitions for the period 2010-2040. The strategy seeks to fulfil the vision of a creative and varied city, with an integrated public transport network,...
Analysing future land use trajectories and their effects on networks of biodiversity and ecosystem services for the Grenoble urban area. It will offer a better knowledge of mechanisms underpinning ecosystem services as well as analysing trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity, critical...
The hydro-geomorphology of the Deba River basin in the Basque country will be restored, mainly through dam demolition, restoring river morphology, connectivity and faunal permeability. Stakeholder interaction is being promoted, connecting local communities, institutions and governments. A main...
Developing a planting scheme with the support of the local engaged population. The creation of national institutions and laws that gave the support for the local activism focused on natural areas. In São Paulo, different groups are working to increase the biodiversity and tree cover in the city...
Demonstrating the benefits of incorporating a network of green spaces in the urban planning. This multifunctional "green infrastructure" network supplies ecosystem services and benefits to the city.
The issues identified at the site were lack of connectivity, safety, vandalism, poor signage and quality of the space due to frequent flooding. Aberdeen City Council has worked with the community extensively, which included conducting a ‘Total Place’ audit of the neighbourhood in 2014,...
The aim of this project is to connect two areas separated by a highway by creating a
wildlife passage on an existing bridge in order to reinforce an ecological corridor. This
structure is thought to allow cohabitation between...
Assessing how current and expected future land use changes affect the synergies or trade-offs between bioenergy provision and other ecosystem services. This will assist Germany in its aim to increase renewable energy provision up to 35% in 2020.
We aim to support regional and national decision-making on landscape management and ecosystem services in Peru, through stakeholder involvement and research on tradeoffs between ecosystem services.
To provide 187 new homes for private and affordable housing and refurbish a Grade II* listed Hall, whilst retaining the views of Hanham Hills and achieving the 'Zero' carbon standard.
Developing a green infrastructure plan in Santiago as a shared territorial strategy and a means of unifying different stakeholders relevant for decision making and implementation at different spatial scales. This was achieved through a participatory approach including multiple stakeholders,...
Rotterdam aims to be 100 % climate-proof by 2025. This is the goal expressed in the city’s climate change adaptation programme. This means that by 2025 measures will already have been taken to ensure that each specific area is minimally disrupted by climate change both then and throughout the...
Assessing how the ecosystem service approach can be used to demonstrate problems in protected areas such as rural abandonment, land-use intensification and social conflicts emerging from strict conservation practices.
This pondscape plays a key role in flood mitigation and water management in Ankara, supporting biodiversity despite urbanization. It provides crucial ecosystem services like habitat provision and water regulation, while offering recreational spaces for the public, benefiting both urban and rural...
Rönne å catchment area is a river watershed located in Southern Sweden and includes lakes (e.g. Ringsjön), rivers (Rönne å) and marine coastal areas (Kattegatt). The AQUACROSS Case Study looks at the process of eutrophication and restoration of...
Enhancing conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management and the utilisation of forest resources by addressing ecosystem services that are central to local livelihoods.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
Ecological restoration by immersing diverse artificial reefs to provide shelters and habitats to marine species. The aim of the project is to diversify and regenerate marine natural resources in order to both make local fishing durable and ecological restoration.
There were plans for a huge dam for hydro-electric energy production, mainly for export. The study was designed as a standard Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), including environmental costs and distributional impacts. Cost-benefit-analysis was used to assess the value of the project because it is a...
The bombcrater pondscape is located very close to the city of Hasselt and has been created unintentionally in 1944 during World War II. It was designated as a nature reserve in 2006 and became a place for the preservation of biodiversity and for people to enjoy nature closeby to the city .
Informing policy makers at national and EU level about the short and long term consequences of forest bioenergy production and its trade-offs for other ecosystem services.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
The Valdocco Vivibile Life-Lab establishes a community of learning around urban NbS for ecosystem restoration, multifunctional ecosystem services, biodiversity enhancement, and social inclusion, promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborative leadership. It creates mechanisms for...
A község a Tisza vízgyűjtő területén fekszik, rendkívül kitett az árvíz, a belvíz, az aszály, a hőhullámok és a heves esőzések kockázatának; ezen felül a terület a jövőben további melegedésre és szárazodásra számíthat. A projekt célja a természetközeli...
Establishing vegetable gardens in all primary schools of Mirafiori, plus two kindergarten and one vocational school, and providing educational activities focusing on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and the proGIreg NbS aims at improving the science curriculum of the schools, increase their...
The project ProGIreg is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme and will run from June 2018 until 2023. ProGIreg stands for ‘productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration’: nature for renewal. ProGIreg develops self-sustaining business models...
A fővárosi zöldinfrastruktúra fejlesztését és fenntartását meghatározó Radó Dezső Terv kiemelt prioritása a klímaadaptáció erősítése és a biodiverzitás növelése, mindezt a Fővárosi Önkormányzat a lakossággal szoros partnerségben kívánja elérni. A biológiai sokféleséget, a klímaadaptációt és a...
Um die Artenvielfalt von Insekten zu erhalten, wird dringend mehr Lebensraum benötigt. Naturfelder e.V. wandelt Flächen, wie z.B. Ackerfläche in Lebensraum für Insekten um. Gemeinsam mit Gemeinde und Landwirten ersetzen wir Monokulturen durch bunte Blumenwiesen – wahre Wohlfühloasen für Insekten, Bienen und Kleintiere und schaffen so auch die Lebensgrundlage für Wildvögel.
Landwirte oder Gemeinde stellen hierbei ihre Flächen zur Verfügung auf die wir die Blühmischung aussäen. Im Fall einer Dürre sorgen wir auch für eine Notbewässerung. Zusätzlich zu den Blühpflanzen säen wir...
Founding an association that has the goal to procure suitable land and spaces and to convert them into flower meadows and insect habitats. Focus of this association is the concrete action of procuring the spaces, surveying them with experts, making individual concepts, securing financing for...
Floodplain reconnection through modification of river bank protection
The Danube-Auen National Park in Vienna aims to multiple ecosystem services combine with trees with regulating services, such as water protection, retention, carbon sequestration, and micro, local, and regional climate regulation.
The National Park fosters an environment providing...
Implement the best configurations for greening elements (type, location, spatial configuration), in the Sorraia floodplain valley, that maximize biodiversity (woody structure, ants, birds and chiropterans) and ecosystem services (biological control, nutrient and sediment removal, pollination,...
Societal challenges :
- For adaptation to climate changes : soil erosion mitigation and flood prevention.
- For biodiversity : facilitating the recovery of biodiversity.
The Stiemervallei provides great potential to re-imagine the natural quality of a stream valley in an urban context and to balance the ecological, environmental, social and economic benefits of such an approach. The City of Genk has been working to integrate the hidden, fragmented, and...
The city of Nova Gorica has been shaping its municipal strategy around the 3 main axes of the Regional Development Strategy of Northern Primorska, namely:
Despite their critical importance for biodiversity and significant potential as nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation, ponds and pondscapes have traditionally been undervalued and overlooked.
The Horizon2020 PONDERFUL project brought together an international...
Within the CONEXUS project, Santiago’s Life-Lab, Laboratorio BioUrbano, is an inter-sectoral partnership between academics, public institutions, private actors, and civil society. With the aim of co-producing urban nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the important challenges...
In the framework of "Vision Ljubljana 2025", the city has adopted several sustainability-oriented strategic documents, especially the:
Urban Master Plan (83% of all...
After a decade of restoration measures along the Tzipori stream in Israel, this case study will monitor their success and aims at upscaling measures to the watershed scale in order to create a model for management of stream basin rehabilitation.
This case study is one of 17 that are part...
One of the activities foreseen by the Uforest project is researching innovative Urban Forestry initiatives across Europe. For this reason, the Uforest team has selected and analysed some of the most interesting urban forestry projects in the continent, with the aim to illustrate...
Projekt név: Városi Vízkör /CityWaterCircles/ - Városi Együttműködési Modellek a vízfelhasználás és -újrahasznosítás hatékonyságának növelésére a körkörös gazdaság elvei alapján
Az éghajlati válság következtében súlyos probléma a...
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
Through its participation in INTERLACE, Portoviejo sought access to knowledge and networks...
The primary goal of the city strategy (Development Strategy for the City of Poznań 2030) is to improve quality of life for all inhabitants, in such a way that everyone feels that they have a stake in co-creating the city. One of the five strategic objectives of the city strategy – 'A green,...
The variety of experiences, knowledge and social capital of diverse communities can be connected through tools that facilitate collaboration.
Connected we're a living city.
To strengthen connectivity between resources in terms of people, space, knowledge, and expertise. To make clear the "What" that exists, to represent the "Who" and reveal the "How" of connecting to resources -creating a more resilient city in...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Involving managers and residents in designing an integrated land management plan for biodiversity and tourism. Biodiversity and visiting people.
The aim of the project is to develop a vision for Manziana's former Sulphur mine (the Solfatara), which is located on the fringe of the town and the edge of an ancient forest. For the project to be successful, it is essential to co-produce it with community support, taking into consideration the context of the whole area.
A wide range of local and regional stakeholders were involved in the project such as BIC Lazio, University of Stuttgart (UoS), Università Agraria di Manziana, OSMOS Transversal Planning, Italian...
Exploring the vision for a former sulphur mine in the context of common land ownership and management in Manziana Region.
Collaborating to halt declining biodiversity: Despite designation as a Marine Protected Area, biodiversity in the Faial-Pico Channel is falling. Our aim: to collaborate with local stakeholders and policy-makers and apply the AQUACROSS Assessment Framework to understand social...
Liverpool is characterised by a variety of architectural styles and is one of the most visited cities in the United Kingdom. In 2008 it was nominated as the annual European Capital of Culture. Liverpool was one of the leading global trade centres at the end of the 19th Century. After suffering for significant population reduction and economic decline in the latter half of the past century, the city started growing again in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, the local economy is based on the service sector industries and it is one of the largest in the United Kingdom.
Liverpool supports...
Liverpool, as with many major urban areas in the UK and globally, is facing significant challenges in managing its urban form to pursue economic growth agendas, whilst also providing an attractive city for its residents and visitors. Unfortunately, the social, ecological, and economic dimensions...
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
This NbS is a construction ex nihilo of a landscaped park as alternative stormwater management solution to a traditionnal civil engineering management (tubes). It takes place in a...
The creation of a long-term, sustainable conservation model for white willow (Salicion albae) alluvial forests in Hungary and a more near-natural flow regime of the Danube. A core aim was to eliminate or mitigate the factors that threaten the habitats of community interest.
This case...
The main problem to solve with the implemented NbS measures is the runoff of soil and pollutants from the farmland to irrigation canals and from there to the nearby Lake Massaciuccoli on the Tuscan coast.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS two canals (canals Fossetto and Fossaccio) have...
Former wetlands adjacent to the river are being reconnected to demonstrate the benefits of re-wetting /reconnection to the natural flood pulse of the Danube River in order to enhance the benefits provided to nature and local communities.
This case study is one of 17 that are part of the...
The Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) project aims to reduce disaster risks in the Municipality of Port Salut through a landscape or ridge-to-reef approach.
SABICAS (SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions) aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify the benefits and co-benefits of nature-based solutions. The goal is to facilitate dialogue and decision making among...
Freshwater ecosystems in the Swiss plateau are threatened by multiple stressors that deteriorate water quality and hydromorphology. This is the result of channelization, dams, wastewater, and agriculture, among other causes. To restore these ecosystems and stop the biodiversity decline, multiple...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
The project aims to reconnect green spaces, develop biodiversity and enhance the quality of life in the city. Further objectives include improving the environment for pollination and climate regulation.
Educational services aim at...
The modular urban farm is a platform for presenting modern food production technologies to the interested public and the local community. It provides direct access to and close encounter with applications and practical features of green technologies. Key goals include:
The Medmerry scheme realigned a section of coast to deliver better protection from coastal flooding for local people and to provide intertidal habitat for nature.
Key documents for green space and NbS at local level are the Local Development Plan and the Open Space Strategy. The Local Development Plan seeks to protect and enhance the environment and address the challenge of climate change. This will be partly achieved by using new development projects to...
The aims of the Green Lungs of the City Project are to build a big botanical garden for the city, create a forest-wetlands park and develop an agricultural park for citizens. GLCP uses urban forest and trees, as well as wetlands as Nature-based Solutions to promote the sustainable development of...
The area is poorly connected to green space and in 2013 Glasgow City Council’s open space audit concluded that the site was of poor quality and limited functionality. The towers consist of mainly family flats and over 20% of the population are from an ethnic minority background. The project...
Quantifying the impacts of traditional forest management on biodiversity and ecosystem services values and developing new forest management strategies using the retention capacity of the forest.
Meeting these multifaceted demands on Glasgow’s open spaces is going to be important in ensuring that Glasgow is well-equipped to deal with the challenges of the 21st century and to enhance the attractiveness of the city as a place in which to live and invest.
As part of the Connecting...
To create a 3,000 m² food forest – a self-sustaining woodland ecosystem designed for food production –together with the scouts and the members of the St. Urbanus community and the boy and girl scouts from Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg (DPSG). During several workshops the garden was...
The aim of the project “Green City of the Future” is to develop integrated solutions to meet the challenges of climate change and subsequent densification in Munich and to test how these can be implemented in urban planning.
With a network of over 25 partners across public and non-government sectors, the Life-Lab establishes multidisciplinary communities of learning to investigate and co-design NbS in order to counter a palette of harmful effects of urbanisation in the MRBA. These include, among others, air...
A Coruña is medium-sized city sited in the Northwest of Spain with more than 244,000 inhabitants who live in barely 37.8 km2. Due to this high population density, A Coruña has a reduced number of green areas (compared to similar European cities), but the existing urban parks are authentic green...
The project aims to tackle climate change, poverty and food provision, by supporting urban gardens on public or private land with community participation. The aims being food security and sovereignty, environmental management, employment and income improvement, social inclusion, sustainability...
Investigating the feasibility of operationalising a "Payment for Ecosystem Services" (PES) scheme in the sugarcane belt from a political, financial and technical perspective.
The main purpose of the arctic green wall is to manage water flows (storage) and water quality, with particular focus on understanding its performance during cold seasons. Arctic green wall will also produce new knowledge related to suitable plant species for sub-arctic climate with variable...
To create a new wetland reserve on a brown field site and agricultural land to mitigate the loss of mudflats in Cardiff Bay and the two designated species that were displaced when the Taff/Ely SSSI was destroyed.
The main objective of the São Paulo Life-Lab is to fast-forward the urban green transition by harnessing the ecosystem services of urban forests, and while doing so, tackling socio-environmental inequalities through NbS co-creation.
The Life-Lab thus aligns with the wider vision of São...
Implementing floodplain farming systems in multiple sites along the Tisza River, thereby making land use more sustainable and in line with nature conservation efforts.
The Programme for Enhancing the Urban Green Infrastructure is an ambitious government measure approved in 2017. It establishes the main strategies for enhancing the quality and quantity of green infrastructure in Barcelona till 2030. Barcelona wants to renature the city and create, in this...
This case study was delivered as part of INTERLACE: an EU-funded project to strengthen urban ecosystem restoration in the European Union and Latin America.
The INTERLACE project activities in Metropolia Krakowska focused on the 14 smaller...
Climate gas emission will be reduced and carbon sequestration will be stimulated by rewetting this area along the Nørreåen stream in Denmark. This restoration will preserve valuable Natura2000 habitats and endangered plant species, while at the same time making land consolidation efforts to...
The aim of the project is to create a "new community" in the Trent Basin site that will trigger a catalytic mechanism to spread local change across the River Trent waterside and the larger Nottingham area.
The project team consisted of professionals with diverse expertise, such as Igloo Blueprint, the developers of the site; researchers from the University of Nottingham (UoN); URBED, an urban design specialist; and Marsh:Grochowski, innovative housing architects. Although the community members are an important asset,...
Creating a liveable and resilient community by bringing together technical expertise.
The project aimed to exchange knowledge between people who are experienced in using vacant or underused spaces in the city, and those who are not. In addition, the project aimed to collect data about groups who are interested in using vacant spaces.
Connect the Dots were the lead team in the project. The participants were people already using, or interested in using, vacant spaces in the city. In addition, local authorities, the Office of Public Works and different agencies working with communities were part of the...
Encouraging collaboration by bringing together diverse perspectives on Dublin and its desired future.
Brussels is one of the four follower cities of the URBiNAT project, and was chosen for its green character, its history of involvement in European and international agreements and cooperation, and its current practice of citizen participation in political and territorial processes. The URBiNAT...
In 2013, an experimental and educational project, conceived as a garden home for a school, was built at the heart of the green district known as ‘Duke’s Meadow’ on the Île de Nantes. The building’s roof was covered by 2,700 square meters of natural dunes.
The objective is to create a...
This study aimed to use a semi-natural meadow as an ecological restoration tool for the optimisation of ecosystem services and landscape attractiveness of river revetments. River revetments combine bank reinforcement with greening and can resist flood washing and provide waterfront space for...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
This case study is an example where the environment was gradually changed. A river was turned into a chain of lakes, and additional wetlands appeared. Although the biodiversity is greater than in the first case, the area does not have a protected status, and the greed of real estate investors...
Challenges
The described situation was an opportunity for the nature based solutions (green wall creation) implementation. Particularly, based on the scientific data available from more than 160 Yerevan kindergartens specific one was identified and selected ensuring the...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
the N4D results are used by key governmental stakeholders to continue the MAES process in Romania after the N4D project is over in April 2017, and to implement necessary policy changes for Good Ecosystems Governance to achieve a Sustainable Green Economy and human well-being in the context of Sustainable Development. This report builds the case for pursuing Sustainable Green Economy in Romania, analyses whether Romanian
policies stimulate the transition towards a Sustainable Green Economy, and provides recommendations aimed at improving policy and decision making.
The Project “Demonstrating and promoting natural values, to support the decision-making process in Romania” (N4D) was developed based on folowing activities: A1. institutional infrastructure development; A2. Development of the ecosystem mapping and assessment framework in Romania; A3. Data...
The main problem to solve with the implemented NbS measures is to reduce rockfall on the road.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS wooden structures designed to prevent the release of rocks and to stop released rocks before they reach too high a velocity have been implemented.
Enhancing the effectiveness of the integrated and adaptive management planning and its implementation in the area. This will be done by mainstreaming the improved understanding, using operational tools regarding the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
The village of Erill-la-Vall in the Spanish Pyrenees is heavily affected by erosion and debris flow problems.
Through the H2020 project PHUSICOS a combination of revegetation to limit erosion and of terraces constructed by dry stone walls and timber to minimize energy in the creeks and to...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
Hamburg was the first major German city to launch a comprehensive Green Roof Strategy. Its goal is to green at least 70 per cent of both new buildings and suitable flat or gently pitched roofs that are being renovated. The Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture supports the...
This pondscape covers Ærø, Avernakø, and Birkholm islands, with over 60 ponds on mostly agricultural land. NBS aims to enhance biodiversity (e.g. amphibians, birds) and promote recreation (e.g. biking, hiking) while encouraging eco-friendly farming and buffer zones around ponds to reduce...
The center of the city Kolding is frequently under threat from flooding due to heavy or prolonged precipitation events. Located at the bottom of a river valley, the municipality has initiated many climate-proofing projects to mitigate flood risks. One such project, initiated by Kolding...
The objective of the project is to reduce the areas of impermeable surfacing and develop a connected green network across the campus.
Key aims:
Targetting schools for SuDS projects can have two clear advantages. Firstly, there are large expanses of impermeable surfaces on school sites - huge roof areas and large tarmac spaces – from which to capture run off. In addition to this, schools are the hub of the community and, as such, provide a unique opportunity to garner widespread support for SuDS both within schools and beyond. The only drawback is that schools are busy sites and it can be difficult to integrate SuDS with the needs of the school.
In this project, an Education and Community Outreach...
The aim was to deliver sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) measures on school sites in order to reduce local flood risk, provide benefits for participating schools and educate the pupils and wider community about surface water flooding .
• For adaptation to climate changes : combat flooding and erosion phenomena
• For biodiversity : improve riverbed-floodplain connectivity and restore biodiversity..
MONITORING PROGRAM:
Izmir is a Turkish city with roughly 4 000 000 inhabitants. Located in the west coast of Anatolia, it is the country’s third most populous city. The local climate is Mediterranean, with long and hot summers and relatively mild winters.
Izmir is one of the oldest cities on the...
A projekt céljai a következők voltak: a lehető legjobb gyepgazdálkodási módszerek feltárása és tesztelése; a gyepgazdálkodás ökológiai és gazdasági fenntarthatóságának biztosítása; és a gazdálkodási információk hozzáférhetőségének biztosítása a szakemberek számára.
Aquaponics is the combination of raising fish (aquaculture) in tanks together with soilless cultivation of plants (hydroponics) in a symbiotic environment, whereby the fish waste water provides the nutrients needed to feed the plants.
Two aquaponics greenhouses will be built on part of...
The objective is to foster butterfly populations and diversity in Turin by creating a network of green areas. Proper management and the presence of suitable plants (food plants and nectar sources for the life cycle) allows butterflies to cross the urban area while involving people with mental or...
In response to the challenges arising from the urban expansion of Medellín and the close association with neighbouring municipalities, the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley (AMVA for its Spanish abbreviation) was established in 1980 as a regional public transportation and urban...
Restauration of natural hydrological functioning through drainage removal
For centuries, inhabitants have built drainage systems to avoid water retention in the Albera pondscape. This has led to the disappearance of many ponds and the reduction of the length of time that...
To regenerate a brown site to develop 150 new homes, an improved park area and a BREEAM outstanding green business park. To deliver high quality jobs, family housing and a better green space.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
One of the activities foreseen by the Uforest project is researching innovative Urban Forestry initiatives across Europe. For this reason, the Uforest team has selected and analysed some of the most interesting urban forestry projects in the continent, with the aim to illustrate...
By supporting the design of Multifunctional Green Infrastructure in the Barking Riverside development project, the pilot aims to ensure the protection and conservation of nationally important biodiversity.
University of East London (UEL), is acting as the leading organisation in the project. UEL has strong ties with the local authority (the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham), National Statutory Agency for the Natural Environment (Natural England), local business (Barking Riverside Ltd) and local expertise such as...
Informing Barking Riverside's green space design by incorporating regional biodiversity.
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
The project aims to transform an old quarry in a public park. The project foresees the renaturalization of the lakeshore, the realization of a peninsula, the filling of settling tanks created for the extraction activities and the realization weak slope in the nord sector that want connect the...
A truly nature-based solution is implemented by allowing beavers to spread into desired areas, letting them restore degraded wetlands and small streams and ditches as well as forest landscapes.
This case study is one of 17 that are part of the EU Horizon2020 project MERLIN - Mainstreaming...
One of the consequences of global warming is the sea level rise. In urban settings along coastlines, rising seas threaten not only houses, but also several types of infrastructures such as industries, roads, power plants, freshwater aquifers, etc. Rising sea-level also pushes destructive storm...
The overall objective is the long-term conservation of Natura 2000 habitats and species of a delta coastal lagoon, by means of an integrated management that exploits, instead to contrast, the dynamism of the lagoon and its constant sedimentary deposit.
The public perception of ecosystems (e.g. forests, including possibly protecting ones) is strongly worsened following floods with massive wood jams. This case study aims at performing a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of a Mediterranean catchment to assess NbS benefits, dis-benefits and co-...
The noise barrier wall-system being used in Sachsenheim guarantees an instant green noise barrier wall, from the very first day on: The green noise barrier consists of a scaffold with galvanised steel lattice mats on both sides, filled with a core of plant substrates and then planted with pre-...
Nicosia is the capital city of the Republic of Cyprus. It lies roughly in the centre of the island in the Mesaoria Plain, flanked by the northern range of Kyrenia Mountains with its distinctive ‘Pentadaktylos’ – the five-finger mountain.
The capital has two distinct faces: the old,...
The former Deusenberg landfill has been recultivated since 1992 and was opened to the public in 2004. Since then, it has become a popular destination for various leisure activities like walking, jogging, cycling, mountain biking, birdwatching, etc.
Access to the top of the Deusenberg is...
The release of an open public space with such dimensions in a densely-built city district offered a unique opportunity to restore the connection among the surrounding areas with a solid green lung. The site was previously a brownfield land that needed remediation. (During the entire remediation...
Through providing a publicly accessible green space that allows for aesthetic appreciation, recreational activities and social cohesion, the Municipality of Bari aims to improve mental and physical wellbeing among the area’s citizens.
With the aim to renovate derelict...
To provide an open forum for people in Thamesmead to discuss nature and the natural environment.
To act as a first step towards creating a more bottom up governance and decision making model.
It aims to implement artificial shelters for fauna (nesting box, insect hotels, artificial spawning areas…) and...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
The framework supported the discussion between experts, enabled a more in-depth discussion than usual about the objectives to be taken into account in planning and their appearance in the plans. The approach also contributed to the development of a more comprehensive perspective and thus supports breaking away from silo-like planning in large organisations like the City of Vantaa. In addition, the framework helped the planners to find new solutions that supported multiple objectives.
The application of MCDA so that the focus was on the objectives and on the...
The objectives of the case were to i) develop a systematic and interactive approach to support multi-objective urban planning in general and ii) to demonstrate the approach in the Kivistö sketch area in developing and evaluating alternatives for urban planning and decentralised stormwater...
Biodiversity conservation and wetland protection programme
This study aims to identify and communicate areas and management solutions that synergistically support biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, as well as the growing demand to feed an increasing global population, using the ecosystem services concept.
For adaptation to climate changes: increasing the resistance of forest stands to the risk of drought.
For the local area: improving water quality and groundwater levels, reinforcing water availability.
For managing natural risks: ...
Climate change is already exerting a major impact both in Europe and in the rest of the world. This impact is foreseen to intensify with extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, becoming more frequent. Mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change as quickly as possible is therefore among the most important challenges of our time. Local authorities have a major role to play in this, as they can implement a range of climate and environmental good practices in their planning processes, developments, investments, urban management practices and in the design of their...
The Erasmus+ project „Nature-Based Innovations for Urban Forest and Rainwater Management” supports communities and local authorities in combating climate change through the identification of good practices and the dissemination of innovative solutions and manuals addressed to local authorities,...
The aim is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant GBIs in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs within a place-based and socio-ecological...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The wine exemplar seeks to understand how different players in the wine value chain (producers, retailers, consumers) influence wine production and thus the ecosystem services provided by vineyard ecosystems.
To improve an over wide and heavily silted reach of the river Somer running through Midsomer Norton high street, providing a diverse habitat for native fish, particularly wild brown trout, plants and invertebrates.
The area surrounding the confluence of the north and south branches of Thornton Creek (Seattle) experiences storm water-related flooding more often than other areas. A cost-benefit analysis, which incorporated ecosystem services values, aimed at identifying the best cost-benefit ratio among...
This pondscape is a NATURA 2000 area. The landscape consists largely of meadows scattered in a dense network of old hawthorn hedges and some forest patches. It contains multiple small ponds, of which several have been recently created as part of a translocation project of Crested newt.
For several reasons, protecting important ecological areas in Lisbon from urbanisation has become difficult. Remnant areas of natural habitat have gained particular importance in consolidating the green corridors network, benefiting from the fact that much of this land is still within the...
A pilot mangrove restoration project in Costa Rica demonstrating how mangrove planting can benefit habitat and species conservation, whilst boosting the local economy. About 40% of Costa Rica’s mangroves were deforested following the collapse of the country’s banana boom in the 1980s. A vigorous...
Minimising the impacts of dredging and flood bank extension: In 2018/2019, in the Ria de Aveiro two management interventions will have negative unintended impacts on biodiversity: 1) a dredging programme to manage water flow and navigability in Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon, and...
Green wall treating greywater from four apparttments and being reused in toilet flushing. It uses a horizontal flow green wall coupled with an ozonation.
The Sonian City is the area including and surrounding the Sonian Forest in Belgium. It is located at the south-eastern periphery of the country's capital city, Brussels, and its territory spans across three regions (the Brussels Capital Region, Flanders, and Wallonia). While the Sonian Forest (FR Forêt de Soignes, NL Zoniënwoud) is a forest widely studied and with defined boundaries, the Sonian City is an operational concept to be developed and researched within the Clearing House project. It consists of the Sonian Forest, at its core (i.e., 4,383 hectares of non-urbanised land, protected...
Developing the communal area as a social meeting place for the local neighborhood, strengthening the community feeling and building a sense of ownership of the area. By providing growing space to different local entrepreneurs, the garden supports the local green economy and helps building a...
Az Alföld egyik leginkább elsivatagosodó és az aszálykároknak leginkább kitett részén, a Homokhátságon helyi gazdálkodók tömörültek egy civil szervezetbe, hogy a belvízelvezető csatornák egyszerű elgátolásával segítsék a víz oldalirányú szivárgását a talajban, ezáltal vizet...
With the aim to create huge forest patches, develop urban forest park clusters and optimise the large-scale forest patterns, BPAP has proposed green strategies with nine green wedges, multiple greenbelts, and green corridors around the old city centre in Beijing.
Objectives further...
The Volkswagen Group (the Group) is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. The Group is comprised of twelve brands (Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN), operating 118...
The AQUACROSSCase Study aims to improve the knowledge base available to stakeholders to enable a more informed decision-making process toward the achievement of the Biodiversity Strategy targets, including the provisioning of ecosystem services...
Mapping green and grey structures of Leipzig to understand in which urban structure types land-use pressures on urban green are higher / lower and analysing how political and governance strategies and instruments support the protection of green infrastructure and its ecosystem services.
To create a community allotment that anyone can visit and is accessible to people with physical and/or mental ill health.
The pilot project's goals are, among other things, to develop a strategic comprehensive plan for Holmehave in Assens municipality in Denmark and use multifunctional land distribution for the establishment of afforestation, nature and wetlands. The Nordic Council of Ministers Nature-based...
Explore how to best maintain existing areas of edible urban greenery - and integrate new ones - into the area, as well as how these green spaces can be used to connect the existing neighbours with the new ones by providing spaces for community gardening, togetherness and knowledge exchange.
This project aims to include :
• transformation of some portions of agricultural land in wooded strips and recovery of some rows, that were not in a good state of preservation;
• creation of a new area for the relocation of the working installations;
• fulfillment of the...
Barking and Dagenham is also affected by the high population pressure and an overheated housing market in the capital as a whole, with many decisions concerning its future...
Building a sustainable and cohesive community based on environmental principals.
In 20 year’s time, Barking Riverside is an ecologically sustainable neighbourhood that provides a range of tenures from social to owner-occupied housing. Community-managed assets are bound up...
To convert an energy intensive system of heating, cooling and ventilation, which was poorly maintained and controlled into a modern, green, sustainable development while adhering to stringent rail standards.
The state of biodiversity has been decreased worldwide, and the Finnish Wildlife Service organization Metsähallitus will contribute to solving the challenge. With support from the Nordic Council of Ministers, they will restore the entire watershed area around the Mätäsoja Stream in...
A plan has been developed in workshops led by permaculturist Mandy Schreiber.
A Food Forest is an artificial human designed forest that predominantly consists of edible plants and fruit-bearing bushes and trees.
Starting with a single focus on afforestation, the project aimed at integrating Nature-Based Solutions for limiting flooding, enhancing biodiversity and reducing traffic noise pollution.
Following an integrated approach, further objectives included:
Rehabilitar e integrar las áreas del bosque urbano del parque metropolitano Albarregas para la creación de espacios públicos verdes adecuados para la recreación, que sean funcionales y estén interconectados con la ciudad para dar cumplimiento a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), y de...
A Crop Wild Relative (CWR) is a wild species that is closely related to a cultivated crop. It can for example include wild relatives of food crops such as of cereals, vegetables and fruits, or relatives of fodder and forage crops. NordGen has been working with CWRs in two different projects. A...
The aim of the project Orti Generali is to regenerate Cascina Piemonte area, which is mostly reduced to ruins because of occupations and acts of vandalism, creating new community gardens that will pursuit different goals: education, social inclusion, technological innovation, job training.
A BeePathNet projekt keretében a XII. kerületi Önkormányzat által megvalósított Méhbarát Kerület program a biológiai sokféleség fenntartására törekszik.
A beporzó rovarok faj- és egyedszáma csökken, erre a globális kihívásra lokális, városi szinten, egy kerületben is...
We have explored the opportunities and trade‐offs of managing ecosystems for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. We have also analyzed how policy development integrated adaptation and mitigation in Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, and the Philippines.
The development of three parks foreseen as a site of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 aims to serve as an urban green space allowing for urban revitalisation, shaping the urban landscape and using the potential of green spaces in cities especially with regards to...
The objective of the catalogue of actions set out in the Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plan is to implement a strategy for improving existing green heritage and for preserving and enhancing Barcelona’s biodiversity to provide the inhabitants of Barcelona with many ecosystem services.
The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city. The main...
The AQUACROSSCase Study examines the implications of the regulation on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) (i.e. non-native plants and animals harming the local ecosystem) for practical management in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, in the context of...
The objectives and goals of the educational activities can be summarized as follows:
Szeged’s urban development concept and integrated urban development strategy aim to improve the quality of green areas and to restore natural habitats and ecological corridors for social and recreational purposes and to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Due to the required structure for...
