The AQUACROSSCase Study examines the implications of the regulation on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) (i.e. non-native plants and animals harming the local ecosystem) for practical management in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, in the context of existing environmental commitments under EU legislation.
Creating a liveable and resilient community by bringing together technical expertise.
Provision of innovative energy efficient homes within resilient communities.
Our vision for Nottingham is to provide high-quality affordable homes within communities that promote the health, happiness and wellbeing of their occupants and encourage the efficient use of resources as a means of stimulating long term social, physical and economic renewal of urban neighbourhoods in the city.
To create a new wetland reserve on a brown field site and agricultural land to mitigate the loss of mudflats in Cardiff Bay and the two designated species that were displaced when the Taff/Ely SSSI was destroyed.
Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and with a population of 451209 people as of 1 September 2018 (Tallinn citizens’ census, 2018 - Tallinn citizens’census, https://www.tallinn.ee/est/Tallinna-elanike-arv). Tallinn is the largest city in Estonia, inhabiting 34.2% of the total population[1]. Tallinn is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea and covers a territory of 159.37 km2
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The 2010 city-region plan ‘Structural Vision: Amsterdam 2040’, managed by the Department of Physical Planning, set the investment and project ambitions for the period 2010-2040. The strategy seeks to fulfil the vision of a creative and varied city, with an integrated public transport network, high quality urban planning, and investment in recreational green spaces, water and renewable energies. Water-related hazards, such as floods and storm surges, are managed at all levels - city, regional and national. The ‘Agenda Groen 2015-2018’ (Green Agenda 2015-2018) includes specific ‘...
To provide 187 new homes for private and affordable housing and refurbish a Grade II* listed Hall, whilst retaining the views of Hanham Hills and achieving the 'Zero' carbon standard.
Green engine of development, metropolitan region of knowledge.
The vision was developed by key stakeholders in the process of preparation of the Regional Development Programme for the period 2014 – 2020.The Ljubljana urban region will respect the natural and cultural environment and its carrying capacity and will build its future on knowledge, innovation, creativity and the synergy between all important players and sectors. The region will be a healthy, attractive and safe place for high-quality living. The overhauled transport infrastructure will be in line with...
The target area is located in the heart of Budapest. This pioneer project was realized before urban planners would have recognized the importance of urban green spaces. At the same time this project brought measurable market benefits (appreciation of occupied property), also helped to create a neighbourhood community. The project was a succesful tool in mitigating the negative effects of urban heat island, and summer air temperatures significantly decreased.
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To improve the public realm of a neglected and poorly accessible square.
Several training and scoping workshops with stakeholders guided an assessment of the Taï Park’s multiple ecosystem services, and helped align it to the purpose of drumming-up support for conservation. This case illustrates the importance of intensive initial scoping prior to examining ecosystem services in more depth. Study results are now being used by park authorities to motivate increased government budget allocations, and to interest the international cocoa industry in co-financing the Taï Park – in their own best interest.
The Connecting Nature project in Malaga is part of developing a new perspective for urban planning and in the Lagunillas neighborhood. The implementation of this new perspective can cover the three types of interventions:
The renovation of three public squares in Lagunillas
Finally, the Connecting Nature project in Lagunillas aims for urban revitalization of this dense neighborhood located in the city center.
Our...
Mapping green and grey structures of Leipzig to understand in which urban structure types land-use pressures on urban green are higher / lower and analysing how political and governance strategies and instruments support the protection of green infrastructure and its ecosystem services.
The objectives are create long term conditions for a metropolitan periurban park Confluence (Soutok in Czech) and introduce tools for coordinated and sustainable development of periurban landscapes.
The main aim is to create harmony in between supported natural processes, economical interests and the visitors activities. Set conditions for formation of landscapes rich on natural biotop diversity, transparent and penetrable suburban areas with alive flowing river, side by side agriculture, integrated flood protection and management, and economic and sport activities....
Xochimilco is an important tourist attraction for Mexico City and because of thi,s public policies have been focused in conservation, tourism infrastructure and ecotourism. Therefore there is now a priority to address social and environmental challenges including: the dredging and cleaning of the canals, garbage collection and reforestation of channels, exotic species control, improving the hydraulic infrastructure, Axolotl conservation, Chinampas rehabilitation, and productive projects.
Natural systems or nature based solution have been suggested and implemented in order to reduce...
Ecological restoration by immersing diverse artificial reefs to provide shelters and habitats to marine species. The aim of the project is to diversify and regenerate marine natural resources in order to both make local fishing durable and ecological restoration.
All of the challenges identified in the Bristol Development Framework Core Strategy (1) concern areas which would benefit from NBS. Furthermore, the 20:20 plan – Bristol’s Sustainable City Strategy (2) – has identified climate change as one of three key challenges. It acknowledges the potential for green infrastructure, such as trees, green walls and roofs, to minimise and mitigate the urban heat island effect, while Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are seen as an important part of flood management. Bristol’s Parks and Green Spaces Strategy (3) includes a 20-year investment...
The climate in São Paulo has changed from light rain and cool year-round, to mostly dry and hot. The city is vulnerable to urban heat-island effect and recurrent severe floods with the strong storms caused by land-cover change. The waters are contaminated by sewage discharge and diffuse pollution caused by storm-water run-off.
To work with landowners to improve habitat management for wildlife and to promote soil management to help mitigate flooding, improve water quality and increase habitat for wetland birds.
The project has two complementary components:
The Greater London Authority (GLA) participants in the BRIDGE FP7 project identified the primary planning goals for the Central Activities Zone (CAZ)[1] as to: (a) increase green space; (b) improve air quality; (c) reduce the UHI effect (heat island) and (d) prevent flash floods, with climate change adaptation and mitigation seen as a cross cutting issue.
London has a number of plans aimed at addressing these challenges, including:
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The Volkswagen Group (the Group) is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. The Group is comprised of twelve brands (Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN), operating 118 production plants in 20 countries across Europe and 11 countries in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
The Group aims to create lasting value for the Company, its employees, and its shareholders, but also for the countries and regions in which they operate. This all-embracing view of sustainability is...
Niterói is a city located in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region, about 20 km from the state capital. The city is divided by the forested and protected Tiririca Massif. The landscape goes from sea level to the highest peak of Elephant Rock at 412 m. The centre faces Guanabara Bay. A new tunnel has been built to enable rapid connection to the ocean region. This connection accelerates the urban expansion to the area where two ocean lagoons are located. The region has been developed as a resort for weekend houses and slums that occupied vulnerable areas. There are several...
Rio de Janeiro is a coastal city that ranges from around 2 m above sea level in the lower areas to forested massifs that divide the city into zones: central, north, south and west. The highest peak is Pedra Branca (White Rock), 1 024 metres high. The city has significant forested areas that cover most of the mountains. The landscape has been highly altered during the urbanisation process, with massive dismount of hills and creation of land over wetlands, mangroves, the Guanabara Bay and along the coast of Copacabana. Most of the 267 rivers and creeks have been canalised or...
A market study of regional tourism demand aimed at providing recommendations to government agencies, including the protected area agency. The main question that guided the study was: What are the attributes that attract tourists to specific locations in the study area?
The objective of the Info center, implemented within the proGIreg project, was to create a new community center for Sesvete, the largest neighborhood in the City of Zagreb, where the inghabitants of Sesvete would be able to openly discuss topics that trouble them on a daily basis, but also providing a venue for sharing and acquiring knowledge. NGO ZIPS (Green and Blue Sesvete) is one of the local partners in the proGIreg project with strong ties to the local community, and it has been eager to help develop a habit of involvement and participation among the citizens of Sesvete through...
Place-based studies around peri-urban Edinburgh are working with policy makers to better understand society's socio-cultural values of green space. The exemplar aims to: Understand appreciation of ecosystem services in the Pentland Hills; Understand potential to offset urban development in East Lothian; Identify societal ecosystem services benefits in urban and peri-urban contexts; Assess the socio-cultural values of these ecosystem services; Apply, test and further develop ecosystem service valuation methods.
Identification of the health of the coral reef of St.Eustatius. The reefs are important drivers for dive tourism, they support local fisheries and they protect against storms.
Operatie Steenbreek is a foundation that organizes awareness raising campaigns and offers assistance with regards to greening private gardens. Many gardens and streets in the Netherlands are covered with tiles that cannot absorp the rainwater from heavy rainfall.
The idea behind the initiative is to encourage citizens to remove the tiles and stones from their gardens/backyards and replace it with grass, plants and trees for better drainage and to increase the biodiversity.
Thanks to an app., citizens can be adviced and exchange plants with neighbours. Citizens can...
The area surrounding the confluence of the north and south branches of Thornton Creek (Seattle) experiences storm water-related flooding more often than other areas. A cost-benefit analysis, which incorporated ecosystem services values, aimed at identifying the best cost-benefit ratio among three possible options. The assessment results were intended to inform the decision of the choice of a project option.
The Ntakata Mountains Project aims to protect 216,944 ha of threatened forest by developing Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) with local communities.
This exemplar aims to identify and communicate areas and management solutions that synergistically support biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, as well as the growing demand to feed an increasing global population, using the ecosystem services concept.
The area is poorly connected to green space and in 2013 Glasgow City Council’s open space audit concluded that the site was of poor quality and limited functionality. The towers consist of mainly family flats and over 20% of the population are from an ethnic minority background. The project proposal was developed with community needs considered and 88% of locals indicated they very much wanted to see changes made to the space. There was an obvious need for a functional space which enhanced the quality of life for a community living in one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in...
Developing a green infrastructure plan in Santiago as a shared territorial strategy and a means of unifying different stakeholders relevant for decision making and implementation at different spatial scales. This was achieved through a participatory approach including multiple stakeholders, workshops, and collective mapping sessions. This approach identified the principal issues, the justification of the plan, the goals, and the key spatial components.
Analysing future land use trajectories and their effects on networks of biodiversity and ecosystem services for the Grenoble urban area. It will offer a better knowledge of mechanisms underpinning ecosystem services as well as analysing trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity, critical ecosystem services and territorial management. Further it will facilitate appropriation of tools and concepts by stakeholders and support the integration of the complexity of ecological functioning into debates on territorial planning and management.
Encouraging collaboration by bringing together diverse perspectives on Dublin and its desired future.
INNOQUA is a four-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project. Bringing expertise from multiple disciplines, the 20 project partners are seeking to demonstrate a novel, modular system for wastewater treatment based on the purifying capacity of earthworms, zooplankton and microalgae, operating under real conditions.
Due to its modular configuration, the INNOQUA system can address multiple aspects of wastewater treatment and water re-use in water stressed communities, rapidly expanding cities and industries – both in developed and developing countries. The decentralised approach helps to...
Resilient growth of peripheral settlements.
SUPPORT FOR CONCENTRATED DECONCENTRATION. Sofia General Master plan with timescale 2030 has as one of its major goals to alleviate the investors’ development pressure to the capital City. It creates spatial preconditions for transition to a polycentric municipal urban structure by allocating considerable terrains for extension of the settlements around Novi Iskar.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
São Paulo is the capital of the state of São Paulo, and the centre of the largest metropolitan area in South America with 21.2 million inhabitants. The city has expanded over the landscape with the eradication of the original ecosystems, and burying most of the creeks, with larger rivers straightened and canalised. Nature is restricted to some parks, mainly in the peripheral areas. Agriculture is located in the countryside or in the urban fringes, far from most of the population.
River restoration for flood protection and ecological habitat creation, Tiantangzhai, Anhui, China
Managing stormwater risks by bringing multifunctional green infrastructure to tower hamlets.
To investigate the extent to which green screens (helix hedera) may provide regulatory ecosystem services. This includes acting as a buffer against airborne particulate pollution and reducing rainfall runoff rates compared to normal plywood construction hoarding.
Innovative multifunctional green urban space on heavily sealed surfaces of an inner city location.
The ongoing urban resilience project aims to improve living standard and resilience to extreme natural events through supplying flood management, water, and sanitation infrastructure.
Connected we're a living city.
To strengthen connectivity between resources in terms of people, space, knowledge, and expertise. To make clear the "What" that exists, to represent the "Who" and reveal the "How" of connecting to resources -creating a more resilient city in which resources flow to communities that require them most.
This case study is an example where the environment was gradually changed. A river was turned into a chain of lakes, and additional wetlands appeared. Although the biodiversity is greater than in the first case, the area does not have a protected status, and the greed of real estate investors is a serious threat. Several details follow below.
The noise barrier wall-system being used in Sachsenheim guarantees an instant green noise barrier wall, from the very first day on: The green noise barrier consists of a scaffold with galvanised steel lattice mats on both sides, filled with a core of plant substrates and then planted with pre-cultivated plant mats. Already at the time of assembly, the walls are at least fifty percent covered and they are completely green after six months.
The landscape plan, which is currently under development following the incorporation into the city of some surrounding areas, is intended to bring about a compact city, accommodating further development within the existing borders, and including a network of functional green spaces. The draft version, which underwent a public and stakeholder consultation process in 2015, provides detailed indications for future development and also seeks changes to existing planning documents (Dresden, 2017a), with a view to protecting and enhancing green networks and so ensure air and water quality,...
The city’s green and blue areas have a long history, and are even today seen as an important and integrated part of the city of Malmö, as reflected in the recent Master Plan. The ambitions are to create a close, dense, green and mixed functioning city, with densification as a driver, rather than expansion into the outside highly productive farmland. Urban green is a vital component of the future of the city and, in the master plan, is brought forward under such diverse headings as Green City, Green and Blue Environments, Biodiversity, Countryside and Agriculture, Children’s Perspectives,...
The objective of the catalogue of actions set out in the Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plan is to implement a strategy for improving existing green heritage and for preserving and enhancing Barcelona’s biodiversity to provide the inhabitants of Barcelona with many ecosystem services.
During the EnRoute project, an assessment of the green infrastructure and key urban ecosystem services was carried out for the city of Valletta and the surrounding urban area. For the EnRoute project, the Valletta case-study area is defined by the boundaries of Malta’s Northern Harbour and the Grand Harbour Local Plan areas. Urban land uses make a significant proportion of the case-study area (Figure 1).
Figure 1 – The Valletta case-study area in EnRoute: Malta's...More
The aim was to deliver sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) measures on school sites in order to reduce local flood risk, provide benefits for participating schools and educate the pupils and wider community about surface water flooding .
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service delivery and resilience, using advanced noninvasive spectral and physiological sensing technology, diameter growth measurements, and urban biophysical modeling; and (iii) to develop and test (in situ & ex situ) a dedicated EcM-inoculum to improve urban tree health, and ecosystem service delivery and...
Designing conservation strategies and adaptive management for the French Alps region. In particular, management options are targeted to support stakeholders and policymakers in making choices.
Stresstest to raise awareness of threats and opportunities of climate change in the Rotterdam region.
Biodiversity conservation and wetland protection programme
PROAmazonia is an ambitious, five-year collaborative initiative to transform the agriculture and forestry sectors in the Amazon region to more sustainable management and production practices. It is an inclusive, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiative seeking a just transition to sustainable land-use practices to significantly reduce deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems, improve the livelihoods of some of the most impoverished communities in Ecuador, and establish viable economic markets for sustainably produced, deforestation-free products.
RENATURALIZE THE LAGOON AND DEVELOP A NEW MODE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
„The river is a citywide public space.“
„Riverfront throughout the city are a coherent space, and their development, even in sub-sections, must always be addressed in a citywide context.“
The river and its banks are an essential city-forming element, and this is how the city should approach them. Until now, Prague lacked a concept for developing the vast potential of the river and its environments. The Prague Riverfront Concept, approved in 2014, rectifies this situation. Many of the most attractive riverside localities have been neglected, poorly managed...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
It aims to implement artificial shelters for fauna (nesting box, insect hotels, artificial spawning areas…) and vegetation supports were installed. Wooden terraces were also installed to allow citizens to enjoy and observe biodiversity. This project is both thought for biodiversity and for citizens and finaly allow cohabitation between them.
To reduce the flood risk, calm traffic and increase community involvement and awareness of sustainable urban drainage systems. To improve water quality in the River Trym.
Berlin has approximately 40 % of green (parks, forests etc.) and blue (rivers, channels, lakes, ponds, etc.) areas within its borders. It aims to create connectivity across the city and a ‘green belt’ as a border boundary for urban growth and a protection against urban sprawl.
Berlin has a specific multi-level administrative structure which determines how different layers of government interact and how competences are distributed. The city of Berlin (Stadt Berlin) fulfils both functions of the municipal and the state level (Land) in the German federal system. It is...
Schansbroek lies near the source zone of the Stiemerbeek River and near the coal mine of Waterschei. Former mining activities severely affected natural water management contributing to pollution and flooding for local residents. This was partly related to a change in the topography of the area caused by the mining operations. To protect local residences, rainfall and groundwater has had to be pumped into the Stiemerbeek River. The hydrological impact has also caused water shortage for natural wetland areas negatively impacting the biodiversity of these areas.
Antwerp is the second largest city in Belgium. It has 517 000 inhabitants and a surface of 204.5 km². The city is a mix of a highly urbanized central area, with a clear shortage of available green space, some larger important conservation areas at the borders of the city, and an industrial harbour area. Important challenges the city is faced with are flood risks both from tidal and pluvial floods, air quality and heat stress.
The city has the ambition to become greener. To achieve this purpose, a masterplan on green and blue infrastructure was developed, focusing on five “park-...More
Medellín, like many other cities, faces rising temperatures, worsened by the urban heat island effect—concrete and tarmac absorbing the sun’s power, radiating it out as heat and keeping the city warm long after the sun has gone down. It doesn’t have to be that way, as Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellín, is showing by embracing nature-based solutions.
With the Green Corridor project, which won the 2019 Ashden Award for Cooling by Nature Award, supported by the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program and in partnership with Sustainable Energy for All, Medellín’s city authorities...
Developing a Twitter dashboard to increase collaboration between stakeholders on green infrastructure.
Removing sediment from reservoirs is an important part of the costs of hydro-power generation. Under the “Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services” project (RUPES), an initiative by ICRAF, upstream farmers changed land-use practices for reducing soil erosion and sedimentation load in streams. The sedimentation rate was used as an indicator to measure the effectiveness of the agreed activities. Monitoring sedimentation rate as an indicator for the positive impact of improving land-use practices made the success of the changes in land-use practices transparent and motivated all...
Testing the feasibility of a green infrastructure, instead of a traditional grey infrastructure, to treat sewage overflows, and investigating the multiple benefits that the green infrastructure provides and its relevance for water management.
Sharing knowledge and bringing together diverse perspectives on Dublin's future.
The Stiemervallei provides great potential to re-imagine the natural quality of a stream valley in an urban context and to balance the ecological, environmental, social and economic benefits of such an approach. The City of Genk has been working to integrate the hidden, fragmented, and constricted water and greenery and transform it into a tangible and perceptible valley on the scale of the entire city. A blue-green lifeline that enhances the quality of life of Genk and the resilience of the city. The development of this valley adapts the city for climate change by utilising the natural...
The project aims to protect and restore the biodiversity of the Duwa and Sutebwo forests and to increase household incomes, contributing to poverty reduction in 41 local communities in the district of Tominian.
In Rio de Janeiro the population living in slums (favelas) in 2010 was 19 % of the inhabitants (last census). The informal occupation of steep slopes and flood-prone areas occurs mainly because of the absence of social housing planning, inducing low-income people to use protected areas that the formal real-estate market cannot occupy. The climate is tropical, with extremely high temperatures especially in the northern zone where there are almost no green areas and where the low-income population live in extensive slums (favelas). The temperature can reach over 60 °C in...
A Food Forest is an artificial human designed forest that predominantly consists of edible plants and fruit-bearing bushes and trees.
The challenge for Poznań is to improve the quality of life in those areas that do not have equitable access to greenspace due to being very urbanised and with higher population densities. By focusing on nature-based solution approaches to deliver this, it is possible to reverse the city’s trend towards a rate of high soil sealing in the city centre’s densely built-up residential areas, which exacerbate climate change impacts, particularly during heat waves and episodic flooding from intense rainfall.
The City of Poznan Connecting Nature team identified pocket parks and urban gardens...
A grounded economy in symbiosis with the environment at different scales that provides for qualitative jobs anf healthy, inclusive and sustainable lifestyles.
The region will harness local economic opportunities and employment while also addressing environmental challenges. The creation of socioeconomic value will be more closely related to the territorial scale and actively include local stakeholders and assets.
The aims of the Green Lungs of the City Project are to build a big botanical garden for the city, create a forest-wetlands park and develop an agricultural park for citizens. GLCP uses urban forest and trees, as well as wetlands as Nature-based Solutions to promote the sustainable development of the city and to provide multiple ecosystem services for human beings in a highly urbanised area.
Objectives further include:
The White Paper proposes recommendations for action and concrete measures for the next few years through which it will, within its areas of...
The three green wedges around the City of Jiaxing aim to regulate urban climate and to provide space for recreation by enhancing the structure and socioecological multi-functionality of the green infrastructure in the city.
Trees as nature-based solutions are promoted for co-development and co-design to alleviate problems of heat, air pollution and noise in the city in a participatory way.
The objective of the Demo is to assess the potential and impacts of a series of selected Nature Based Solutions (green and blue infrastructure) for the recovery of the groundwater levels and associated ecosystem services, and to generate adaptation capacity for the regional agriculture against more frequent droughts due to climate change.
This case study examines in particular the interface between four sets of plans and strategies, providing important context for further examination of meso- and micro-scale interventions covered in subsequent sections. This case also touches on other formally adopted plans and strategies only in relation to the above meso- and micro- scale initiatives, in an attempt to better understand contexts.
The Council’s Open Space Strategy of 2011 identified the Drumry and Linnvale area of Clydebank as lacking access to natural or semi-natural green space. 80% of people in the area live within 500 metres of vacant and derelict land, 31% of children are living in poverty and the area has a higher than average percentage of single parent households. This compares with 62% in West Dunbartonshire as a whole and only 20% in Scotland. The Council’s Open Space Strategy of 2011 identified the area as lacking access to green space. This project provides an opportunity to extend open space and...
We mapped ecosystem services at different scales in Costa Rica and analyzed the spatial congruence and tradeoffs between biodiversity and several services, by considering the biophysical potential of service provision and socioeconomic demand. We also analyzed tradeoffs over time.
Nature Based Solutions management is more than a technical problem: specific design and integrated decision-making frameworks are needed. From a more global point of view, choice of Nature Based Solutions and effectiveness assessment require specific principles mixing pluridisciplinary quantitative and qualitative criteria and indicators. It is important to note that the choice and definition of NBS’ effectiveness indicators highly depend on time, spatial scales and decision-making contexts. La Brague DEMO proposes some pathways to contribute to this objective. It is indeed essential to...
With the aim to enhance the management and utilisation of Urban Forests as Natural Heritage in Danube Cities, the URBforDAN Interreg Danube project fosters innovative and participatory approaches to build recreational infrastructure that also serves an educational value.
The management of the Urban Forest area also aims at providing regulating ecosystem services.
A network of attractive open spaces as a counterpoint to the region's grey infrastructure.
The vision is to create a network of attractive, accessible, welcoming and diverse open spaces that functions as a counterpoint to the region’s grey infrastructure.
By 2100, under a high greenhouse emissions scenario, the temperature is projected to increase by about 4.5 ºC in comparison to the 1990s. This means that every second summer will be as hot or even hotter than the temperatures reached during the 2003 heat wave which caused severe loss of life across Europe. Extreme precipitation events are likely to increase in frequency and severity. Green roofs were found to offer opportunities to combine energy saving, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity objectives. In densely built-up areas where providing extensive parks and...
The project aims to transform an old quarry in a public park. The project foresees the renaturalization of the lakeshore, the realization of a peninsula, the filling of settling tanks created for the extraction activities and the realization weak slope in the nord sector that want connect the lake with the countryside.
Objectives are to create :
• morphological arrangement of the slopes of embankments produced by the extractive area for the future public use
• laying turf
• vegetation reconstruction of marsh and riparian environment
• vegetation...
Demonstrating the benefits of incorporating a network of green spaces in the urban planning. This multifunctional "green infrastructure" network supplies ecosystem services and benefits to the city.
The Municipality of Lisbon covers an area of 8 km2 and has a population of 506,892 residents (and about 300,000 commuters). The metropolitan area is larger and has a total population of 2,821,697 inhabitants (data from 2011).
As strategy for sustainable land use the main policy issue in the Lisbon Municipality is to establish a coherent and interlinked urban green infrastructure (UGI) not only within the municipality but with the UGIs of the surrounding municipalities
The strong urban character of Lisbon a large forest park of Monsanto with 1000 ha and numerous others parks,...More
Develop and test usable methods for valuation selected ecosystem services at the local and regional level, and promote their incorporation into the spatial planning process and in the broader decision making process in Slovakia.
The Landscape park Tivoli, Rožnik and Šiška hill aims to enhance health and well-being of citizens and visitors while conserving natural values and landscape diversity.
The urban green infrastructure of the Landscape Park area further aims to regulate the urban micro-climate, improving air quality and reducing run-off.
The Hague is a relatively green city in which green spaces make up to 17 % of the city's surface area. At the same time the city faces serious challenges with respect to public health and quality of life. Therefore The Hague aims to better understand the relation between green infrastructure and public health by combining socio-economic data with data on the greenery gathered through remote sensing. The two key questions are:
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area consists of the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen and it is located in the south coast of Finland. The Metropolitan Area covers 772 square kilometres and contains a total population of approximately 1.1 million. With about 19 per cent of the country’s population in just 0.2 per cent of its surface area, the housing density of the area is high by Finnish standards. Despite the intensity of land use, the area also has large recreational areas and green spaces.
Our EnRoute city lab covers the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. The tiny...More
The Danube-Auen National Park in Vienna aims to multiple ecosystem services combine with trees with regulating services, such as water protection, retention, carbon sequestration, and micro, local, and regional climate regulation.
The National Park fosters an environment providing habitats and biodiversity for animal and plant species to enhance supporting ecosystem functions.
The National Park’s blue and green infrastructure further aims to provide cultural functions by offering open spaces for recreational value, allowing urban dwellers to find aesthetic pleasure, a sense...
Rapid urbanisation in the Philippines has given rise to many challenges as increasing infrastructure developments contribute to reduced open spaces and increased energy consumption.
Both the public and private construction sectors are responding by reshaping the cityscape and designing building structures that are as environmentally responsive as they are beautiful and compact. Now, buildings should not only be sturdy and spacious, they should also be efficient in energy consumption and adaptive to the changing environment.
LafargeHolcim Philippines (LafargeHolcim) has...
Improving the wetland and forest coverage and urban greenspace connectivity and therefore securing important biodiversity;
Providing recreation and educational facilities for local residents and visitors; Enhancing the health and wellbeing benefits gained through the use of the accessible trail built for well-being and recreation facilities.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
In the scope of the REGREEN project, the Aarhus Municipality aims to promote urban liveability, by systematically enhancing and restoring ecosystem services and biodiversity as the basis for Nature-based solutions (NBS):
In this regard, Aarhus aims to improve water quality, water flow management and carbon sequestration.
Further objectives include heat mitigation as well as reforestation and renaturing activities of agricultural land to create urban forests, increase biodiversity sites and allow for open...
Xinyu is adopting an integrated approach to flood control and waste management that seeks to safeguard communities against warming temperatures and increased precipitation.
The project aims to reconnect green spaces, develop biodiversity and enhance the quality of life in the city. Further objectives include improving the environment for pollination and climate regulation.
Educational services aim at enhancing the ecological awareness of citizens. Another goal is to foster local cohesion by providing a public available urban green space with enhanced biodiversity that allows for social encounters.
A pilot mangrove restoration project in Costa Rica demonstrating how mangrove planting can benefit habitat and species conservation, whilst boosting the local economy. About 40% of Costa Rica’s mangroves were deforested following the collapse of the country’s banana boom in the 1980s. A vigorous fern species has taken over much of the deforested area, preventing the mangroves from re-establishing. A pilot restoration project of 30 ha of mangrove in a protected wetland was implemented, involving clearance of the ubiquitous fern, planting of saplings, and continued fern removal for a few...
The main settlement in Ireland is the capital city of Dublin (Figure 1), which has a population of 1.2 million persons, nearly 1 in 4 of Ireland’s population. Dublin is supported regionally by key strategic county towns and an extensive rural hinterland, the population of the Greater Dublin area is approximately 2 million persons.
The Dublin City Region has a wide range of important terrestrial, coastal and marine habitats, extensive green areas and parks (the Phoenix Park in Dublin city is one of the largest walled city parks in Europe at 707ha, the Wicklow Mountains National Park...More
Protecting areas to protect biodiversity: The IBRM is home to several remarkable protected sites, high biodiversity richness and an important cultural heritage. However, pressures from human activities in the area are threatening these distinct values. Our aim is to use diverse data plus stakeholder input to understand the social and ecological system and design a multifunctional network of areas – that allow conservation, exploitation and restoration - and identify ideal sites for restoring degraded freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.
Examining management scenarios related to the maintenance of a marina at the Dutch Wadden Sea Island Schiermonnikoog. Identifying how ecosystem services (ES) in a Natura 2000 area would be affected by different ways of depositing the dredging sludge. Gathering stakeholder feedback to advance the ES approach.
Dongpo Wetland Park aims to allow for the provision of connected multifunctional green spaces and to ensure the sustainable development of the city while retaining the original wetland environment.
It further aims to provide a new green and open leisure space for urban residents. The original wetland has been preserved with the aim to maintain regional biodiversity and to improve the water quality of the area.
1 Restore a more natural hydrological functioning that reconnects the surrounding hydrosystems (including the lagoons located further inland, the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhône River).
2 Restore the natural ecosystems characteristic of coastal lagoons and sandy coastlines, including dunes, salt steppes and saltmarshes.
3 Maintain or increase the carrying capacity for breeding colonial water birds.
4 Implement adaptive management to sea-level rise, creating accommodation space for water spread.
5...
Poznań is a city with population of 482,000 permanent inhabitants (City Hall of Poznań, Department of Civil Affairs and Communication Permits, 2016) and area of 262 km2. Although it has a rich and well established green infrastructure that has been well preserved since 1930s their distribution is spatially diversified across the city. At the same time Poznań faces urbanization pressure on open or green spaces and is confronted with a depopulation process. Loss of inhabitants is particularly observed in the central districts characterized by a dense, built- up structure with limited...More
In July 2011, in less than two hours, Copenhagen was hit by an extreme 1000-year storm event – or Cloudburst – where 150mm of rain left large areas of the city under up to one meter of water. The 2011 event had been preceded by a 100-year storm in August 2010 and was hit again in 2014. Copenhagen realized that Cloudbursts were not a one-off occurrence; the threat compounds as harbor sea levels are predicted to rise one meter by 2110. In a city where many buildings and services are located below street level and where stormwater and sewage are in a combined pipe system, contaminated...
Breathe/Respirar Project (BRP) began with a clear objective of addressing local air quality concerns in a school community of Sheffield, UK. The project’s implementation in Buenos Aires required a participatory process with several rounds of trial and error to identify and enrol stakeholders in a broadly defined green infrastructure initiative.
The Park 500 Natural Treatment System (NTS) was constructed as a voluntary effort to provide a low-energy, low-maintenance alternative to reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in the process’s wastewater, which is high in nitrate-nitrogen, organic nitrogen and total phosphorus.
The project was initiated to reduce the environmental footprint of the tobacco production facility and help Philip Morris USA meet its environmental sustainability goals. The NTS reduces mass loading to the James River and creates a performance buffer for the existing plant discharge to ensure long-term...
To reintroduce beavers into the wild and to assess their potential to provide natural flood management, water quality improvements and improved biodiversity.
The development of three parks foreseen as a site of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 aims to serve as an urban green space allowing for urban revitalisation, shaping the urban landscape and using the potential of green spaces in cities especially with regards to the provision of cultural ecosystem services, such as aesthetics, entertainment, heritage and interpersonal integration.
The Strategy on adaptation to negative effects of climate change within the territory of Bratislava the Capital of the Slovak Republic (2014) and the forthcoming Action plan for adaptation to climate change in Bratislava 2017-2020 focus on the following goals: assess the vulnerability of the city to most relevant climate change hazards, mainstream adaptation planning into policies, being a climate neutral city, support awareness raising and partnership in climate change adaptation and provide a framework for monitoring and evaluation of the adaptation process.
Climate change...
This national case-study assesses the use of Geocaching data to assess recreational ecosystem service delivery in the small island state of Malta. More specifically, the objectives of the study are to assess:
Persina Nature Park has high conservation value but is also of importance to local economies through its fish resources, climate regulation and biomass production. However, the societal, economic and environmental value of this wetland is not well recognized by local and national stakeholders and decision-makers. This exemplar aims to explore the link between Danube ecosystems and a range of environmental benefits for local and Danube-region communities, given the application of an appropriate set of instruments to safeguard or improve them.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
Trento is an alpine city of 120,000 inhabitants in north-eastern Italy. The main settlement is located along the Adige River’s valley floor, and hosts around 70% of the city’s population. The remaining 30% lives in small villages spread in the surrounding hills. One of the main objectives of the administration in the last years has been to increase the amount of public green areas, particularly in deprived neighbourhoods, so as to improve equity in distribution and access. Recently, most of the efforts have focused on peri-urban areas, by creating new parks and launching activities aimed...More
Genk’s multi-annual strategic plan for 2014-19 is a response to the closure of the Ford car manufacturing company. The main objective of the plan has been to use Genk’s natural and human capital for sustainable value creation. Nature-based solutions are an integral part of the plan, used to create blue-green connections (top-down approach) and promote social inclusion (bottom-up approach).
Campinas metropolitan region represents the second largest GDP (8.92 %) of the São Paulo State, which concentrates the largest population (45.5 million inhabitants, about 21% of the total Brazilian population), and economic activity in the country (32.3 %). Campinas has important industrial, agricultural, and educational areas, and is also a centre of innovation in scientific and technological research. The second cargo airport in Brazil, Viracopos, is located in the city. It is part of the Macrometropolis of the São Paulo State.
The existing...
The development of a resilient city pleasant for the life of citizens of all ages and the satisfaction of their needs is one of the goals of the City, but also of other institutions. The City of Sarajevo faces challenges in achieving these goals (often insufficient financial resources, shared competencies, political factors, etc.). These challenges faced the Agency, as well, and they were taken into account in defining the exemplar.
The visit of Osmos in November 2018 identified the main challenges and problems in the city, but also identified and interviewed various stakeholders,...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
The area is characterized by by the presence of two separate lakes connected by a tree-lined pathway. The first lake is used for the fishing while the second one is characterized by a more spontaneous development of wild flora and is the home of different bird species.
It aims to include :
• morphological arrangement of the slopes of embankments produced by the extractive area for the future public use
• putting containment elements of the soil in particularly steep points;
• realization of green ramparts and rows of trees to masking/hiding noise and dust deriving...
Enhancing conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management and the utilisation of forest resources by addressing ecosystem services that are central to local livelihoods.
The restoration of peatlands is part of the LIFE Elia-RTE project 1. The main objective of this project is converting forest corridors of the high-voltage power lines into ecological corridors by restoring stable natural habitats that will require minimal intervention in the future. These actions undertaken onsite are real opportunities for nature, local stakeholders, and RTE.
The project’s objective is to restore peatlands located under overhead power lines to encourage the return of specific plant and animal communities of these ecosystems and restore their functional components....
Rotterdam aims to be 100 % climate-proof by 2025. This is the goal expressed in the city’s climate change adaptation programme. This means that by 2025 measures will already have been taken to ensure that each specific area is minimally disrupted by climate change both then and throughout the following decades. Furthermore, all urban planning in Rotterdam will take into account long-term foreseeable climate change while allowing for contingencies.
The ‘waterproof city’ is robust and resilient with a mix of paving and vegetation. The focus is on adaptive measures whereby rainwater is...
Conducting an integrated assessment and valuation of urban ecosystem services, which supports urban management and decision-making in Oslo. This scrutinises the potential and limitations of the concepts of ecosystem services and natural capital in an urban and Norwegian context.
The issues identified at the site were lack of connectivity, safety, vandalism, poor signage and quality of the space due to frequent flooding. Aberdeen City Council has worked with the community extensively, which included conducting a ‘Total Place’ audit of the neighbourhood in 2014, consulting with children at after school clubs and with the local community groups. The result was a funding application which represented the needs of the community: improving the functionality and aesthetics of the park and introducing a flood alleviation scheme.
Key aims:
Evaluating how recent and forthcoming EU policy developments affect the levels of ecosystem services (ES) and natural capital (NC) in Europe. Many of Europe's natural habitats and species are in decline. While the EU has a number of policies in place to safeguard habitats and species, losses are ongoing for many habitats, species and associated ecosystem services.
Collaborating to halt declining biodiversity: Despite designation as a Marine Protected Area, biodiversity in the Faial-Pico Channel is falling. Our aim: to collaborate with local stakeholders and policy-makers and apply the AQUACROSS Assessment Framework to understand social and ecological aspects of the Channel, and identify actions to efficiently and equitably ensure the Channel’s long-run sustainability, balancing the objectives of commercial and recreational fishers, tourism operators, and other local stakeholders.
Implementation of an ecological building (low-energy building) favorable for biodiversity, partial impervious pavement release, green spaces and vegetable gardens creation. This project is also notable for children and educational community consultation in its conception, making them as full stakeholders. The design reinforces the ecological networks at the...
Assessing the sustainability value of different Urban Green Infrastructure elements.
In 2010, WWF-Brazil, Banco do Brasil, the National Water Agency, and Fundação Banco do Brasil joined forces for the Água Brasil Programme. The aim of the project was to increase forest restoration around the watersheds, foster the development and dissemination of sustainable rural production practices and techniques, encourage responsible consumption and solid waste recycling in cities, and enhance the Banco do Brasil’s portfolio of financial products and practices with a socio-environmental focus.
The Programme was present between 2010-2019 in five regions of the country, with...
Curitiba is the largest city in the southern region. It is an important regional economic and cultural centre. The meaning of Curitiba in the indigenous language of Tupi-Guarani is ‘land of Araucárias’ (the native pine tree), though these are no longer present in the urban landscape.
Curitiba is a point of reference in biodiversity conservation and enhancement. Since 1972 the city has implemented parks to improve the urban environment. In 1992, after the Rio ECO92, the city started mapping the Barigui watershed with aero-photogrammetry. Curitiba hosted the 8th...
Meeting these multifaceted demands on Glasgow’s open spaces is going to be important in ensuring that Glasgow is well-equipped to deal with the challenges of the 21st century and to enhance the attractiveness of the city as a place in which to live and invest.
As part of the Connecting Nature project, the City of Glasgow’s ambition was to develop, and begin to deliver, an Open Space Strategy for the city to help address this changing context and the changing demands on open space. The aim was for the Strategy to be used to establish an approach for considering the different ways in...
Utrecht is a fast growing and compact city with green ambitions. We have to respond to the challenges that lay ahead of us. We focus on Healthy Urban Living for Everyone, for all citizens because they have to live, work and play in it every day.
Due to densification, pressure on Utrecht’s public green space is increasing. With respect to climate change and quality of life — and within its vision of healthy urban living — Utrecht aspires to optimise and utilise ‘green’ and ‘blue’ (land and water) infrastructure as much as possible both to face the consequences of climate change and...More
The wine exemplar seeks to understand how different players in the wine value chain (producers, retailers, consumers) influence wine production and thus the ecosystem services provided by vineyard ecosystems.
Boosting ecosystem service performance through green roof design in Barking Riverside.
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
Glasgow has a Green Space Strategy known as ‘Open Space Strategy’ - https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17192) which aims to achieve the following objectives:
Placemaking
Climate change adaptation
Connectivity (among green spaces as well as to citizens)
Well-being
Biodiversity
At the same time, as a result of climate change (1971-2014) average rainfall in the Glasgow Clyde Valley region has increased by 21%; maximum temperatures increased on average by 1.21°C; the...More
The action encourages sustainable territorial development based on natural, historical and cultural heritage promotion and eco-citizenship. The governance is based on a charter included in the Local Urbanism Plan...
With the aim to create huge forest patches, develop urban forest park clusters and optimise the large-scale forest patterns, BPAP has proposed green strategies with nine green wedges, multiple greenbelts, and green corridors around the old city centre in Beijing.
Objectives further include:
Restoring river-floodplains to protect biodiversity: The Danube’s river biodiversity is threatened by changes to hydrology and geomorphology (so-called hydro-morphological alterations), such as disconnection of floodplains. Multiple human activities, including the construction of hydropower plants, expansion of agriculture, and large-scale river regulation measures to increase navigation and flood protection are resulting in an ongoing loss of habitat and biodiversity. Our aim: In this Case Study, we apply the AQUACROSS Assessment Framework to identify how management of...
The city of Lorient has developped an urban and local forestry partnership to supply the city in firewood chips and building timber. This project is based on local economy and on collaboration with local foresters to provide a sustainable management of this resource.
The central Uzbek government needed to be convinced that investments in the Amu Darya delta would make social, ecological and economic sense. Ecosystem services of the delta were valued for three situations: the situation before degradation, the present degraded and the potential restored situation.
Exploring which policy strategies can balance the supply of and demand for mountain ecosystem services in the future? Mountains provide many ecosystem services to both, people living in and outside the mountains. In the Swiss Alps study area, the number of farms abandoned is increasing and traditional farming systems are in decline. Therefore, as in many European mountain regions, the provision of essential services is at risk. At the same time, touristic activities and settlement development enhance local demand for ecosystem services. New and integrated strategies in agricultural,...
This short film introduces Berlin as one of the European cities aligned with the URBES - Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services project. The URBES project was funded as part of the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research by BiodivERsA, which is a network of 21 research-funding agencies across 15 European countries promoting pan-European research that generates new knowledge for the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity.
Managing socio-ecological landscapes as natural carbon sinks and resources for adaptation is increasingly recognized as a necessary, efficient and relatively cost-effective strategy. Protected areas store 15 % of terrestrial carbon and supply ecosystem services for disaster reduction, water supply, food and public health, all of which enable community-based adaptation. Many natural and managed ecosystems can help reduce climate change impacts. But protected areas have advantages over other approaches to natural ecosystem management in terms of legal and governance clarity, capacity and...
The Project “Demonstrating and promoting natural values, to support the decision-making process in Romania” (N4D) was developed based on folowing activities: A1. institutional infrastructure development; A2. Development of the ecosystem mapping and assessment framework in Romania; A3. Data analysis and management under the MAES process; A4. Biophysical mapping and assessment of ecosystems and of their services; A5. Project promotion; A6. Knowledge exchange with the neighbouring countries and with Norway, as the country providing the Project financing.
The project proposes an integrated people-centered approach, with a particular focus on women, to address the triple crisis – poverty, climate change, and nature – at the local level.
Use of vegetation in urban areas in the Mid-Atlantic watersheds of Washington DC, Montgomery County and Baltimore County MD, has reduced flooding and nutrient runoff. The ‘stormwater green infrastructure’ in these municipalities includes green roofs, bioswales, rain gardens and stormwater ponds. By increasing infiltration and groundwater recharge, and/or evaporation, they reduce the volume of run-off that can contribute to floods.
Identification of the Green Infrastructure at high resolution, i.e. not using land use cover, with GIS and assessment of the Ecosystem Services through the MAES (Mapping Ecosystem Services) methodology in urban area.
The study analysed also human-environment interactions, according to the resident population and with particular attention to the weaker groups, infants (0-5 years) and elderly (> 65 years). Ecosystem Services (ES) were selected in consideration of the population accordingly the CICES (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services) classification. Among...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
To improve public space functionality and use, to increase access to green spaces for district residents (Eixample), to contribute to higher biodiversity in the city, and to promote more and different retail activity at the ground floor of buildings, so to rejuvenate/boost the local economy.
The plans of the municipality and the local civic organzation were to develop a pleasant, ecological park filled with different kind of leisure activities from the neglected gulf.
The objective is a comprehensive reconstruction of the area in Balatonfűzfő, from Fövenyfürdő Beach to Tobruki Beach is enabling the semi-natural utilization of the area near the city and near the lake. This project has two phases:
Using the widely used Policy Support System tools at www.policysupport.org as a basis, we built an insurance industry-relevant policy support system called Eco:Actuary. The objective of this project is to to co-develop and test the Eco:Actuary with NAIAD project partners & stakeholders in the fluvial non-tidal Thames as a DEMO catchment in the NAIAD project.
EcoActuary is an open-access catastrophe model capable of assessing the impact of NBS on local and downstream assets at risk of flood. It simulates a minimum of 1200 spatial...
Within the EnRoute Project, the challenge of the City Lab of Rome is to apply the urban-MAES framework on a multi-scale progression.
In particular, the following policy questions have been addressed:
Activating community based projects in a deprived neighbourhood, Mountjoy Square.
The floodplains of the River Thames are characterised by high land prices and intense urbanisation, with few options for creating extra flood storage. A number of tributaries of the fluvial Thames suffer localised flooding in urban reaches, affecting local inhabitants, businesses, property and infrastructure.
Recently there has been UK government investment in natural flood management (NFM) and there is growing interest in how land management such as Conservation Agriculture can provide water management for storing flood water as well as biological benefits....
The objective is to make the Montpellier agricultural systems more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as increasing temperatures or droughts, water and biotic stresses and more extreme events.
Main benefits can be summarized as follow:
INRA (Institut Nantional de la Recherche Agronomique) researchers showed that the production from one hectare of a walnut/wheat mix is the same as for 1.4 hectares with trees and crops separated. This was a 40% increase in productivity, far better than any other innovation introduced by agronomists in the recent past.
...
Sharing Intereuropean Approaches to the Design of Integrated Water and Flood Risk Management Strategies in Ljubljana Region.
The Lower Danube demo case has as main objective to create an efficient network of national, regional and local stakeholders in order to apply collaborative approach for water security measures and extreme meteorological events mitigation by using the ecosystem service and green infrastructure. In the NAIAD project the Lower Danube demo case study is focused on understanding the social risk perception and challenges for NBS implementation, to open business opportunities for insurance sector and to identify potential business model to foster Nature Based Solutions implementation and...
To improve an over wide and heavily silted reach of the river Somer running through Midsomer Norton high street, providing a diverse habitat for native fish, particularly wild brown trout, plants and invertebrates.
The city is currently revising its urban Master Plan, which aims to make Bilbao i) an example for other cities around the world; ii) a city in continuous renewal; iii) a sustainable city; and iv) a socially balanced city.
Extreme climate events in the recent – and not-so recent – past have shown that Bilbao is more vulnerable than most other cities. This realisation prompted scientific research into how the city could plan for sustainable development and prepare itself for further climate-change risks.
This resulted in the city authorities drawing up a list of the following...
Setting-up an agri-business incubator that aids local economy by creating new enterprises, improving competitiveness and responding to local agricultural market.
The project promotes urban butterflies conservation, thanks to the involvement of fragile people as citizen scientists. It aims to create and connect Butterfly oasis, to allow butterflies to cross the city; and to involve people with mental or physical disabilities, to fight the social stigma
The Nature-Based Solutions in the Nordic region programme has chosen to finance a pilot project in Sweden to implement and test a floating system for wetlands to remove excess phosphorus from seawater.
In the second part of the 20th century, three major challenges led towards a new thinking and the implementation of river restoration as a nature-based solution at the Isar. First, after decades of river regulation, water diversion and hydro-morphological modifications, the resulting degraded morphological status and related losses of ecological and social quality triggered serious concerns from civil society and citizens. Second, the Isar River was very popular for swimming and other water-related outdoor recreational activities as one of the key elements of the local culture. While the...
Establishing a resident-run enterprise to manage Barking Riverside's community assets.
The primary goal of the city strategy (Development Strategy for the City of Poznań 2030) is to improve quality of life for all inhabitants, in such a way that everyone feels that they have a stake in co-creating the city. One of the five strategic objectives of the city strategy – 'A green, mobile city' – sets out NBS objectives, while the other strategic objectives, including 'Friendly housing estates' and 'The spirit of community and social dialogue' contain elements of NBS. NBS objectives are also incorporated in the documents on strategy and additional spatial planning (Development...
The former Deusenberg landfill has been recultivated since 1992 and was opened to the public in 2004. Since then, it has become a popular destination for various leisure activities like walking, jogging, cycling, mountain biking, birdwatching, etc.
Access to the top of the Deusenberg is mainly possible from the northeastern side via several paths and stairs. The other three expositions are “gated” by train tracks (west, north), a fenced maintenance and work facility as well as a fenced lot with a degassing installation for the landfill (south). In the northern area an unofficial...
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Promoting the improved management of the "montado" multifunctional ecosystem, reconciling resources use with conservation interests. This will be achieved by bringing the ecosystem services and natural capital concepts into practice.
Heritage Colombia (HECO) is a paradigm changing programme, that through a resilient landscapes approach and a long term financial scheme, will strengthen the adaptation and mitigation to climate change of rural Colombia through the, protection and sustainably management of important ecosystems and ecosystem services, reducing deforestation and degradation in the country’s carbon-rich ecosystems. This programme focuses on 9 landscapes and will deliver verifiable climate mitigation and adaptation impacts through
(1) improving land use planning;
(2) reducing vulnerability of...
Increasing ecosystem service provision by creating multifunctional blue-green infrastructure.
To regenerate a brownfield site into a vibrant public space and reconnect the city with its waterfront, integrating art and ecology.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
The project invests in climate-proof infrastructure to improve urban environments and climate resilience for the Bao Ninh peninsula and along the Co Co river. The aim is developing climate-proofing structures through improvements to stormwater and flood management, erosion prevention, and salinity control.
Objective was to create an environmental community and movement for an ecological, socially and self-organized city quarter with a lot of green spaces and affordable housing to meet the extremely high demand on living space in the city.
This project is a very good example for a dense green city and a perfect conversion of old military bases. The complete project was from the beginning a participative process to enable the inclusion of the residents...
Co-Finding competition to support municipalities in the design, implementation, and funding of green infrastructure projects.
The main objective of the project is to increase the biodiversity of a peri-urban area, re-naturalizing it through the creation of an urban edible forest.
River bank renaturation and stabilization through live staking and vegetated dikes
Riparian afforestation
Phytodepuration basins
Zero-energy flood retention system (no pumping needed)
The project consists of the implementation of two rolling basins connected by an open air ditch and a pond filled with ground water. The basins will be temporarely flooded by Lura river during intense rainy periods through natural inlet from the river bed,...
Foster sustainable urban planning and management through the integration of ecosystem services in existing decision-support tools, focussing on both the provision and the demand of the ecosystem services.
The project aims at investigating whether and how a scientific knowledge on soil quality can be integrated into urban planning so as to allow soil quality to be taken into account in all its dimensions, which has not been the case so far in France.
Its objectives are:
Exploring how ecosystem services can be integrated in a land-use planning process using a real-life planning case. A special focus is on multifunctional green infrastructure and applying new tools to operationalise ecosystem services in the plans in a participatory way.
Removing sediment from reservoirs is an important part of the costs of hydro-power generation. Farmers adapt and diversify land-use, based on PES scheme with hydro-power company in Sumberjaya.
In the framework of "Vision Ljubljana 2025", the city has adopted several sustainability-oriented strategic documents, especially the:
Urban Master Plan (83% of all city development is directed towards renewing existing developed areas and brownfields). This is the most important planning instrument for green spaces in the city.
Environment Protection Programme 2014-20, aiming to protect and enhance the natural environment in the city.
The objective of the LIFE-EnviFriendly project was to demonstrate low cost, nature based solutions that if used by all farmers within a watershed it will improve the water quality of the waters significantly. The NBS used in this case was a riparian forest restoration coupled with a river bank erosion protection.
This project consists in two main areas :
- the northern portion : object of the first phases of extraction ended in 2007
- the southern portion : subject of the cultivation plan and recovery of recent years
The proposed project involves the areas cultivated in the northern part. It forecast an environmental naturalistic recovery and the conclusion of the overall environmental recovery of the entire extractive area.
It aims to include :
• morphological arrangement of the slopes of embankments produced by the extractive area for the future public use;
•...
The Project ‚Baumstarke Stadt‘ Leipzig aims to generate financial resources to allow tree planting and further to establish a long-term engagement of citizens with the urban green areas they live in. The project, therefore, aims to provide multiple ecosystem services, including regulating, supporting and cultural functions.
With a green and blue framework that supports ecosystem benefits, Utrecht aims to promote healthy urban living through an integrated and systemic approach that combines local climate regulation, noise reduction, recreation and cleaner air. Currently, its main instrument for protecting and improving green space is the 2007 Green Structure Plan.
Green Structure Plan actions aim at sustainable urbanisation: less and slower traffic, climate- and energy-neutral construction, efficient water management and green areas for pleasant and healthy urban living. Utrecht wants...
“Let’s Crop the Diversity” (LCD) aims to redevelop urban spaces through the coproduction of solutions based on nature (NBS) to promote resilience and environmental quality of the geographical areas of intervention.
The goal of this project is developing an Urban Agricultural System that, thanks to the...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
This exemplar aims to: Map and describe existing and potential use and non-use community-held values of the estuary; Elicit community-held preferences and willingness to pay for coastal land use and management on landscape-scale; Test impacts of deliberation on preferences for estuarine land in a workshop setting; Contextualise study findings through institutional analysis; Identify ecosystem values held by land-owners and their attitudes towards coastal realignment; Understand future visions for the estuaries from diverse stakeholders; Test operational potential and impact of valuation...
Creation of a air quality map from the taxonomical diversity and the geographical distribution of lichens by using a lichen index. Lichens are sensitive to pollution and therefore can serve as air quality indicators.
This technology is commercialized by the company Aair Lichens. It offer an integrated solution from the actors consultation to the presentation of the study results , the support of stakeholders and the development of a biomonitoring scenario.
To regenerate a brown site to develop 150 new homes, an improved park area and a BREEAM outstanding green business park. To deliver high quality jobs, family housing and a better green space.
Rio de Janeiro is a coastal city that ranges from 2 m above sea level to forested massifs that divide the city into zones: central, north, south and west. The highest peak is Pedra Branca (White Rock), at 1 024 m high. The city has significant forested areas that cover most of the massifs. The population living in slums in 2010 was 19 % of the inhabitants (last census). The informal occupation of steep slopes and flood-prone areas occur mainly because of the lack of social housing planning, and the laws that protect vulnerable areas where formal occupation cannot occur....
The development and maintenance of the green system on the territory of the municipality of Burgas is a main task and priority of the local administration. Over the years, most of the main green areas in the city have been renovated, incl. the sea garden, parks in the residential complexes, under construction is a new recreation area connecting the sea garden with Sarafovo residential area.
Along with the reconstruction and improvement of the park spaces, Burgas Municipality is actively working on the maintenance of the urban green system. Periodic inventory of plant species is...
Identifying the ecosystem services and their connections to biological diversity and forest ecosystem functioning, to support local communities and their traditional activities.
Aquaponics is the combination of raising fish (aquaculture) in tanks together with soilless cultivation of plants (hydroponics) in a symbiotic environment, whereby the fish waste water provides the nutrients needed to feed the plants.
Two aquaponics greenhouses will be built on part of the site of the old coking plant Kokerei Hansa in Dortmund Huckarde as a scientific experiment. Energetic optimization and potential transfer paths of contaminants will be examined.
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The present ecosystem services assessment and mapping has been mainly scientifically-driven, with the objective of this study being that of carrying out a first assessment of the capacity and flow of ES in the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean). ES capacity is defined as the potential of ecosystems to provide services appreciated by humans, while ES flow refers to the actual use of the ES and occurs at the location where an ES enters within a utility or production function. Given the insular and urbanised environment, and the dependence on local ecosystems for |
The VEG-GAP Information Platform is a web-based multi-purpose information platform exploiting the final results of the project. The platform uses Atmospheric Modelling Systems outputs. It is a collaborative framework among end-users (which can interact with data analytics), governance (facilitating the knowledge sharing on successful environmental air quality solutions), and citizens (by showing them the effects of the green interventions).
VEG-GAP is a valuable example of transnational collaboration, and of how cities, research centres, businesses and civil society can team up to...
The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city.
São Paulo is the capital of the state of São Paulo and the centre of the largest metropolitan area in South America with 21.2 million inhabitants. The city has expanded over the landscape with the eradication of the original ecosystems, burying most of the creeks, with larger rivers straightened and canalised. Nature is restricted to some parks, mainly in the peripheral areas. São Paulo has been called the City of Waters due to the 300 rivers and creeks that were originally in the landscape. Many springs remain active, despite the urbanisation. There is a growing movement...
The aim of my research is to provide evidence to forest planners and policy makers on the effects of alternative woodland management and expansion strategies on the delivery of a range of key ecosystem services, using the public forest estate in Lochaber as a case study.
The lifespan of woodlands and length of commercial forest rotations are long enough that trees planted today are growing into an uncertain future. As a result, forest planners and policy makers are having to make management decisions to increase the resilience of forests to climate change. These management decisions...
To untangle the tracks approaching London Bridge station reducing delays and to achieve net positive biodiversity.
Analysing the effects of the landscape planning scheme in ecosystem service performance, and exploring the ways in which ecosystem services can be explicitly incorporated in the management of the protected areas of Donana and the surrounding landscape.
The aim of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project is to restore a previously deforested area and contribute to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Green Growth Initiative. Two approaches of protected natural regeneration and planned afforestation were set in motion. Moreover, the project aims to support livelihoods, encourage eco-tourism, community engagement and generate jobs through conservation.
Challenges
The described situation was an opportunity for the nature based solutions (green wall creation) implementation. Particularly, based on the scientific data available from more than 160 Yerevan kindergartens specific one was identified and selected ensuring the maximum benefits for the kindergarten territory, its sounding and children’s health.
Objective
The testing site - kindergarten was built in former Soviet Union period and did not underwent any reconstruction action. Due to its spatial location the kindergarten is...
The overall objectives are to enhance drought resilience and food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations of the Bale Eco-region, by protect biodiversity, ecosystem services and increasing resilience and well-being of highland/lowland communities.
The city’s Grünlandkonzept (green space strategy) provides detailed strategic indications for local land use and infrastructure planning (Stadt Linz, 2013). Enhancing and protecting urban green areas is seen as a way of increasing the city’s attractiveness, and will also form part of the upcoming transformation of the city harbour area. Linz AG, a holding company owned by the municipality, is planning to position the harbour on the Danube river as an important regional and international business location, inter alia by means of intensive greening for parts of the area...
The objective of the project is to investigate the future possibilities of green area development, by exploring the functionality of green areas on the roofs of apartment buildings and to gain insight into the impacts green roofs may have on housing and the sense of community.
This study assesses the benefits of a multi-purpose nature-based solution for water pollution control in a peri-urban area located in Gorla Maggiore (northern Italy), using an ecosystem service approach and applying an integrated valuation based on MCA for local water management. This solution is compared with the alternative “doing nothing” and with the construction of conventional grey infrastructure. This case study gives an example of integrating different value systems and stakeholders' viewpoints, thus providing hands-on guidance for integrated valuation in ecosystem service...
This is a new initiative in a wealthy suburban village near Budapest. Despite of that the people live in a small village, their lifestyle is more urban and they have a little connection to each other. Observing the situation, some local people decided to create a community garden where people can work together, and they have the...
The study also aimed at enhancing the wider understanding of the significance of pollination services to the mountain agricultural economy. Institutional capacities at provincial and national level needed to be strengthened to promote honeybee pollination management.
In 2013, an experimental and educational project, conceived as a garden home for a school, was built at the heart of the green district known as ‘Duke’s Meadow’ on the Île de Nantes. The building’s roof was covered by 2,700 square meters of natural dunes.
The objective is to create a green roof, relying heavily on a phytosociological approach to plant colonization and high biodiversity, but also a site that is easy to manage.
The originality of its green roof results from a co-construction between architects and landscape designer. Its qualities are undeniable, and this...
Biotope City is an integral concept of the Biotope City Foundation Amsterdam based on the integrative combination of Flora + Fauna + Humans to realise the dense city as nature.
World's first official climate-resilient district and world's first constructed Biotope City in Vienna with 2/3 affordable social housing and climate adaptation by the support of GREENPASS - the world's first Software-as-a-Service for climate...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Promoting sense of place through the collaborative celebration of local heritage.
To improve and validate a portable, modular, enery-free, decentralized water treatment system, the PM-NBSTM, to remediate source water to high quality for resuse, filling a major gap in small agglomerations and remote areas where good quality waters are needed and no other solution is feasible
Nicosia is the capital city of the Republic of Cyprus. It lies roughly in the centre of the island in the Mesaoria Plain, flanked by the northern range of Kyrenia Mountains with its distinctive ‘Pentadaktylos’ – the five-finger mountain.
The capital has two distinct faces: the old, original part of the city, surrounded by sturdy Venetian walls over 400 years old, and a busy modern metropolis, which has a population of 200,452 inhabitants (≈16.6% of the country’s total population) together with the suburbs.
As the country's capital, Nicosia is the financial and business...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue-Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.
BEGIN’s driving ambition is to substitute traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ such as concrete for ‘blue-green infrastructure’ (BGI) such as parks, rivers, and lakes.
Enabling more rational farm management and planning space for green corridors in the agricultural land, together with all relevant stakeholders at landscape level. The context of this case study is explained by a short YouTube clip: http://youtu.be/sD0gVUmmwnE
LEAFSKIN® is an ultralight green roof set up over pedestrian streets or squares, in order to create shadow areas in urban spaces.
The tecnhology can also provide interesting implimentation like carring lighting system or advertising on the bottum.
The NBS is composed by three main elements:
The GREEN DEAL Groene Daken (Green Deal Green Roofs) is a cross-sectoral initiative whose ulimate objective is to upscale the implementation of green roofs, whilst at the same time remove barriers that inhibit their implementation . This initiave aims to develop new revenue models and apply them around roof greening. Through the GREEN DEAL initiative, citizens or companies that want to invest in green roofs, receive information about the opportunities invest in a green roof and lead their project when it starts.
Transforming an underused town square into a pavilion pf possibilities.
To deliver an exceptionally sustainable healthcare facility, delivering long term environmental, social and financial benefits for patients, visitors, staff and the local community.
Landscape transformation, through new plants and signposting, to enhance the area of historical-environmental interest (green area adjacent to the ruins of the Castle of Mirafiori and the altar inside the area of the Bela Rosin Mausoleum).
The building of the Institute of physics of the Humboldt university in Berlin is the result of combining decentralised rainwater management, building greening and elements for cooling and ventilation. All necessary factors, like water and energy consumption,...
The public perception of ecosystems (e.g. forests, including possibly protecting ones) is strongly worsened following floods with massive wood jams. This case study aims at performing a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of a Mediterranean catchment to assess NBS benefits, dis-benefits and co-benefits and ways to optimize them.
The aim of this project is to connect two areas separated by a highway by creating a
wildlife passage on an existing bridge in order to reinforce an ecological corridor. This
structure is thought to allow cohabitation between fauna and motorists.
This project is also combined with another environmetal friendly solution:
The so-colled Border Meuse or "Grensmaas" Project has three main objectives: reduce flood risk, healthier and more diverse nature, and the commercial benefit of both gravel extraction and nature-based economic development.
Urban redevelopment was an opportunity to adopt solutions and achieve different targets through nature-based solutions. Carta of Milan, the city's strategic environmental plan, recognises ‘green infrastructure’ as the best way to achieve environmental targets, promote social development and improve social welfare. On a wider scale, the Lombardy Region manages the green infrastructure actions for ecological connections and the creation of ecosystems, ensuring continuity between the Alps and the Po Valley (Pianura Padana) and the urban environments within that area...
Encouraging public participation in the planning and implementation processes of urban projects in Sofia.
Padova is a city of around 210,000 in the north-eastern part of Italy. It is the third largest provincial capital of the Veneto region, and the most densely populated (average density 2300 inhabitants/km2). The city is located 20 km west from the Venetian lagoon at the extreme north-eastern border of the Po plain. The morphology of the territory and its key position at the crossroads of the routes that connect Venice to Milan and to Bologna has fostered the development of the city.
Soil sealing is among the main issues in Padova, where 49.3% of the municipal territory is urbanized:...More
In Manchester, the EnRoute CityLab has been built on the three main ‘policy pillars’ relating to the environment in the city (Our Manchester: A vision for the Future; Manchester’s Great Outdoors: A Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy for Manchester, and the Manchester Climate Change Strategy 2017-2050) and their core ethos of ‘biodiversity innovation and citizen action for nature’.
Manchester’s green infrastructure (GI) has been part of the city’s success for a number of years, but in 2015 the City Council recognised that, as the city continues to grow over the coming decades,...More
Supporting the design of policies and planning instruments to ensure the sustainable management of natural capital stocks and the delivery of critical ecosystem services in the Natural Park. Engaging local stakeholders and decision makers throughout the process to promote awareness raising and social learning.
To mitigate the development of a 3.2km bypass by building a green land bridge to enable the historic West drive to be reinstated on its original line and provide landscape and habitat connectivity.
Design and construction of an eco-district with the ecological networks and biodiversity as starting point. The implementation of this project is based on environmental approach to urban planning. The district is an environmentally-friendly project and favors collective housing to preserve green areas.
This NBS is also combined with other environmental friendly solutions: Bio-sourced materials - Renewable energy system (solar panels, etc.).
The objective of the project is to reduce the areas of impermeable surfacing and develop a connected green network across the campus.
Key aims:
The case study site provides connected multi-functional green space that maximises ecosystem services for the sites and the local communities. Objectives include:
Offering collaborative design processes for the design of individual homes.
Hamburg was the first major German city to launch a comprehensive Green Roof Strategy. Its goal is to green at least 70 per cent of both new buildings and suitable flat or gently pitched roofs that are being renovated. The Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture supports the project with three million euros until the end of 2024.
In 2014 the goal was set to create 100 hectare (ha) green roofs in Hamburg within one decade. Starting from 80 ha we are on track having in 2020 about 168 ha green roofs in Hamburg.* Nevertheless, there are still many roofs in Hamburg...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Benevides is an industrial city that is part of the Belém metropolitan region (capital of the state of Pará). It is in the Amazon biome, on the equator, with high temperatures and insulation during the whole year. Humidity is high, with rainfall in all seasons.
To treat the Natura cosmetics factory’s industrial and sanitary effluents in a beautiful filtering garden, tackling multiple issues in the same place at the same time.
The filtering gardens are located at the main access point of the production facility and are the focal point of...
The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city. The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city.
The AQUACROSSCase Study aims to improve the knowledge base available to stakeholders to enable a more informed decision-making process toward the achievement of the Biodiversity Strategy targets, including the provisioning of ecosystem services. This includes several existing European marine policy frameworks: Habitats and Birds Directives, MSFD, CFP & IMP.
One eye on the future, the other on the past.
The commons managed by the Università Agraria will be permanently conserved for future generations because they generate sustainable socio-economic opportunities today.
Co-Creating the adaptive re-use of former military barracks based on principles of circular economy.
To create a development on a brownfield site where Green Infrastructure (GI) is integral to the layout of dwellings and create a sense of place whilst delivering a rich mix of housing tenures with a focus on affordability for local people.
Starting with a single focus on afforestation, the project aimed at integrating Nature-Based Solutions for limiting flooding, enhancing biodiversity and reducing traffic noise pollution.
Following an integrated approach, further objectives included:
We analyzed relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services. We surveyed vegetation and monitored soil loss in various land uses to assess, model and map tree diversity, soil erosion control, and climate change mitigation.
This case illustrates how ecosystem service assessments can help to catalyse changes in conservation and development policy and management practice − but are rarely the sole factor. In the Upper Tuul example, the intention was to “make the case” for a higher policy and budgetary priority to be accorded to the UpperTuul ecosystem.
The URBES project focusses on functional diversity, urban ecosystem services and NBS, institutions, economics and resilience science and worked to translate research insights into principles, landscape designs and applications. It explores the drivers behind loss/enhancement of urban ecosystem services delivered by nature based solutions such as urban green space, monetary and non-monetary valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the urban landscape and what are the most effective mechanisms for the governance of non-marketed ecosystem services.
In the Berlin case study,...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Assessing how current and expected future land use changes affect the synergies or trade-offs between bioenergy provision and other ecosystem services. This will assist Germany in its aim to increase renewable energy provision up to 35% in 2020.
Viridian were asked to model an entire lowland catchment of approximately 750 km2 for a basket of ecosystem services, so the client could better understand where to focus effort on the ground, assist with planning, inform stakeholder engagement and influence policy formation.
We have explored the opportunities and trade‐offs of managing ecosystems for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. We have also analyzed how policy development integrated adaptation and mitigation in Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, and the Philippines.
Restoration of wild pollinators populations (wild bees) by creating shelters, nesting sites and meadows. The overall objective of this project is to protect and provide long term benefits to biodiversity and then to all the network linked in.
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service delivery and resilience, using advanced noninvasive spectral and physiological sensing technology, diameter growth measurements, and urban biophysical modeling; and (iii) to develop and test (in situ & ex situ) a dedicated EcM-inoculum to improve urban tree health, and ecosystem service delivery and...
Water scarcity and low availability of water present a real obstacle to implement and maintain nature-based solutions such as urban agriculture and other peri-urban farming practices. The use of reclaimed water (i.e. treated wastewater) is an alternative water resource with many benefits associated.
The objective is to demonstrate how nature conservation can be integrated into practical forest management. Steinkreuz is part of the “European demonstration site network for integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management” (https://www.oppla.eu/casestudy/18019).
The peri-urban forest Ostend in Belgium aims to provide a publicly accessible space for recreation, offering educational facilities for local residents and tourists.
Through the afforestation of previous agricultural land and being part of a Green Ribbon (Groen Lint) network surrounding the city core, the peri-urban green space further aims to enhance biodiversity and ecological connectivity.
The afforestation in the coastal and harbour city was planned as a buffer zone between industrial sites and residential areas.
Brasília is the capital of Brazil and its third largest city in population. The city was built according to a modernist plan by the famous Brazilian urbanist Lucio Costa, eliminating extensive areas of the cerrado biome (Brazilian savannah), which is being devastated by the spread of urbanisation and by agribusiness.
The city was planned with a core, where the buildings host all federal institutions. The city is zoned for specific uses, such as residential, hotels and businesses. Residents need cars to move around. Low-income housing is located in ‘satellite cities...
The overall objectives of the Bari city authorities are to improve urban quality, reduce the urban heat island effect and manage storm water.
Improving green areas and their functions is a crucial part of achieving this goal and is addressed by several plans within Bari’s multi-level planning system. This multi-level planning consists of:
The aim of the project Orti Generali is to regenerate Cascina Piemonte area, which is mostly reduced to ruins because of occupations and acts of vandalism, creating new community gardens that will pursuit different goals: education, social inclusion, technological innovation, job training.
RENATURALIZE THE LAGOON AND DEVELOP A NEW MODE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
Installation of sport and exercise devices in the Eastern part of an open public park (Gustav-Heinemann-Park) in Dortmund’s district Huckarde which will be mainly useable for Huckarde citizens and pupils from an adjacent school. Devices will be publicly accessible and shall invite every person who would like to use them. Target groups are teenagers and adults, difficulty levels will range will from easy to sportive.
By installing the devices it is as well intended to increase attractiveness of the park and to create a location to spend more time; currently it is mainly a passing-by...
Exploring the vision for a former sulphur mine in the context of common land ownership and management in Manziana Region.
Building a vision for Malaga´s Economic Development Model through a strong institutionalised network.
The pilot project aims to reduce the impact of climate change on marginalized communities by providing localized, water-sensitive interventions that address issues related to sanitation and water management.
Addressing the steps needed to overhaul the economic development strategy of Málaga.
The landscape park aims to fulfil a variety of functions:
The provision of recreation and educational facilities for local residents and visitors, and the encouragement of tourism to the area. Socio-cultural and economic benefits focus on education, culture, sports and history while keeping a sense of place through preserving historic elements of the area.
Another focus lies on water protection (Freshwater storage, management and distribution)
The Landscape Park further aims to regulate micro and regional climate,...
To provide farmers with a sustainable alternative to traditional fertilizer and to help close the loop between food waste, sewage and agriculture to sustain a circular economy.
Key documents for green space and NBS at local level are the Local Development Plan and the Open Space Strategy. The Local Development Plan seeks to protect and enhance the environment and address the challenge of climate change. This will be partly achieved by using new development projects to enhance the green network. The Plan also identifies areas for conservation, and the different functions and benefits of urban green space are considered in terms of their contribution to the environment as well as their social and economic value.
The CEC’s Open Space Strategy seeks to address...
The Programme for Enhancing the Urban Green Infrastructure is an ambitious government measure approved in 2017. It establishes the main strategies for enhancing the quality and quantity of green infrastructure in Barcelona till 2030. Barcelona wants to renature the city and create, in this period, 165 ha of new green spaces, which increases the green spaces/inhabitant ratio by 1m2. As Barcelona is a compact city, there are various strategies to improve, transform or create new green spaces. The actions will take place at various urban scales (street, district or city scale) and...
Installation of sport and exercise devices in the Eastern part of an open public park (Gustav-Heinemann-Park) in Dortmund’s district Huckarde which will be mainly useable for Huckarde citizens and pupils from an adjacent school. Devices will be publicly accessible and shall invite every person who would like to use them. Target groups are teenagers and adults, difficulty levels will range will from easy to sportive.
By installing the devices it is as well intended to increase attractiveness of the park and to create a location to spend more time; currently it is mainly a passing-by-...
Developing a planting scheme with the support of the local engaged population. The creation of national institutions and laws that gave the support for the local activism focused on natural areas. In São Paulo, different groups are working to increase the biodiversity and tree cover in the city by planting small forest patches, locally known as pocket forests. These activities are first planned with the local stakeholders, and then the area is prepared for planting, including the eventual removal of pavement, preparation of the soil, among other measures. The act of planting per se is...
This project aims to reverse the deterioration of soil fertility and natural resources, contributing to reduce household hunger in the Talensi District, Ghana.
Sweet City aims to create the conditions required to improve the quality of life of all the inhabitants of the territory, humans and other species alike, e.g. pollinators, by providing better conditions for them to thrive and, as a result, obtaining a more biodiverse, comfortable, clean, colorful and better organised urban environment. The aim is to restore the balance between urban and natural areas, preserve and increase biodiversity in the city and manage climate change.
This study aims to identify and communicate areas and management solutions that synergistically support biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, as well as the growing demand to feed an increasing global population, using the ecosystem services concept.
To create a 3,000 m² food forest – a self-sustaining woodland ecosystem designed for food production –together with the scouts and the members of the St. Urbanus community and the boy and girl scouts from Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg (DPSG). During several workshops the garden was commonly designed and realized as well as knowledge given to empower people to take care of the garden in the long term. It is intended that people will take over sponsorships for parts of the food forest.
Favoring of environmentally sustainable materials and solutions has been the main objective in the construction and services of Village Elves Hideaway. The newest ecological knowledge is integrated with mythology of Lapland in order to produce fascinating stories for guided tours. For this reason the green roof of Wise Elf´s house was built.
The construction was carried out as a part of larger project ‘From forest Baths to Green Roofs’ which aimed at new practices in nature-based services that enhance the wellbeing of travelers.
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Assessing how the ecosystem service approach can be used to demonstrate problems in protected areas such as rural abandonment, land-use intensification and social conflicts emerging from strict conservation practices.
To restore a Victorian cemetery from a state of neglect to provide a community green space, whilst maintaining and celebrating the heritage of the site as well as its conservation and ecological value.
Malaga takes the region's socioeconomic destiny in its own hands.
A robust and sunny coastal economy takes advantages of environmental resources and complements tourism with a range of other opportunities such as community-based businesses.
Involving managers and residents in designing an integrated land management plan for biodiversity and tourism. Biodiversity and visiting people.
The release of an open public space with such dimensions in a densely-built city district offered a unique opportunity to restore the connection among the surrounding areas with a solid green lung. The site was previously a brownfield land that needed remediation. (During the entire remediation operation, approximately 100,000 m³ of land was excavated) However, even the residents of the neighboring areas faced with initial skepticism the usefulness of a park in the specific location.
The idea was to have an economically viable park that would function as social space, a space that...
Rönne å catchment area is a river watershed located in Southern Sweden and includes lakes (e.g. Ringsjön), rivers (Rönne å) and marine coastal areas (Kattegatt). The AQUACROSS Case Study looks at the process of eutrophication and restoration of good water quality and their implications for the provision of ecosystem services along the Rönne å catchment.
Promoting community energy schemes and user participation in a new community.
The aim is to develop a realistic framework of indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Urban Green-Blue Infrastructure (U-GBI) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs. The evaluation of one the green axis of the ecological network in Ghent will serve as a case study for the framework of indicators. Furthermore, policy, governance and management practices of U-GBI are analyzed to identify innovative approaches to GBI implementation and usage.
In response to the challenges arising from the urban expansion of Medellín and the close association with neighbouring municipalities, the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley (AMVA for its Spanish abbreviation) was established in 1980 as a regional public transportation and urban environmental authority. Within this context, the current city government, in co-ordination with other municipalities of the AMVA, focused its development plan (Plan de Desarrollo) priorities on the implementation of actions to improvethe urban environment, including nature-based interventions from the...
The aim is to establish a network of demonstration sites covering a broad range of European forest types in which integrative forest management measures are being practiced. Having such sites will help train and eventually improve decision making capacities related to integrating biodiversity aspects into managed forests.
To build a school that would blend into the surrounding hillside and to ensure that all water would remain on site to prevent flooding of the local drainage system.
Petrópolis is located about 70 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is an important destination in the mountain region known as the Imperial City, named after Emperor Dom Pedro II who used to spend summer in the hills because of the more pleasant climate. It is an important historic site, with many tourist attractions, and is well known as a gourmet and nature-oriented destination because of its surrounding conservation units with impressive and vulnerable landscapes. The city has 82.1 % of its waste water treated, which is higher than the national average of sanitation...
The project ProGIreg is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme and will run from June 2018 until 2023. ProGIreg stands for ‘productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration’: nature for renewal. ProGIreg develops self-sustaining business models for nature-based solutions, based on a scientific assessment of the multiple benefits they provide for social, ecological and economic regeneration.Together, local citizens, governments, businesses, NGOs and universities design the nature-based solutions and make them happen.
Controlling and mitigating the heat island effect in Arará slum, northern Rio de Janeiro, based on the development and monitoring of green roofs, using epiphytes or lithophytes. Given the common uses of cement or metal, tiles required the development of specific techniques and materials to allow for the growth of vegetation while keeping the overall weight low for safety.
Reforming organic waste management In Brussels
Szeged is a mid-size historic city in the south of Hungary, the temperature is usually higher than in other similar-sized cities in the country. The goal of this project was to reduce the effects of the urban heat island in a very busy street with a lot of cars and shops. The idea was to increase the green area, plant trees, creating a more pleasant space for the pedestrians. The...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
Las Vegas Park in the city of Portoviejo, Ecuador can be considered as an example of the Build Back Better* concept on an urban scale. After the 2016 earthquake struck, the city allocated a part of the funds received from the central government for reconstruction and economic revitalisation to create this large park in the city centre. The park is part of an interconnected system of green and public spaces which the city aims to build along the Portoviejo River to reduce the flood risk. Hence, the city was able to take the challenge of reconstruction and economic revitalisation as an...
Project introduction:
The Changyuanhe river is in Qixian, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, in North and Middle China and become the main axis of the project, both by its cultural and ecological important for the country. In the past, there were large areas of marsh wetlands along the river, which can regulate and enrich the ecological diversity with good water power. Today the contrast between the upstream natural area (which is still well preserved) and the downstream area (which is dry for four months of the year) is astonished. The project aims to afforest the 30km river...
We aim to support regional and national decision-making on landscape management and ecosystem services in Peru, through stakeholder involvement and research on tradeoffs between ecosystem services.
The aim of this research was to understand how private sector natural capital investments could be increased and diversified in the Spey catchment. The focus of the study was on businesses that do not primarily manage land, but nevertheless rely on the Spey landscape, e.g. for their supply chain or to attract customers. Specifically, the study tried to answer four questions:
1. How do businesses currently invest in natural capital?
2. What motivates and hinders businesses to invest in natural capital?
3. Is there potential for coordinated business investment in natural...
A vertical greening system installed on the facade of an office building built early in the last century and renovated in the 1980’s, owned by INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance) and located in the city center of the Genova neighborhood of Sestri Ponente.
INPS Green Facade is a pilot project coordinated by the University of Genoa (DAD) which aims to quantify the positive effects of the green envelopes in densely built urban environment. Monitoring activities are focused on the evaluation of the environmental benefits, both economic and social, in particular in densely...
Seawalls are usually seen only as flood alleviation structures rather than as having other possible functions to benefit the wide environment. Where new walls are being installed there is opportunity to include more sympathetic “nature friendly” textured finishes to improve or maintain biodiversity. Where seawalls are already installed, retrofit enhancement measures provide significant opportunities. Small alterations were made to the mortar pointing between decorative stone cladding of a section of vertical concrete wall during construction of the Shaldon and Ringmore Tidal Defence Scheme...
To create a riverside park, reconnecting the city centre to the riverside and to mitigate flooding for more than 100 existing properties.
Using interactive tools to crowd-source data and ideas on transport in Ljubljana Region.
The Lez river (29 km long) is a small coastal Mediterranean river with a watershed of 746km2. Its spring is the outlet of a large karst aquifer. It then crosses natural and agricultural areas before reaching the plain of Montpellier (with 290 000 inhabitants) and the Mediterranean Sea. The Montpellier plain is characterized by a rapid urbanization with massive land artificialisation and soil-sealing (2920ha decrease of agricultural and natural areas from 1990 to 2012).
The watershed is exposed to a typical Mediterranean weather marked by repeated...
Converting underused real estate assets into local economic hubs.
The municipality of Pavlos Melas is located in the Northern Greece, in the Region of Central Macedonia, in the northwestern part of Thessaloniki. The municipality faces challenges in addressing issues in environmental, economic and social cohesion section. Through nature-based solutions, Pavlos Melas municipality intends to achieve environmental, social and economic benefits.
The flagship nature-based solution of Pavlos Melas municipality is the creation of Pavlos Melas Metropolitan Park on a former military camp (about 33 hectares) located in the dense urban fabric. Due to its...
The very recent interest in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) from the Peruvian Ministry of Environment MINAM, provides opportunity to strengthen policies and to create synergies between different initiatives to manage the city's water security and climate change challenges; tackling – at the same time – social and equality challenges (such as water access and availability) which are usually treated separately from environmental issues. A range of different groups from academia, local governments, private business and NGOs are actively involved in: NBS discussions; design and application of...
The Medmerry scheme realigned a section of coast to deliver better protection from coastal flooding for local people and to provide intertidal habitat for nature.
To convert an energy intensive system of heating, cooling and ventilation, which was poorly maintained and controlled into a modern, green, sustainable development while adhering to stringent rail standards.
Oslo has been one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in Europe (Stange et al. 2018). However the area that is available for development is limited by the protected Marka forest surrounding the city to the north and east, and the fjord to the south. The growing population is being accommodated at the rate of around 3000 new buildings every year and the need for 100 000 new buildings is predicted by 2030 (Oslo Municipal Plan 2015-2030). Oslo has the highest species diversity of any municipality in Norway, with a large number of species found in-between buildings in the built zone....More
Extensive community engagement sessions were conducted from 2015-2016 by Scottish Canals and Glasgow City Council, including a charrette at Port Dundas which recognised the role green and blue infrastructure could play in regenerating the area. As a result of this, plans to develop the area included extending the path network, re-designing entrances, installing boardwalks, creating picnic areas and building a bridge across the canal to improve access.
The second part of the project is the ‘Smart Canal’ and this forms part of the North Glasgow Integrated Water Management System and...
Located in a central area of São Paulo city, the Jaguaré creek is canalised along its full 25 km length. Some parts are buried underground and others are contained in concrete canals between traffic lanes. The watershed has been deeply modified through the urbanisation process and receives a significant load of domestic and industrial sewage and diffuse pollution. The Jaguaré watershed has a diverse set of landscapes and urban contexts, from its springs to the heavily urbanised area where it flows to the Pinheiros river. The watershed corresponds to 1/10 of the total 270...
34 case studies were planned by the H2020 PEGASUS project in different farming and forest systems and along the supply chain in 10 EU countries, to:
Enhancing the effectiveness of the integrated and adaptive management planning and its implementation in the area. This will be done by mainstreaming the improved understanding, using operational tools regarding the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services.
To create a community allotment that anyone can visit and is accessible to people with physical and/or mental ill health.
The Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) project aims to reduce disaster risks in the Municipality of Port Salut through a landscape or ridge-to-reef approach.
One of the consequences of global warming is the sea level rise. In urban settings along coastlines, rising seas threaten not only houses, but also several types of infrastructures such as industries, roads, power plants, freshwater aquifers, etc. Rising sea-level also pushes destructive storm surges further inland, posing very high risks for coastal populations, as storm surges can push water kilometers inland, causing extreme flooding far from the coast.
The Portuguese ReDuna project aims to restore the natural capacity of the Almada sand dune-beach ecosystem to healthily...
