The land was in a vacant and derelict state and safety concerns were raised due to vandalisation, fly tipping, vehicle abandonment and fires. The conversion of the site into a new urban park presented an opportunity to address the anti-social behaviour and make the site a desirable area for...
The Bogotá Life-Lab focuses on the challenges faced by urban-rural transition zones in the Southern and Northern borders of the city, whose settlements and strategic ecosystems have been negatively impacted by urban expansion processes. These territories grapple with an array of challenges...
The Project
The Goal
By supporting the design of Multifunctional Green Infrastructure in the Barking Riverside development project, the pilot aims to ensure the protection and conservation of nationally important biodiversity.
Local task force
University of East London (UEL), is acting as the leading organisation in the project. UEL has strong ties with the local authority (the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham), National Statutory Agency for the Natural Environment (Natural England), local business (Barking Riverside Ltd) and local expertise such as...
Informing Barking Riverside's green space design by incorporating regional biodiversity.
Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020). Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens.
As a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal...
The Lake Mogan Pondscape aims to conserve biodiversity, improve water management, and provide recreational spaces. It also plays a critical role in flood mitigation, provides nature’s contributions to people such as habitat provision and water quality regulation.
The city of Nova Gorica has been shaping its municipal strategy around the 3 main axes of the Regional Development Strategy of Northern Primorska, namely:
- Development priority 1: Increasing competitiveness, innovation and employment opportunities in the region;
- Development ...
What are we dealing with?
Unmet housing needs on a degraded site inmidst a diverse but disadvantaged community
The growth of London leads to housing development pressure being directed to degraded former industrial sites that have developed a unique biodiversity. The quick development of a large number of housing units leads to a potential lack of cohesion between existing and new communities.
Barking and Dagenham is also affected by the high population pressure and an overheated housing market in the capital as a whole, with many decisions concerning its future...
Building a sustainable and cohesive community based on environmental principals.
In 20 year’s time, Barking Riverside is an ecologically sustainable neighbourhood that provides a range of tenures from social to owner-occupied housing. Community-managed assets are bound up...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
- Develop a school refurbishment in an ecological and participatory approach
- Contribute to the sustainable development of the well-being of children and educational community
Implementation of an ecological building (low-energy building...
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...
To achieve regional goals we need to work together, cross-sectoral and coordinated at all levels of governance: national, regional and local. Thus obtained solutions are better and also easier to implement. It is important that all who will later have a function in the implementation of strategic tasks are involved in the preparation of the strategy from the beginning.
What are we dealing with?
"Fragmentation on paper, problems in nature" - Fragmented governance and urban growth causing complex challenges
Ljubljana Urban Region (LUR) with Ljubljana, the...
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...
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...
Minimising the impacts of dredging and flood bank extension: In 2018/2019, in the Ria de Aveiro two management interventions will have negative unintended impacts on biodiversity: 1) a dredging programme to manage water flow and navigability in Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon, and...
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...
Technical Solutions
Step 1: Define the nature-based solution.
Park "St. Trinity" is located in the eastern part of the residential area "Slaveykov" on an area with a size of about 146 decares. From the beginning of the XX to around 1960 the city cemetery is located on this territory. Due to the rapid development of the city, the cemetery was relocated.
This happened in the period 1960 -1975 and after the relocation the park was created in its present form. The orthogonal alley network of the former cemeteries has been completely erased and a new...
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,...
About Milan
Milan is located in northern Italy, nestled between the River Po to the south and the majestic Alps and vast lakes to the north. It serves as the administrative and commercial center of Italy's largest metropolitan area and is the main city in Lombardy, which is not only Italy's wealthiest region but also its most densely populated, with a population of about 10 million (source: Istat).
Vision and Mission
The CLEVER Cities Milan vision is one where the city harnesses innovative natural...
Greening Milan and creating an innovative and sustainable urban environment by implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in the city's neighborhoods, buildings and infrastructure, together with the citizens, was the main objective of the CLEVER Cities project in which Milan participated....
Paper abstract: Urban gardening is now booming. Local authorities are taking part in this dynamic to meet the demand of inhabitants but also because they see it as a solution to many of the challenges of the sustainable city. As a result, they are faced with the issue of soil quality. Urban soils are a rarely highlighted environmental compartment and are subject to numerous constraints: loss of agronomic potential or pollution. Based on experiences in Nantes, the article explores the process by which cities establish a diagnosis and then intervene on soil quality,...
The municipality saw an opportunity in URBiNAT as a preliminary to the Global Project. The two projects indeed share the same general objectives of improving the health and the well-being of the inhabitants. URBiNAT also meets the municipality concerns of the co-creation process: the so-called...
Several streets around the Eindhoven city centre (Waagstraat, Bilderdijklaan, Willemstraat, H. Boexstraat and Dommelstraat) have been rehabilitated and nature-based solutions such as bioswales and street trees have been introduced to address existing problems with heat stress and flooding, and...
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 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.
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...
In the context of the CONEXUS project, 47 of the 189 municipal allotments are being monitored by the Observatori d’Horts urbans (or ‘Urban Allotment Observatory’), a key legacy of the city’s Strategy for Urban Agriculture 2019-2030. Led by Barcelona Regional, a...
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...
In its 2016-2022 Development Plan the city has set out a vision for a ‘Sustainable, Resilient Dublin based on economy, environment and equity’ (1). The Development Plan’s principles for green infrastructure include sustainable buildings which should use ‘sustainable energy technologies and...
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...
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...
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:
- Safeguarding agriculture in ...
This pondscape plays a key role in flood mitigation and water management in Ankara, supporting biodiversity despite urbanization. It provides crucial ecosystem services like habitat provision and water regulation, while offering recreational spaces for the public, benefiting both urban and rural...
The HECO programme will contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation through 5 components are as follow:
1. Adaptive governance in sustainable and resilient landscapes: This component will reduce the current fragmentation of governance, increase territorial integration and improve the financial sustainability of landscapes, through the generation of social agreements and articulation of environmental and sectoral policies, for example through agreements to pay for environmental services. It includes the following sub-components that complement or add to activities already...
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...
This pondscape covers Ærø, Avernakø, and Birkholm islands, with over 60 ponds on mostly agricultural land. NBS aims to enhance biodiversity (e.g. amphibians, birds) and promote recreation (e.g. biking, hiking) while encouraging eco-friendly farming and buffer zones around ponds to reduce...
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.
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.
Involving managers and residents in designing an integrated land management plan for biodiversity and tourism. Biodiversity and visiting people.
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...
- Implementation of vegetated rafts as habitats for local species on a city center river
- Using Bio-sourced materials
It aims to implement artificial shelters for fauna (nesting box, insect hotels, artificial spawning areas…) and...
The Serra de Collserola Natural Park aims to regulate urban microclimate, enhance biodiversity and offer opportunities for education, recreation and leisure, sense of place and aesthetic values.
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
This Pondscape is in a suburban area of Aarhus, with 18 ponds and about 10,300 inhabitants. The ponds reduce flood risk and enhance biodiversity, supporting amphibians, birds, and aquatic plants. It also offers walking paths and educates people about nature and environmental protection.
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 pondscape ‘Grote Getevallei’ comprises a variety of landscape characteristics that result in high biological diversity. There is a strong focus on nature and biodiversity conservation, including strengthening biodiversity, restoring eco-hydrology and nature experience.
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...
In 2005, the UN agency UNESCO approved Kristianstads Vattenriket as a biosphere reserve covering 100 000 ha, and one of 700 in the world. This means Kristianstads Vattenrike is an internationally recognized model for sustainable development. The Vattenrike encompasses two thirds of the...
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...
Establishing vegetable gardens in all primary schools of Mirafiori, plus two kindergarten and one vocational school, and providing educational activities focusing on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and the proGIreg NbS aims at improving the science curriculum of the schools, increase their...
Implement the best configurations for greening elements (type, location, spatial configuration), in the Sorraia floodplain valley, that maximize biodiversity (woody structure, ants, birds and chiropterans) and ecosystem services (biological control, nutrient and sediment removal, pollination,...
The NbS addresses societal and environmental issues that improve living conditions inluding:
- Creating an ecosystem path to redevelop areas that lacked character
- Implementing NbS in an area with risk of „heat island effects“
- Fostering processes of citizen engagement ...
One of the activities foreseen by the Uforest project is researching innovative Urban Forestry initiatives across Europe. For this reason, the Uforest team has selected and analysed some of the most interesting urban forestry projects in the continent, with the aim to illustrate...
Quantifying the impacts of traditional forest management on biodiversity and ecosystem services values and developing new forest management strategies using the retention capacity of the forest.
Mobilizing the local community and government functionaries for a collaborative Participatory Biodiversity Management plan and the conservation of the natural capital.
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...
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Figure 1 Barcelona seen from the Collserola Park. Source: City of Barcelona.
Challenges
Barcelona is highly populated and one of the busiest tourist destinations in Europe. In 2012, the city fell well short of the European Union’s recommendation on access to green space (6.82 m2 per capita compared to the 26 m2 per capita target recommended by the EU (Laghai, 2012)).
Air quality in Barcelona is poor. It is estimated that 3500 lives could be...
This pondscape plays a critical role in flood mitigation, water management, and biodiversity conservation in the Gölbaşı region. It supports urban and peri-urban ecosystems, enhances water quality, and provides recreational spaces, offering significant environmental and social benefits.
The Llobregat river basin, with an area of 4,930 km2 and a total length of 175 km, is the largest inland basin in Catalonia. The course of this river has been widely exploited for various uses: agricultural, industrial and consumption, among others, for many decades. The part of the Llobregat basin that belongs to the metropolitan area represents only 4.74% of the total and corresponds to an intensely humanized space. However, this area plays a key role in the ecological and social connectivity of the metropolitan area. We are facing a space with different demands, with great potential...
The Schansbroek area was also ‘adopted’ by local residents for unofficial grow-your-own activities. The area has since been redesigned in collaboration with local citizens/workers. The aim was to create a multifunctional neighbourhood park for recreation, biodiversity and to restore water management. The 2013 design plan included measures to recreate a ‘wet ecotope’ by restoring a natural dam and ponds, and transforming an artificial reservoir from the former mine. Local citizens requested allotments, children’s play areas, cycling/hiking trails, picnic and meeting areas which were all...
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...
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...
To untangle the tracks approaching London Bridge station reducing delays and to achieve net positive biodiversity.
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...
The CLEVER Cities project identified the primary planning goals for Neugraben-Fischbek district located in the South-West of the city of Hamburg was to: (a) creating a connective ‘Green Corridor’ to link a system of NbS interventions; (b) establishing horizontal greenery through the construction...
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; ...
15 large ponds (5000m2 to 30’000m2) as well as many medium and small sized ponds have been created between 1970 and 2018. Some ponds have been dug to rehabilitate and recreate natural habitats in brownfields and others to create recreational...
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...
Biodiversity conservation and wetland protection programme
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.
Climate change is already exerting a major impact both in Europe and in the rest of the world. This impact is foreseen to intensify with extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, becoming more frequent. Mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change as quickly as possible is therefore among the most important challenges of our time. Local authorities have a major role to play in this, as they can implement a range of climate and environmental good practices in their planning processes, developments, investments, urban management practices and in the design of their...
The Erasmus+ project „Nature-Based Innovations for Urban Forest and Rainwater Management” supports communities and local authorities in combating climate change through the identification of good practices and the dissemination of innovative solutions and manuals addressed to local authorities,...
Liverpool is characterised by a variety of architectural styles and is one of the most visited cities in the United Kingdom. In 2008 it was nominated as the annual European Capital of Culture. Liverpool was one of the leading global trade centres at the end of the 19th Century. After suffering for significant population reduction and economic decline in the latter half of the past century, the city started growing again in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, the local economy is based on the service sector industries and it is one of the largest in the United Kingdom.
Liverpool supports...
Liverpool, as with many major urban areas in the UK and globally, is facing significant challenges in managing its urban form to pursue economic growth agendas, whilst also providing an attractive city for its residents and visitors. Unfortunately, the social, ecological, and economic dimensions...
Project introduction:
Restoration of the banks of the Huangshi River to protect human activities against torrential floods and protect biodiversity.
Creation of ecological habitats for fish and amphibians, and roads and public places for the inhabitants.
1 / Protection against the risks of a mountain torrent
- To stop bed shrinkage due to agricultural and urban pressure;
- Protection of human activities and dwellings against the violence of the torrent;
- Establish the limits of the natural areas to be protected and protect the...
River restoration for flood protection and ecological habitat creation, Tiantangzhai, Anhui, China
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...
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...
Within the CONEXUS project, Santiago’s Life-Lab, Laboratorio BioUrbano, is an inter-sectoral partnership between academics, public institutions, private actors, and civil society. With the aim of co-producing urban nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the important challenges...
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.
- Protect and ...
Climate change is already exerting a major impact both in Europe and in the rest of the world. This impact is foreseen to intensify with extreme weather events, including droughts and floods, becoming more frequent. Mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change as quickly as possible is therefore among the most important challenges of our time. Local authorities have a major role to play in this, as they can implement a range of climate and environmental good practices in their planning processes, developments, investments, urban management practices and in the design of their...
The Erasmus+ project „Nature-Based Innovations for Urban Forest and Rainwater Management” supports communities and local authorities in combating climate change through the identification of good practices and the dissemination of innovative solutions and manuals addressed to local authorities,...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
Bois de Jussy is managed to maximise the biodiversity, and to welcome the public for walks, jogging and biking to relax, cool off, reconnect with nature by observing ponds.
Leipzig is the largest city (a municipality with city status due to its size) in Saxony, Germany, with an area of about 30,000 ha and currently almost 600,000 inhabitants benefiting also from protected riparian forests, stretching from the south towards the north. The city was affected by massive population loss, increasing vacancy numbers and unused brownfields after 1990. Population losses slowed down by the turn of the millennium. Since 2012 Leipzig re-grows by around 10,000 citizens (2%) per year. Consequently, pressures on the city’s remaining open spaces are strongly increasing....
The Sonian City is the area including and surrounding the Sonian Forest in Belgium. It is located at the south-eastern periphery of the country's capital city, Brussels, and its territory spans across three regions (the Brussels Capital Region, Flanders, and Wallonia). While the Sonian Forest (FR Forêt de Soignes, NL Zoniënwoud) is a forest widely studied and with defined boundaries, the Sonian City is an operational concept to be developed and researched within the Clearing House project. It consists of the Sonian Forest, at its core (i.e., 4,383 hectares of non-urbanised land, protected...
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...
The Finnish River Management Association Virho (Virtavesien hoitohidstys Virho ry), was nominated for the Nordic Council Environment Prize 2022 with the theme of nature-based solutions. The Finnish River Management Association has the goal to revive and secure the living conditions of the entire...
Pollok Country Park is Glasgow’s largest park and the only Country Park within Glasgow. Pollok House and Estate were gifted to the City in 1966. The park represents the rich natural, built and cultural heritage of the Pollok containing extensive woodlands and gardens. It has been awarded Europe’s and Britain’s Best Park and is listed as a nationally important landscape in Scotland.
Housed within the park, Flower Power is a nature-based solution based around a social cohesion wildflower nursery. In response to the 97% loss of Britain’s wildflower habitat, a community-run wildflower...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
- Introduce a payment for ecosystem services (PES) system in which forest owners are compensated for voluntarily enhancing the provision of landscape and ...
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 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...
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...
Create healthy bee communities and work to preserve the biodiversity. By tracking the beehives and thus gathering information about the bee communities and their behaviour, extreme weather events can be predicted.
With a network of over 25 partners across public and non-government sectors, the Life-Lab establishes multidisciplinary communities of learning to investigate and co-design NbS in order to counter a palette of harmful effects of urbanisation in the MRBA. These include, among others, air...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
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...
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.
The aim is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant GBIs in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs within a place-based and socio-ecological...
The “Landschaftspark Region Stuttgart” understands multifunctional green infrastructure as a locational factor, a basis for biodiversity enhancement and a tool for climate change adaptation.
What are we dealing with?
Congestion of networks and the risk of reaching ecological limits
A strong regional economy attracts people and companies, increasing the pressure on scarce resources. The development exacerbates the congestion of transport networks and risks reaching different ecological limits.
The Stuttgart Region comprises 179...
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.
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 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...
Protected areas and other conserved areas, such as indigenous and community conserved lands and sacred natural areas, have played a critical role in biodiversity conservation for the past century. Beyond providing a haven for species, these areas also provide vital ecosystem services that sustain livelihoods, connect landscapes, capture and store carbon, and inspire people to value the natural world. Governments, protected area managers and conservation groups alike often neglect the increasing risk that climate change poses to protected areas and the ecosystem services they provide. Most...
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...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
- Set up a partnership between the regional park and local poplar plantations to increase the sustainable management of the plantations while increasing funding for ...
SABICAS (SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions) aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify the benefits and co-benefits of nature-based solutions. The goal is to facilitate dialogue and decision making among...
- Pollution mitigation (carbon sequestration; microclimate regulation, solution against urban heat island effects),
- Biodiversity enrichment (preservation and enhancement of fauna and flora habitats),
- Leisure and cultural purposes ...
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...
Freshwater ecosystems in the Swiss plateau are threatened by multiple stressors that deteriorate water quality and hydromorphology. This is the result of channelization, dams, wastewater, and agriculture, among other causes. To restore these ecosystems and stop the biodiversity decline, multiple...
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...
The bombcrater pondscape is located very close to the city of Hasselt and has been created unintentionally in 1944 during World War II. It was designated as a nature reserve in 2006 and became a place for the preservation of biodiversity and for people to enjoy nature closeby to the city .
Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020). Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens. As a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal mines...
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...
A newly built multi-functional urban wetland in the Nabben area, Åland, recently won the Nordic Council Environmental Prize 2022 focused on nature-based solutions. The wetland, which was finished in 2019 and lies adjacent to the coast, aims to increase the biodiversity in the area and contribute...
Kraków with its surroundings. City map taken from the document “Directions for the development and management of green areas in Kraków for 2017-2030” and showing different catogeries of green areas in Kraków
Kraków is a strong urban unit with a population of over 800k and a cultural, academic, industrial and touristic center of national significance. It is a part of Metropolia Krakowska - an institutionalized platform of cooperation for Kraków and 14 surrounding municipalities, which main task is to implement Integrated Territorial Investments in the Kraków Functional Area...
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.
To raise awareness of NbS and the importance of NbS going forward to achieve a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy. Explore synergies between educational professionals, NbS practitioners, communities and policymakers.
To reintroduce beavers into the wild and to assess their potential to provide natural flood management, water quality improvements and improved biodiversity.
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...
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...
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...
A Coruña is a seaside city located in the Ártabro Gulf, north-west of Spain, with a population of 244,000 inhabitants, stunning landscapes and built on over two thousand years of architectural heritage. A Coruña has a diverse economy, mainly based on the service sector, ranging from tourism to...
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,...
The Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy will prevent erosion by strengthening slopes and edges with nature-based solutions (NbS). The aim is to improve local environmental conditions and increase water quality and biodiversity in streams and rivers.
In many creeks and streams, both large...
Gelsenkirchen is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the middle of the largest polycentric conurbation in Germany, the Ruhr metropolis (Ruhr area) with over 5 million inhabitants and has 264,710 inhabitants (September 25, 2020). Around 31% of the people living in Gelsenkirchen are German citizens with a migration background and / or foreign citizens. As a result of decades of economic and social change (Gelsenkirchen was previously characterized by the coal and steel industry – ‘City of Thousand Fires’), the city now has renovated and rebuilt numerous former mining sites (coal mines...
Technical Solutions
Step 1: Define the nature-based solution.
Park "St. Trinity" is located in the eastern part of the residential area "Slaveykov" on an area with a size of about 146 decares. From the beginning of the XX to around 1960 the city cemetery is located on this territory. Due to the rapid development of the city, the cemetery was relocated.
This happened in the period 1960 -1975 and after the relocation the park was created in its present form. The orthogonal alley network of the former cemeteries has been completely erased and a new...
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,...
The Forest Landscape Restauration (FLR) measures will be implemented on the selected site in Gledić, due to the high risks of flood and soil erosion, decrease or complete loss of biodiversity, weak forest resilience, and negative effects on the community livelihood, especially for women and...
As part of Tjóðsavnið (the Faroe Islands National Museum), Lendisbati initiative aims to prevent erosion, protect biodiversity and restore wetlands for carbon storage. The first Lendisbati restoration project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers programme and will lay the foundation for...
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 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...
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...
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...
Naturfelder Dortmund e.V. was founded in order to convert urban spaces into pollinator friendly habitats. The structure of the association allows long-term existence beyond proGIreg. Main goals of the NbS implementations include:
- Activating interested citizens from the Huckarde and ...
SABICAS (SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions) aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify the benefits and co-benefits of nature-based solutions. The goal is to facilitate dialogue and decision making among...
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...
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...
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...
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.
Municipality of Stuttgart
Office for Environmental Protection, Department of Urban Climatology
Gaisburgstraße 4, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany
Verband Region Stuttgart – Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts
Kronenstraße 25
70174 Stuttgart
Green corridors are linear parks that help renature cities by connecting green areas to one another to form urban green infrastructure networks. They are often retrofitted along areas of abandoned traffic infrastructure, e.g. railway lines, or waterways to create interconnecting parks. Green...
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...
The Valdocco Vivibile Life-Lab establishes a community of learning around urban NbS for ecosystem restoration, multifunctional ecosystem services, biodiversity enhancement, and social inclusion, promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborative leadership. It creates mechanisms for...
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
European demonstration site network for integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management
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...
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...
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...
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...
To tackle these challenges, the city has taken a series of measures in the context of the Master Development Plan. The plan sets out guidelines and objectives for specific planning and local...
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.
Enhancing conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management and the utilisation of forest resources by addressing ecosystem services that are central to local livelihoods.
Global urbanization trends have made people move to cities where they tend to have less access to nature. Urban nature is important for human well-being and biodiversity, therefore urban planners are increasingly integrating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) projects in urban environments.
...
Space for retention of the urban runoff in the times of heavy rain to complement the measures for enhanced stormwater quality and quantity management in the Vuores area. Vegetation is selected from the local species to support biodiversity, including perennials suitable for wet conditions....
For several reasons, protecting important ecological areas in Lisbon from urbanisation has become difficult. Remnant areas of natural habitat have gained particular importance in consolidating the green corridors network, benefiting from the fact that much of this land is still within the...
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...
To address these challenges, Budapest has drafted several strategic documents, in which NbS are promoted as a way to improve the environment, sustainability, and quality of life. These documents include:
- The Budapest 2030 Long-Term Urban Development Concept. This strategic document ...
Water management: Retain water in the pondscape to prevent dry-out of ponds
Human health: A refreshing place to walk and relax, and to educate people about nature.
Biodiversity enhancement: Especially amphibians, insects, birds, and (semi)aquatic vegetation.
The Project
The Goal
The aim of the project is to assess the impact on ecosystem service provision of moving from industry standard green roof designs to designing roofs for locally important biodiversity.
Local Task Force
University of East London (UEL) took the lead on the project with support from the project's main partners, Barking Riverside Ltd, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the Green Roof Consultancy, the Environment Agency, ABG Ltd and Hertalan Ltd.
The Process
Researching and experimenting locally contextualised...
Boosting ecosystem service performance through green roof design in Barking Riverside.
The environmental condition of Vejle Fjord has been categorized as bad in the inner and outer fjords. For the past 40 years, the Vejle Fjord has struggled to mitigate the runoff from industries and cities around the area, causing eutrophication and biodiversity loss.
The 5-year-project (...
The Nordic Council of Ministers programme, Nature-based Solutions in the Nordic Region, is financing a project in Åland to improve four multifunctional wetlands for better water quality, sustainable food production, climate adaptation and increased biodiversity.
For several years,...
This pondscape is located in a farmland near Leicester. All waterbodies in three upper catchments have been monitored since 2010. The results show an underlying landscape-wide decline in freshwater plant biodiversity of 0.5-1% pa. However doubling the number of clean-water ponds turned the...
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 ...
- Construction of an eco-district with ecological networks and biodiversity as starting point
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...
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.
The city of Genoa experiences acute densification and lack of public green spaces, making urban heat stress a pronounced challenge. Air pollution and biodiversity loss are among the other challenges Genova targeted to address through NbS implementation.
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...
Peatland sites within carstic catchments in Bosnia and Herzigovina are to be restored through channel restoration and rewetting, thereby protecting these hotspots for (endemic) biodiversity. The case study aims at achieving an amicable transition from the current heavy hydropower usage and...
Treatment (retention and sedimentation) of urban runoff from new housing around Tervaslampi park to complement the measures for enhanced stormwater quality and quantity management in the Vuores area. Vegetation is selected from the local species to support biodiversity. Additionally, the area...
Through providing a publicly accessible green space that allows for aesthetic appreciation, recreational activities and social cohesion, the Municipality of Bari aims to improve mental and physical wellbeing among the area’s citizens.
With the aim to renovate derelict...
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...
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...
- Create pollinators shelters
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...
The state of biodiversity has been decreased worldwide, and the Finnish Wildlife Service organization Metsähallitus will contribute to solving the challenge. With support from the Nordic Council of Ministers, they will restore the entire watershed area around the Mätäsoja Stream in...
The center of the city Kolding is frequently under threat from flooding due to heavy or prolonged precipitation events. Located at the bottom of a river valley, the municipality has initiated many climate-proofing projects to mitigate flood risks. One such project, initiated by Kolding...
The Nature-based solutions in the Nordic region programme has allocated 650,000 DKK to a pilot project in Iceland that aims to increase biodiversity in Reykjavík.
Grasagarður Reykjavíkur is the name of the outdoor collection of living plants located in the capital of Iceland. The...
The pilot project's goals are, among other things, to develop a strategic comprehensive plan for Holmehave in Assens municipality in Denmark and use multifunctional land distribution for the establishment of afforestation, nature and wetlands. The Nordic Council of Ministers Nature-based...
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...
Vigie-Nature École is a biodiversity monitoring program focused on multiple groups of organisms. The primary goals of this data collection is to provide data to researchers in urban ecology and provide education to children in all the subjects related to biodiversity that we can cover. Our last...
This pondscape of newly created ponds is located in a floodplain meadow on Thames Water's Farmoor Reservoir property, on the banks of the River Thames, near Oxford. It was designed by Freshwater Habitats Trust to maximise freshwater biodiversity and has been closely monitored as a partnership...
This case study from the SINCERE project had the goal to:
- Inspire changes to existing public grant schemes for biodiversity protection on privately owned land by demonstrating in practice how a competitive bidding process can ...
This case study aims at a comprehensive restoration of a river and its adajcents land, including developing sustainable businesses, tourism and transport whilst not increasing carbon emissions or negatively impacting on biodiversity of the area. River connectivity and water quality are to be...