Promenade along river Danube

Scale of the project: neighbourhood

Scales impacts from this NbS action should be assessed: object (building, etc.), city

Urban density in which the NbS is implemented: high (dense city center, etc.)

• Develop a concept and implement numerous pilot projects on the riverbank

The main purpose of the project is to design a promande among the Danube quays in Budapest, planting plants, building installations, and awareness rising. The goal is the sharing of the sensation of the Danube in the city, recommending the daily utilization of the river side to citizens.

The project is a good example for the implementation of strategic NBSs, with putting great emphasis on the corporate development and implementation, by creating networks. 

The project is combine with other environmental friendly solutions: Bio-sourced materials

The focus is figure out and introduce some of the new enviromental friendly solutions, which are not expensive and easily accessable for the citiens. For example grillpads on the quayside stairs, moving sauna-bus.

Global (estimated) cost of the project: >20 000€

FINANCE MODEL:

Finance cluster: cluster4 public private

Finance model: Private Finance Initiative (PFI)

The planning and the implemenatation was supported by the Visegrad Fund and the Viability Ltd, and through CSR activities of different companies.

Process enablers:

• Knowledge drivers → Awareness → NbS ambassadors
• Governance drivers → cocreation and participation → Tools to build a common vision
• Economy drivers → Public private partnerships 

An association was founded to create a more vital connection between the city and the Danube, specifically the riverside. Volunteers, artist, uni clubs and other organizations can join to this association during a project. The main driving forces are the well outlined goal, remarkable media support, impressive thoughts for youngs and the potential force of voluntary work.

Process inhibitors:

• Knowledge barriers → Uncertainty → Operation unknow
• Governance barriers → Institutional barriers → Lack of flexibility of decision making
• Economy barriers → Budget constraints → Lack of funding knowledge

The stakeholders were concerned about the unknown consequences of the pioneer interventions. The other inhibitor is the complex decision-making structure of the local authorities. The social benefits were not really appriciated by the authorities, and non-economic benefits were underestimated. The budget was very limited.

BUSINESS MODEL:

Business cluster: Technological

business model: Substitute with renewables and natural processes

Business cluster: Social

business model: Deliver functionality, rather than ownership

They are working there together co-creation, on a voluntary basis.

The pilot projects are a sort of gerilla-actions, but all of the actions are permitted by

the Capital Municipality of Budapest. Also concerning the legal owning consideration, the Danube quay is a public space, thus the performances and the planned objectives of the project have to be permitted by the Capital Municipality of Budapest.

Temporal perspective

Expected time for the NbS to become fully effective after its implementation: medium (between 2 to 5 years)

Feedback: the project has already been adapted to new requisites. This is an innovative project, so it has brought a lot of modifications. The target is fixed, bringing the city life closer the Danube.

Expected life time of the intervention: around 10 years

State of progress of the project: Ongoing (not delivered yet)

none

Initiating entities: local citizens, Technical University of Budapest (BME), University of Arts (MOME), MUTK

• Miklós Tömör, VALYO (Project manager)

Main partners:

• Technical University of Budapest (BME)
• University of Arts (MOME)

Others stakeholders: Technical University of Budapest and University of Arts

University students are continously involved in the planning process and the creation of experimental and progressive street objects. They are involved into the performances which are promoting the project towards the citizens. (for example Occupy the "Szabi híd" - occupy the bridge!)

GOVERNANCE MODEL:

Governance cluster: cluster4 societal resilience

Governance model: Self-governance grassroots initiatives

This is an absolutely fundamental initiative, to which anybody can connect. The members of associations meet in the evening in the public area, such as taverns, riverbanks, parks. They haven't got an office, they have only a big workplace (first of all for woodworkers) where they can make some objects for the riverbank (street furniture, periscope, memory box, etc.). They are working together in co-creation, on a voluntary basis.

Miklós , Tömör (info@valyo.hu)

VALYO (www.valyo.hu)

Budapest

Media coverage

There is a strong media coverage ( national, and city media, and on

social media (FB, Snapchat, instagram…) on the events and the pilot

projects.

Nature4Cities (https://www.nature4cities.eu/) aims to develop a knowledge diffusion around Nature-Based Solution (NbS) and a decision support platform through new collaborative models.

This project is part of the Nature4Cities's pioneer case studies database, it will feed the observatory, NbS pre-selection and replication tools, gathered into the Geocluster4NBS.

This project was chosen as a pioneer case study for the following reasons: Participants have had the chance of getting to know the use of NBSs in real life. In addition, the aim was to understand the challenge of the multifunctionality of the Danube bank, and at the same time, participants were invited to take part in solving the problems. It had to take some performance and other events for people understanding the new concepts of life near the Danube.

Nature4Cities project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 730468.