What we are doing
Post-industrial urban regeneration areas face many challenges and have a specific and increasing need for NBS. Many of them not only suffer from social and economic disadvantages, inequality and related crime and security problems, but also lack quality greenspaces and are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and natural hazards. Investment in GI can help to reduce these problems is often limited to one-off interventions which are publicly funded through national or EU-level programmes. This approach creates weaknesses and conflicts in the provision and use of GI. The maintenance of GI elements and systems created remains largely the responsibility of local governments. However, due to their poor financial situation, local authorities cannot always guarantee robust maintenance of GI and the benefits provided. This project addresses this problem by considering GI as a new urban community resource which is created, owned and managed, not only by public authorities, but which relies on co-design, co-creation and co-management in partnership with stakeholders from the private sector, academiacivil society (i.e. NGOs) (represented in its quadruple helix approach). Eight nature-based solutions, which will support the regeneration of urban areas affected by deindustrialisation, will be deployed in Dortmund (Germany), Turin (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia) and Ningbo (China). In the Living Labs hosted by the Frontrunner Cities, NBS will be co-developed and tested with the communities living there to make them citizen owned.The cities of Cascais (Portugal), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Piraeus (Greece) and Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) will receive support in developing their strategies for embedding nature-based solutions at local level through co-design processes and engage in learning exchanges for future replication of NBS.
Read more Read less
