Parks in Adopt-A-City initiative -- Athens

As part of the Adopt-A-City initiative of the Municipality of Athens, companies can adopt a site in the city area. Often, these are places that have been abandoned for many years and are filled with rubbish. With the financial support of the companies, these sites are then transformed into small parks and squares. The initiative employs nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration, as many of the parks and squares are upgraded through the planting of trees and many other types of plants. Next to increasing the value of the city's green infrastructure, these so-called pocket parks shall also help to reinvigorate urban areas and reorganize the urban and social fabric at a neighborhood level.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Knowledge, communication and innovation instruments›Knowledge and/or innovation

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Heat stress and heat island effect
Air quality
Social equity
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

Depending on the specific adopted park, different kinds of nature-based solutions were employed. Generally, these include the planting of trees and thousands of other Mediterranean plants, underground irrigation systems and the creation of vertical gardens on corners. There are also signs next to each plant giving useful information about its identity, as well as structures for useful insect nests, thus also providing ecologic education for the residents.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

External building greens

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Effective

Sustainable in the long-term

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

City of Athens City Council

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The Adopt-A-City initiative of the city of Athens, which the project of adopting parks is part of, is a platform initiated by the city's municipality, with the aim of bringing together public and private actors. Interested parties - in the case of adopting parks these are companies - contribute to the work of the Municipality of Athens with ideas, infrastructure, and funds.

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

As the projects are exclusively funded through the contribution of private companies, these actors actively participate in the implementation and decision-making processes concerning the parks. They decide which area to adopt, and contribute their ideas to the transformation of the site. The municipality of Athens is also involved in these processes, as it designs the interventions based on the needs of the city.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

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

Targeted actors:

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Financing

Sources of funding:

Corporate investment

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

Interventions implemented through the “Adopt your city” program are exclusively funded by donations, which can be either in kind or in cash. In the case of adopting parks, these are usually larger corporations funding the projects.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

Already 12 parks have been created or re-established through the initiative. While for six of the parks the size was not found, the other six parks comprise an area of over 5000 square meters of restored and upgraded ecosystems. As the project only started quite recently in 2020, the number of 12 created parks since then is already a success. They add to the live quality of the citizens of Athens, and create ecosystems in the heart of the city. Moreover, they tackle important challenges such as heat island effects, air quality or environmental education.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The financing model of the Adopt-A-City initiative enabled a rather fast implementation of measures, as it integrated private companies as donors and supporters. Especially for financially weak municipalities, this model proves effective, as it can often be challenging to gather the sufficient public resources to finance measures. An important factor here is the publicity of the initiative, as this can create incentives for private companies to support the projects. This is the case in Athens, where even the city's mayor actively campaigned for the initiative.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

Kotsoni, P. (2021). The pocket parks of Athens, little green oases in the urban jungle, Available at: https://neoskosmos.com/en/2021/06/16/life/the-pocket-parks-of-athens-little-green-oases-in-the-urban-jungle/

Adopt-Your-City (2022). Parks - Adopt Athens. Available at: https://adoptathens.gr/en/thematic-area/prasino-parka-tsepis/

Dimitrova, M. (2021). Athens has launched new “Adopt Your City” program. Available at: https://www.themayor.eu/en/a/view/athens-has-launched-new-adopt-your-city-program-3528

Photos

@Gemeinde Athen