The City of Chemnitz in Saxony (Germany) is an intermediary city with an area of 221 km² and 246,908 inhabitants. Major building activity has been taking place in Chemnitz’s centre since 1999 filling the vast open space left by WWII destruction and post-war demolition.
Chemnitz has a high average inhabitant age of 47, and a diverse population with different expectations for city development and public space usage. Climate change poses challenges to the city’s population, infrastructure and ecological structure.
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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. Through its participation in the project, the city wanted to learn how other cities approach the issues of preserving and expanding urban nature; define specific areas of intervention in the city and understand how to implement restorative NBS to achieve its goal of being a liveable, resilient and inclusive city. The local team wanted to learn about and test best practice approaches for governance for urban ecosystems, citizen engagement and awareness raising.
Key aims:
- Establish a new community park repurposed from a former coal plant area
- Restore the Pleißenbach river
- Convene events and conferences for knowledge exchange
- Co-develop a pilot new governance instruments
- Engage the general public, including young people and school children
Various initiatives around NbS have taken place in Chemnitz within the framework of INTERLACE, such as the Connecting Nature Roadshow, the “River, City and I” drawing competition, stakeholder group feedback sessions, workshops on urban nature, participation in the Umweltpreis environmental prize, hosting the Cities Talk Nature Conference, several rounds of Minecraft workshops, implementing the newly developed governance instruments, as well as the Climate Rally event. These activities are underlined by the implementation of several notable NbS city interventions, including the rehabilitation of derelict and brownfield sites, the establishment of Pleißenpark - a community park repurposed from a former coal plant area - and the restoration of the Pleißenbach river, enhancing natural habitats and urban green spaces.
Together, these activities have further facilitated engagement, education, and collaboration in advancing sustainable urban development and environmental conservation efforts through NbS in the city. These initiatives not only foster a deeper connection between residents and their environment but also pave the way for innovative NbS discussions and approaches to address contemporary urban challenges while promoting ecological resilience and community well-being.
Some examples of activities from the Chemnitz project:
Connecting Nature Roadshow (2022). Mobile greenery in urban areas is playing an increasingly important role in the urban design of spaces. On a square covered by concrete in front of the main station of Chemnitz, a mobile plant container with seating furniture was placed to welcome visitors and offer a nice and comfortable break. For the opening of the mobile plant container, the team of the Connecting Nature Roadshow introduced the INTERLACE stakeholder team and other interested people to the Sarajevo Process, through which people’s own creativity is used to foster empathy and connection for meaningful co-production.
The River, the City and I - Drawing competition for kids and young people (2022). In this competition, young people between the ages of 7 and 17 were invited to submit their own pictures and drawings depicting their connection to the river and the surroundings of their city. The best entries were awarded prizes by an international jury consisting of nature experts and a photographer.
Umweltpreis (2023 and 2024). The Chemnitz Environmental Prize for Children and Young People has been awarded annually by the City of Chemnitz since 1991. Children and young people up to the age of 20 can submit their individual or joint projects. All participants have the opportunity to use their knowledge, skills and interest in the scientific field or in practical environmental protection and to work on creative and interesting topics to protect our environment with commitment. A jury evaluates the projects according to the criteria announced and decides on the awarding of attractive prizes. In both years, participating schools were able to register for a Minecraft workshop.
Silo busting with NbS - a business simulation game with LEGO (2023). Sustainable and climate adaptive urban planning is a matter of teamwork of different departments within a municipality, the local politicians as well as external professionals. As part of the cities talk nature conference in May 2023, the Chemnitz INTERLACE team developed a workshop on silo busting with NbS. The workshop used the method of a business simulation game combined with the LEGO Serious {Play method. The workshop participants were asked to act within their given roles in order to redesign a given city scenario built with LEGO bricks. Before the redesign, the group had to find a consensus about what and how the scenario should be rebuilt with the overall task in mind that the redesign should contribute to a climate-adapted urban development.
Minecraft workshops (2023 and 2024).
A total of ten Minecraft events with schoolchildren were implemented as part of the Schlingel Film Festival. The workshops contributed to raising children's awareness of sustainable urban development and NbS. Furthermore, for the purpose of continuation of the Minecraft workshops after the end of the INTERLACE project, the INTERLACE core team organised a training of colleagues of the city administration in August 2024, so that the Minecraft workshops can be held by various actors in Chemnitz.
Development of impulse papers. Chemnitz developed two impulse papers, one targeting policy makers, the other one targeting property owners. Both impulse papers were presented during three different committee meetings of the city council. The purpose of the events was to inform the city council members about the outcomes of INTERLACE, the benefits of NbS in urban nature restoration.
Art Project about urban heat islands (2024). Under the title “New Ecologies”, the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz turned the city's public space into a stage for artistic debates on sustainability in the cultural sector. The exhibition adopted various strategies of international art discourse, from participatory formats and artistic research to the aesthetic and emotional presentation of data and facts. Led by artist Anna Lorenzana, the project translated the city's heat load maps into digitally modelled meadow areas and the result is an illustrated graphic, which was displayed on various advertising pillars in the city.
MACH’S GRÜNER-TAGE (2023 and 2024). ‘MACH'S GRÜNER’ (MAKE IT GREENER) is the title of a campaign for Chemnitz's urban nature. The campaign raised awareness of the issue and highlighted the opportunities for each individual to influence our urban nature. The campaign was launched in September 2023 and took take place annually during the INTERLACE project, linking with Climate Adaptation Week organised by the Centre for Climate Adaptation (ZKA).
The INTERLACE Chemnitz project has been successful in establishing the Pleißenbach community park and resotring the Pleißenbach river, resulting in improvements to water quality, habitats, species numbers and diversity. The project has engaged and impacted positively on many hundreds of stakeholders across the city and beyond, including innovative engagement of young people using a mobile app and through the online video game, Minecraft. The Chemnitz team have contributed to academic outputs; successfully hosted knowledge-sharing events for NbS researchers and practitioners; and engaged with relevant campaigns at local and national level on topics of urban greening and citizen science.
Key impacts include:
- Public engagement in co-producing and promoting ownership of nature-based solutions
- Increased capacity of local government to implement integrated and ecologically coherent urban planning and governance approaches
- Raised awareness and understanding of the benefits of healthy (peri)urban ecosystems for social, cultural and economic wellbeing
- Strengthened cooperation between European and CELAC communities of practice on (peri)urban ecological restoration and rehabilitation
- Participation in European and CELAC city and regional networks to inspire and support learning and exchange on restorative NBS
Most if not all of the engagement methods used in Chemnitz are transferrable to other cities working on the topic of urban ecosystem restoration.
- Working with diverse stakeholders adds tangible benefits to the design and implementation of nature-based solutions in terms of ideation and planning, and notably in terms of ownership.
- Innovative approaches to engagement not only benefit education and understanding, but also empower communities to actively participate in shaping sustainable urban futures. These approaches have helped to foster a stronger connection between people, places and nature - and their interdependencies.
- Art and gamification have proven to be powerful tools for working with young people. The gaming workstream, using Minecraft, has been successful in reaching over 100 schoolchildren, including some students with special educational needs. The quality of ideas from young people has been exceptional, varying with age but consistently innovative and imaginative.
- The Learning Tours app developed in Chemnitz has been successful in boosting engagement around current city challenges such as climate change and NbS implementation to enhance city resilience, with positive feedback from users in response to using the app at project events.
- Projects should plan ahead and ensure resourcing of follow-up activities to continue building momentum once the main project phase has ended. Deliberate handover of key activities to local authority teams, such as the Minecraft gaming programme, has proved successful in helping to build legacy.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869324.