Flanders breaks out (Vlaanderen breekt uit)

Flanders breaks out ("Vlaanderen breekt uit") is an economic programme launched by the Flemish government in Belgium in 2018 to start a desealing movement within the Flemish territory and improve the quality of open spaces. In 2018 and 2019, two calls for "testing grounds for desealing" resulted in the conception and realisation of 44 pioneering ('living lab') projects to deseal public terrain. This addressed areas such as school playgrounds, squares, parking grounds and roads in Flanders. In order to scale up ambition and expanding the desealing movement, two calls for proposals on green-blue networks in urban areas were launched in 2021 and 2022 directed towards local governments. These proposals need to explicitly combine desealing with the development or elaboration of green-blue networks in urban areas.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Economic and fiscal instruments›Payments as rewards/for ecosystem services, subsidies, incentives

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Soil quality
Water management (e.g. reuse)
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Drought and fire risk
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Air quality
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

Reducing paved surfaces is an entry point to address multiple issues related to biodiversity, water, soil, air quality, quality of living environment, heat stress and space for food production. Desealing can be seen as a nature-based solution on its own, while also working in tandem with other nature-based solutions to increase e.g. the water captation, storage and infiltration capacity of the desealed area.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

Derelict areas

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Other

Good practice characteristics:

Effective

Support multifunctional NBS

Locally appropriate

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Flemish Government, Department of Environment and Spatial Development

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

This instrument came out of a coalition-building initiative, in which several parties (local and regional government, experts, planners, grassroots organisations, institutions, etc) worked together to solve legal, instrumental, financial or urban planning challenges in order to proceed to implementation of desealing projects. To this end, the "Testgardens" and local governments received tailor-made support by means of a guidance programme including: process coordination, design support, legal and financial support, communication and participation support, overall quality assessment.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Private sector, corporate, business

Researchers, university

AWB (Architecture Workroom Brussels), VRP (Spatial Planners Association)

Type of actor involvement:

Co-planning or co-design of instrument (e.g. boards, advisory role)

Expert task force consultation

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

Across all calls for projects (4 to date), a participatory approach to project design and implementation was a requirement. In the ‘desealing test gardens’, for example, a mock up of the desealing action was mandatory as a means to engage citizens, receive feedback and input on the envisioned desealing action. For the projects initiated by local governments in the calls for green-blue networks, proof of stakeholder participation sessions is also a requirement. The degree to inclusiveness of decision-making and implementation varies because of the different scales of the (sub)projects and different levels of engagement of citizens and grassroots organisation at inception.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Citizen councils or consultation for co-planning (e.g. workshops, surveys)

Implementation of NBS (e.g. with government funds)

Expert task force, coordination by Architecture Workroom Brussels.

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Coalition, please specify

The first call for proposals was open for 'coalition projects', in which a coalition of engaged citizens could propose to deseal in their neighbourhood.

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public regional budget

Recovery and Resilience Facility of European Commission

Budget:

Above 10 000 000€

Details about instrument financing:

In the first round of investments (2018 and 2019), Flanders invested 10 million euro in the "Desealing test gardens". The pilot projects were selected by an expert team out of 450 project proposals. For the second round of investment (2021 and 2022), Flanders will be investing 15 million euro in local government initiatives to transform urban grey or non-qualitative green space into qualitative desealed, green-blue spaces. These projects have also been selected by an expert team and receive support to heighten ambition and impact, effectively engage citizens, indicate and address common challenges and become ambassadors for desealing.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

By the end of 2023, 44 'deasealing test gardens' will have been implemented, amounting to over 295,000 m2 of desealed surfaces in Flanders. Of these test gardens, four are considered to be strategic projects which systemically address specific opportunities for desealing in agriculture, road infrastructure, neighbourhoods and industry. These systemic projects offer an in-depth analyses of barriers, opportunities and enabling factors to large-scale desealing in these specific contexts, thus contributing to the envisioned desealing movement. In 2022 and 2023, more than ten municipalities will commence the implementation of their proposals for green-blue networks in urban areas, and start carrying out their ambassadorship to neighbouring and/or interested municipalities. Thus, the Living Labs contribute to reducing the degree of paved surfaces in Flanders and making the region more climate robust via concrete actions on the ground, as well as by joint knowledge building and sharing about how unsealing is possible and how new practices can be achieved and supported. Lessons learned have been and will further be captured in guidance documents on good practices for desealing.

Success factors and lessons learned:

Desealing paved surfaces seems simple at first sight, but in reality the opposite is true. The process of desealing surfaces is usually part of the transformation of a built-up area. Therefore it is often related to strategies of densification, reuse, interweaving, which are linked to defragmentation, demolishing or scrapping of vacant buildings / residential expansion areas. This makes it a complex task for which simple solutions usually do not fit: it requires the development of a new practice in the field. “Flanders breaks out” allowed for the testing of new practices and discovery of how to scale up and accelerate these.

Sources and further information

References

Interview(s):

Department of Environment (Flemish government, Belgium)

Further documents

Documents:

Workbook 'Testgardens Desealing' (Dutch only).pdf

Weblinks:

https://vlaanderenbreektuit.be/

https://omgeving.vlaanderen.be/werkboek-en-onthardingsfora

Photos

@Designskills