GreenInCities: Demonstrating Holistic Data-driven Co-Creative Approaches in Nature-Based Solutions towards climate Adaptation and Mitigation
In recent decades, new planning paradigms have reshaped cities. Urban regeneration has renovated public spaces, redeveloped city centres, and established innovation districts. Smart cities have implemented technological systems, such as transport management, water and contamination monitoring, and energy-efficient buildings. A new sustainable approach, including recycling, renaturalization, and recovery, has emerged in response to the demand for environmental sensitivity in urban planning. These strategies have mainly been applied to wealthy areas to attract tourism and companies, repositioning cities in the global economic framework. However, applying these regeneration strategies, smart systems, and renaturalization processes to deprived areas is crucial. These areas tend to face multiple urban problems, such as pollution, social and cultural issues, lack of services and low-quality built environments, and public spaces, leading to issues related to liveability, functionality, quality of life, social cohesiveness, and physical and mental health. Moreover, there is a growing need for climate change adaptation strategies, which has led to the implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). However, a new pattern is emerging, which considers nature as a stakeholder in itself, beyond the ecosystem services it provides. Innovative technologies such as AI, machine learning, and immersive realities are also emerging, which can enhance the accuracy of information delivery and people engagement.
GreenInCities aims to develop methodologies and tools for collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation urban planning approaches, specifically for deprived areas, addressing three main challenges: improving societal readiness level and awareness of vulnerable groups, going beyond classical greening and renaturing interventions, and leveraging cutting edge technologies to enhance co-creation and maximise urban regeneration impacts.
Through the implementation of 5 Leader City pilot projects - Barcelona, Prato, Nova Gorica, Helsinki and Athens - GreenInCities seeks to demonstrate the importance of holistic nature-based solutions that prioritises the non-human dimension just as much as the human dimension. Learning from the co-creation process of the Leader Cities, 6 Follower Cities - Pecs, Cork, Matosinhos, Reykjavik, Hersonissos, and Birstonas - will replicate the co-creation process, concluding with small-scale nature-based solutions in each city.
