Krakow Metropolis 2030 Strategy

@Biuro Stowarzyszenia Metropolia Krakowska

The Krakow Metropolis 2030 Strategy is a supra-local strategy for 15 municipalities in Poland (the City of Kraków and 14 municipalities surrounding the city), which was enacted in 2021. One of the main objectives of the Strategy is to achieve "an environmentally friendly Kraków Metropolis, oriented towards climate neutrality, ensuring a high quality of life". The specific objectives include creating an efficient system of spatial planning that supports climate neutrality and to develop blue-green infrastructure and retention, create new green areas and high quality public spaces, and integrate dispersed structure of greenery into a continuous system. The Strategy also aims to protect ecological corridors and promote biodiversity conservation and increase the quality of the water management system, including water and sewage management services. The Krakow Metropolis 2030 Strategy is the first supra-local development strategy adopted by a regional city in Poland. More than 150 stakeholders were successfully involved in the development of the document.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Agreement-based or cooperative instrument›Joint regional planning between municipalities

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
Landslide risk
Air quality
Social cohesion
Social equity
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The strategy sets out specific indicators, including: increase the percentage of the area of Kraków Metropolis covered by local spatial development plans; decrease the average volume of water consumed per inhabitant; increase the level of satisfaction of the inhabitants of the communes of the Kraków Metropolis with the quality and availability of green areas. These indicators support the specific objectives targeting restoration (mentioned above) as well as: action to protect ecological corridors and promote biodiversity conservation; cooperation to counteract the effects of extreme phenomena; and increase the quality of the water management system, including water and sewage management services.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

Good practice characteristics:

Locally appropriate

Inclusivity

Participatory development method

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Krakow Metropolis

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The Strategy was developed in a partnership of 15 municipalities, with a wide range of participation from representatives of the municipalities of the Krakow Metropolis, the region, the scientific sector, non-governmental organizations and business environment institutions. The actions set out in the Strategy have been developed based on expert knowledge and the active participation of the municipalities' representatives. Numerous meetings, workshops and thematic forums were held, including the 1st Krakow Metropolis Forum, which was attended by more than 170 participants from various circles. During the event, more than 1000 ideas for joint activities were developed in workshops. There was a process of co-design of the instrument including boards with an advisory role and civil society consultation through workshops and surveys. In order to better understand the needs of the main users of the Strategy, it was decided to use the Design Thinking method. Nearly 100 in-depth interviews and 14 creative sessions were conducted. The aim was to cluster key observations on challenges in the given area and ideas for solutions. Prototypes of goals and solutions were tested during 7 expert panels and several and several months of consultations.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

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

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

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:

The implementation documents for the strategy are Action Plans, which are prepared for each area of cooperation. Each Action Plan specifies a list of organizations that will be involved in the implementation of each plan. For example, in the case of work on the Mobility Action Plan, non-governmental organizations such as "Krakow City of Bicycles" bringing together people who are enthusiasts of this form of transportation will be involved.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Unknown

Targeted actors:

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

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public national budget

Public regional budget

Public local authority’s budget

Corporate investment

Other

EU funds

Budget:

1 000 000€ - 5 000 000€

Details about instrument financing:

The financial framework of the Strategy has been estimated at approximately €1,500,000 (PLN 7,000,000). Sources of funding for tasks and projects will include: local funds, regional funds, national funds, European funds, loans, public-private partnerships and any other available funds.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

The scope and frequency of evaluation of the document will be determined by the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (yet to be prepared). The purpose of monitoring and evaluation is to gather knowledge about the progress in implementation of the Strategy, including the degree of implementation of actions planned in the Strategy and indicators set out in the document. Regular monitoring of the implementation of the Strategy will allow to take corrective action in case of differences between the adopted assumptions and the achieved results. Monitoring will also make it possible to prepare an update of the document in case of fundamental changes within or in the environment of the Krakow Metropolis. Monitoring of the Strategy will also serve the purpose of verifying whether the standards developed and adopted by the members of the Kraków Metropolis are implemented in all municipalities that undertake to comply with them.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Yes

The scope and frequency of document evaluation will be specified in the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (yet to be prepared). The plan will specify the dates for the evaluation of the Strategy. This evaluation will aim to improve the quality and effectiveness of actions taken. The evaluation of the Strategy will involve external entities, including socio-economic partners and public units operating in the environment of the Krakow Metropolis. As part of the evaluation process it is planned to conduct participatory forms such as interviews and workshops with the participation of a wide range of partners. The sources of data for evaluation and monitoring of the Strategy will be the resources of public statistics, data of municipalities of Kraków Metropolis and data of the SCM Office. The findings of the Strategy's evaluation will be communicated to the environment through reports published i.a. on the website of the Association.

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

At this time, it is not possible to assess the impact of the Strategy on the implementation of the nature-based solutions due to being too early in the implementation period.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The Krakow Metropolis 2030 Strategy is the first supra-local development strategy adopted by a regional city in Poland. More than 150 stakeholders were successfully involved in the development of the document. The work used the design-thinking method and included 99 in-depth interviews, many expert sessions and workshops. The development of the strategy is the culmination of years of cooperation between municipalities within the metropolitan area.

Sources and further information

References

Interview(s):

Metropolia Krakowska Association Development Policies Planning and Financing Team

Further documents

Weblinks:

https://metropoliakrakowska.pl/sektory/plan-rozwoju-20-30

Photos

@Biuro Stowarzyszenia Metropolia Krakowska