Blue and Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities

Climate change adaptation is one of the greatest challenges that EU regional and local authorities will face in the 21st century. We cannot address climate change without addressing biodiversity loss since healthy ecosystems will be able to better maintain the supply of ecosystem services on which our prosperity and wellbeing depend. Ecosystem-based approaches should, therefore, be an integral part of the overall climate change adaptation and mitigation effort. It is in this context that Nature Connect City will focus on improving policies that promote the value of green and blue infrastructure (GBI) as an integral part of local or regional climate change adaptation strategies that are relevant to any European region.
In this regard, the project will:
1. Assess current Policy instruments and explore/evaluate the potential barriers to, and drivers for, adopting GBI for climate change adaptation in the participating cities/regions.
2. Improve GBI strategies for climate change adaptation for each participating city/region, including an assessment of climate change vulnerabilities and mapping of existing GBI provision, in order to create functional ecological connectivity between cities and peri-urban protected areas (PUPAs).
The overall objective of the Nature Connect City is to improve policies that promote the value of green and blue infrastructure (GBI) as an integral part of local or regional climate change adaptation strategies.
How will this be achieved? The project will increase individual, organizational, stakeholder and external knowledge of the concept of ecosystem services and of the value of GBI through project events, workshops and training. This will be done through interregional Policy learning process and collaboration in finding common solutions to common challenges posed by climate change adaptation, and by sharing experience and exchanging good practices.The overall objective is to improve policies that promote the value of green and blue infrastructure (GBI) as an integral part of local or regional climate change adaptation strategies. The sub-objectives are:
1. To assess current Policy instruments and to explore and evaluate with stakeholders the potential barriers to, and drivers for, adopting GBI for climate change adaptation in the participating cities/regions.
2. To develop/improve GBI strategies for climate change adaptation for each participating city/region, including an assessment of climate change vulnerabilities, mapping of existing GBI provision, economic and non-monetary valuation of its ecosystem services, a Biodiversity Action Plan, and a strategic spatial plan for future GBI implementation in order to create functional ecological connectivity between cities and peri-urban protected areas (PUPAs).
3. To increase individual, organizational, stakeholder and external knowledge of the concept of ecosystem services and of the value of GBI as a form of capital and as a climate change risk buffer.
4. To develop best practice recommendations for improving Policy instruments that promote the value of GBI as an integral part of local or regional climate change adaptation strategies that are relevant to any European region.The main outputs of this project are related to the overall objectives are fundamentally the production of the 7 Action Plans (APs), necessary to develop/improve GBI strategies for climate change adaptation for each PPs, including an assessment of climate change vulnerabilities, mapping of existing GBI provision, a Biodiversity Action Plan, and a strategic spatial plan for future GBI implementation in order to create functional ecological connectivity between cities and peri-urban protected areas (PUPAs). The APs will be used to modify and improve the current Policy instrument in the direction of capitalizing on methodologies/strategies developed throughout the project. The desired result of the APs is thus to improve policies that promote GBI as an integral part of local or regional climate change adaptation strategies. The APs will also have the result of improving the allocation of public funds (structural funds mainly but also other funds).
Since the APs will be built through many different steps and intermediate outputs such as Stakeholder analysis, Stakeholder involvement strategy, Working tables, Policy Instrument(s) state of the art, Report of experience, ... they are consider as a valuable result of the participatory interregional learning process involving PPs, stakeholders and civil society.
Through the participatory actions foreseen in the project (Project meetings, Peer-review workshop, and dissemination events), the topic of the GBI, climate change, ecological connectivity and the improvement of the related policy instruments will be put under the attention of a large number of actors, institutions, organizations and citizens. This is also why it is expected, that the public and policy debate will be enriched. The last overall result expected by the project is the improvement of the relation between the local citizens and its political representatives.
More specifically, it is expected that the project will involve approximately 35 local, regional and national actors involved within the Stakeholder groups and more than 80 professionals/staff or experts who will be involved in the participatory actions along the project. The project further on perceives to organize 6 project events/activities and meetings (4 in phase 1 and 2 in phase 2 of the project), as well as 3 training (1-3 semester) where these professionals will have the chance to increase their professional capacity and knowledge due to their participation in interregional cooperation activities. The 3 training manuals will enable the PPs, target groups and project participants to replicate the training course at their home institution, thereby increasing organizational knowledge and disseminating the results of the project to the broader public.
The communication activities will enlarge the awareness of the target groups through 2 Newsletters, dissemination events and activities as well as through presence on social media networks.