The main objective of the Agents of Co-Existence Network is to foster innovative approaches to societal challenges and strive for inclusive local policies with active community involvement. To achieve this, the network focuses on strengthening the skills and competences of civil servants and creating new organisational structures and cultures to further boost civic participation and thereby build a stronger foundation for democracy. Through knowledge exchange and study visits, the network explores the possibilities to improve participatory processes and maximise outcomes.
Breda (NL) wil in 2030 als eerste Europese stad een stad in een park zijn en doet aan Urbact mee met het planproces voor de herontwikkeling van het huidig kazerneterrein Seelig-Zuid naar een openbaar stadspark: het Seelig Park. Om deze ambitie waar te maken, zullen echter concrete maatregelen moeten worden genomen, deze zijn te lezen in het nieuwe Groenkompas. Het Groenkompas is de uitwerking van één van de pijlers van het Verhaal van Breda, Groen, Grenzeloos en Gastvrij en een belangrijk onderdeel van de Omgevingsvisie. Daarin wordt onder meer uitgelegd hoe straten bij renovatie altijd 10% groener moeten, hoe bij nieuwbouw minimaal 20% van de nieuwe wijk openbaar groen moet zijn en welke nieuwe parken Breda de komende jaren rijker gaat worden.
De ambitie van Breda is al langer duidelijk: een stad in een park worden. Maar hoe Breda dat precies wil doen, was nog onduidelijk. De koers wordt uitgezet met het Groenkompas. “Groen in en om de stad is van groot belang voor de gezondheid van de inwoners en voor de leefbaarheid en aantrekkelijkheid van onze stad en de dorpen. En groen is essentieel om de gevolgen van klimaatverandering het hoofd te bieden”, legt wethouder De Beer uit. “In het Groenkompas staat een heldere koers hoe Breda het komende decennium het bestaande groen wil beschermen en uitbreiden, hoe we ervoor zorgen dat groen voor iedereen op loopafstand is en waarin groen niet het sluitstuk wordt, maar de leidraad voor de ruimtelijke ordening. ontwikkelingen”.
Nieuwe ontwikkelingen
Het Groenkompas geeft met concrete percentages aan hoe Breda groener wordt naarmate de stad zich ontwikkelt. Het streven is dat elke straat die wordt herontwikkeld 10% groener wordt. En bij de ontwikkeling van een nieuw project moeten ontwikkelaars minimaal 20 tot 35% van de wijk aanwijzen als openbaar groen. Ook ontwikkelaars en woningcorporaties moeten 'natuurinclusief' ontwikkelen. Dit betekent dat gebouwen moeten bijdragen aan de biodiversiteit, bijvoorbeeld door nestkasten te plaatsen.
Bestaand groen beschermen en uitbreiden
Als er ergens in Breda groen verdwijnt, moet dat groen altijd in de buurt gecompenseerd worden. Dit nieuwe compensatieprincipe moet ervoor zorgen dat de hoeveelheid groen in Breda niet meer afneemt. Daarnaast breidt Breda de ecologische verbindingszones verder uit. “De voordelen zijn groot: mensen voelen zich beter, brengen meer tijd met elkaar door en ervaren minder last van hittestress en de leefomgeving voor plant en dier wordt versterkt”, aldus de gemeente. Rondom de binnenstad komen nieuwe parken, namelijk het Luciapark, Seelig en 't Zoet. En in de wijken en dorpen komen buurtparken. “Bestaande bossen worden uitgebreid en er komen tiny forests en voedselbossen bij.”
Ook aan de bereikbaarheid wordt gewerkt. Dat gebeurt onder andere met nieuwe omleidingen en fietsroutes. Ook natuurspeelplekken, groene schoolpleinen en plukroutes maken groen voor iedereen toegankelijk.
Om echt ‘een stad in een park’ te worden heeft Breda ook hulp nodig van overheden, bedrijven en bewoners. Op deze manier kan een grote stap worden gezet in het vergroenen van tuinen. Zo is in de wijk Schorsmolen slechts 4% van de tuinen groen. De gemeente informeert en stimuleert daarom partijen en bewoners om op hun eigen terrein een bijdrage te leveren. “Met hulp van de gemeente ontstaat er een community ‘Breda, een stad in een park’. Actieve bewoners en bedrijven zoeken elkaar op en stimuleren elkaar om met concrete acties en projecten voor groen invulling te geven aan de ambitie van Breda. Mensen die willen bijdragen kunnen meedoen.”
Most people now agree that green is good for health and resilience. Greening urban areas and connecting them to water, or ’blue’ areas, is high on the agenda in most towns and cities. Yet, says URBACT Programme Expert Iván Tosics, even this seemingly self-evident issue is not without contradictions. In this article, he looks beyond the general “green is good” statement and finds a more nuanced picture.
It has been said many times, almost to the point of banality, that during Covid times, the demand for outdoor activites grew dramatically, leading to a marked increase in the use of parks and outdoor spaces. We all saw this in our cities in Europe. However, this did not necessarily happen to the same extent everywhere in the world. There is an interesting website, based on Google data, showing how the number of visitors to parks and outdoor spaces has changed compared to the selected baseline period, January 2020. Although it is not easy to interpret the data due to factors such as seasonal differences between North and South, we can hypothesise that in Europe and the global North, green areas were able to meet the increase in demand more easily, being generally more secure and better maintained than those in many parts of the global South.
There are many good summaries about the immediate, easy-to-reach interventions by cities as a reaction to Covid – see for example my article on temporary interventions in the use of public spaces, such as closing streets and creating pop-up bike lanes, or encouraging street play. Key questions discussed in this article are: what kind of tactical interventions into greening are observable? And how can these be turned into long-term, strategic programmes, avoiding potential pitfalls?
Many people think that all greening efforts are good for the wellbeing of citizens in general, and their health in particular. However, it is necessary to go beyond this cliché, understanding the different ways to implement the greening of cities, highlighting the efforts made to achieve synergy with other aspects of sustainable and resilient development, and calling attention to potential unwanted externalities of greening projects – among which the most important is the potential increase in socio-spatial differentiation through gentrification.
Types and benefits of green places
Owen Douglas, of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly in Ireland, listed the benefits of green spaces in his presentation at the URBACT Health&Greenspace Academy in December 2020. These include: enabling physical activities; improving mental well-being; supporting social interactions; and reducing environmental risks of air pollution and extreme weather events.
Green infrastructure planning can do a lot to mitigate stressful city life in compact cities, with strategically planned networks of natural and semi-natural areas, and creating new green and ‘blue’ spaces – areas of water. To achieve that, green infrastructure planning has to be multifunctional, including a diversity of green elements, such as: large natural areas as hubs; forests and parks as green parcels; smaller private gardens, playgrounds, roadside greenery, or green roofs as individual elements; corridors connecting the hubs, parcels and elements; and finally land use buffers, as transition areas, separating dense urban spaces from the suburbs.
In another presentation at the December 2020 URBACT Health&Greenspace Academy, Eduarda Marques da Costa, of the University of London, listed different types of green space interventions, from overarching development of new neighbourhoods through regeneration of residential areas and brownfield areas, including smaller-scale improvements to public spaces and support for urban gardening.
Innovative greening examples
Let us see now a few examples of the different types of greening interventions and their potential consequences.
Certain European cities have conducted large projects of strategic importance to improve sustainability and resilience.
Barcelona, Parc de les Glories (photo by Iván Tosics, November 2021)
Barcelona (ES) provides an excellent example, with its efforts to renaturalise the densely built-up city. One of the emblematic projects is the rebuilding of the Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes: besides the demolition of the elevated roundabout for cars and the building of a new High Speed Train station, a large new park is being erected under the motto of renaturalisation.
Utrecht (NL) has put re-canalisation into the core of its urban development strategy. Forty years after the historic mistake of converting the canal that encircled Utrecht’s old town into a 12-lane motorway, in 2020, the city opened the canal back up again. The restoration of the waterway was the central piece of the 2002 referendum in which residents voted for a city-centre master plan with the aim to replace roads with water. With the reopening of the Catharijnesingel, Utrecht’s inner city is again surrounded by water and greenery rather than asphalt and car traffic.
Paris (FR) has undergone large changes since the election of Mayor Anne Hidalgo in 2014. One of the key elements of the changes towards more sustainable urban development is the permanent pedestrianisation of roads along the river Seine and certain canals, which made the access to waterfront areas much easier.
Another pathway towards more sustainability is to renovate, animate, and improve the safety of existing green areas. A prime example of this is the case of Bryant park in New York (US). This was one of the no-go areas of the city, getting the nickname 'Needle Park' in the 1970s because of the large number of drug addicts who frequented it. Changes started in 1988 with an extensive renovation of the park, including radical physical restructuring of the area, making the green space attractive, transparent and lively, clearing areas to let in light, installing many moveable chairs, and creating coffee places. The park has been transformed from an insecure to a lovely space.
Breda, Valkenberg Park
A similar story is the redesign of the Valkenberg Park in Breda (NL) to improve safety, presented at the URBACT Health&Greenspace Academy in October 2021 by David Louwerse, project manager, Municipality of Tilburg.
The most common greening interventions in European cities are smaller interventions, such as creating urban gardens, or greening streets and rooftops. An article by Tamás Kállay, Lead Expert of the URBACT Health&Greenspace network, gives a good overview of such initiatives. He mentiones Tartu (EE), where “meadow boxes were placed on the road. A beach bar was opened, and the street section accommodated also an outdoor reading room, a market, picnic tables, an outdoor cinema, and various programs”. Another example from the Health&Greenspace network is Poznań (PL), where “as part of a pilot activity natural playgrounds were created in the yards of several kindergartens providing direct contact with nature and supporting creative play”.
Such examples demonstrate that “… small green space interventions, both physical changes and social activities can trigger a massive change and lead to larger actions promoting positive health outcomes.” This conclusion is further supported by another URBACT article, arguing for the importance of walking, not only in shopping streets, but also across all neighbourhoods – including ‘consumption-free’ areas.
Besides punctual interventions, many cities aim to ensure fair distribution of green across the whole city and to connect green areas into networks. Poznań is good example for the latter, aiming to protect the green belt around the city from real estate development and urban sprawl, while also increasing forest cover within the city boundaries and preserving and improving existing parks and green spaces.
Changing people's mindset and reorganising the structure of local government
Hegyvidék, district 12 of Budapest, Lead Partner of Health&Greenspace, provides innovative examples of public spaces being improved and used more frequently thanks to new ideas, rather than concrete physical greening interventions. In order to change people's mindset, the “…municipality identified ‘green prescription’ as an appropriate tool for linking cardiac rehabilitation with the Active Hegyvidék program. Green prescription is a written advice of a health professional to a patient to participate in some sort of nature-based activity.”
Hegyvidék is also pioneering an institutional restructuring of the the municipality, creating a so-called Green office. Changes can also be achieved without reorganising the municipality. For example, the URBACT network UrbSecurity presents an Urban Planning Game where Leiria’s municipal technicians develop step-by-step new approaches to increase the security of public spaces in the city. Cities can also use nudging techniques to influence behaviour, as many of the publications of Pieter Raymaekers (Leuven) show.
The positive effects of greening and their link to urban planning
Another URBACT network, Healthy Cities, focuses on including health considerations systematically into urban planning. To make this easier, a new tool has been developed, enabling users to quickly assess the health impact of their whole urban plan, and see how small adjustments could make a big difference to the lives of local people. This Healthy Cities Generator is a practical planning tool designed to give actionable indicators for anyone looking to integrate health into planning. It is based on a systematic review of scientific peer-reviewed publications linking urban determinants and their impact on health, through which the tool automatically calculates the health impact of urban planning actions.
The integration of green considerations into planning can best be achieved by regulating the access to green areas at metropolitan level – this proved to be very useful during the Covid pandemic in those urban areas, where metropolitan coordination was strong enough.
A word of caution: potential dangers of greening interventions
Against all good will, greening interventions can also have negative effects, if not applied in an integrated manner, without creating synergies with other aspects of development.
Greening usually goes well with sustainable urban mobility interventions. When regenerating public spaces, areas taken away from cars can give place to green elements, for example changing motorways into urban boulevards with trees, pedestrianising streets, turning parking spaces into ‘parklets’ with moveable plant pots. However, if large green developments are concentrated in peripheral areas of cities that are difficult to access by public transport, they can easily result in increased car use. In a broader sense, this is a danger in all green developments that create large spatial imbalances in cities, i.e. new green areas far away from many residents who would like to use them.
When managed in the right way, greening can have very important social advantages: it is a good tool to better involve disadvantaged groups into society. Greening can help the social involvement of the elderly and school children – see for example the OASIS project, converting schoolyards into green cooling islands in Paris. Even so, the biggest danger of greening interventions lies in their negative social externalities, through the gentrification process.
Gentrification can take various forms. The direct form is the regeneration of socially contested areas into high-quality neighbourhoods. If no parallel efforts are made to support disadvantaged groups, the outcome will be socially unacceptable: pushing out disadvantaged social groups to other parts of the city. I described this process in an earlier article, on the case of Teleki tér, Budapest (HU), comparing this one-sided, gentrifying regeneration to the more integrated approach used in the case of Helmholtz square, Berlin (DE). The latter, through ongoing social assistance, is much closer to the URBACT-supported integrated approach, despite the fact that participative planning was also applied in the Budapest case.
Budapest, Teleki square with fences around, 2015.
Source: www.hvg.hu
Berlin, Helmholtz square, 2015.
Source: Imre Pákozdi
A more common and less direct form of gentrification prevails through the increase of property values and rents in areas of improving quality of life, for example due to green interventions, which leads to the gradual displacement of people of lower socio-economic status. This well-known market mechanism can be kept under control with public regulations on rents, housing allowances and/or maintaining a substantial share of publicly owned housing. Unfortunately, such public interventions to control gentrification are rarely applied (or even considered) along with urban greening.
Greening is an essential form of environmental intervention. The principle of integrated development requires a certain balance between economic, environmental and social aspects of development. This, however, is not easy to achieve, even in cases when there is strong determination to keep the balance. The comparison of two European cities, developing new ecological areas, illustrates the difficulties, showing how overly strong insistence on high environmental standards might lead to the deterioration of social goals, if public resources are limited. If greening aspects are given preference over social protection aspects, the outcome is again gentrification, against the original will of the politicians.
Stockholm, Hammarby Sjöstad, 2006. Source: Iván Tosics
This article aimed to show that greening is usually a very advantageous aspect of urban development. However, certain dilemmas and potential pitfalls must be taken into account when planning green policies and interventions. With careful procedures, including green infrastructure planning as part of an integrated vision, and measuring the green and social outcomes of all investments, these pitfalls can be avoided.
Come and meet us!
This topic will be discussed at the upcoming URBACT City Festival on 15 June 2022 in a session titled ‘Greening as pathway to urban well-being and resilience’. The session will feature good practices from three URBACT Action Planning Networks, Health&Greenspace, Healthy Cities, andUrbSecurity.
The main objective of Action Planning Networks is to bring together between 7 and 10 cities across Europe to exchange their experience in a particular thematic urban development challenge and to share their ideas about possible solutions, during a period of over 2 years. The Phase 1 (from late June 2019 to February 2020) focused on the development of baseline studies, city profiles and the production of the Application Form for Phase 2.
Following the Monitoring Committee's approval of the networks, cities are now ready to focus on the exchange and learning activities using a range of learning tools and approaches in line with the URBACT Method. Every partner city will consolidate an URBACT Local Group, which will co-design Integrated Action Plans for future implementation. The Phase 2 also presents a novelty for the projects, from now on cities are encouraged to undertake pilot actions (Small Scale Actions), to experiment with new ideas for projects gained from other network exchanges and in line with the cities’ network topic.
As a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the URBACT Secretariat will follow up with a series of adapted activities to support these networks and their partners, including the delivery of trainings using online formats and a 3 months extension of the network life-cycle, meaning that projects will run until August 2022. Thus, networks will respect the following calendar:
Activation Stage (May - December 2020): putting together an Integrated Action Plan roadmap
Planning Actions (December 2020 - December 2021): drafting the Integrated Action Plan
Planning Implementation (December 2021 - June 2022): finalising the Integrated Action Plan
Integrated Action Plans Finale (June - August 2022): sharing knowledge
You can find all approved networks in the table below, the Lead Partner city is indicated is bold. To find out more about each one of the projects, check the network's webpages.
Congratulations to the 23 approved projects!
NETWORK
PARTNERS
DESCRIPTION
Research, technological development and innovation
Leiria (PT) - Longford (IE) - Madrid (ES) - Mechelen (BE) - Michalovce (SK) - Parma (IT) - Pella (EL) - Unione della Romagna Faentina (IT) - Szabolcs 05 Regional Development Association of Municipalities (HU)
Security and safety are two common goods and fundamental components of European democracy. This network intends to analyse strategies and concepts of urban design and planning, which could contribute to prevent segregation and anti-social behaviour. Additionally, this network wishes to co-create an integrated approach towards urban security focusing on improving citizens’ quality of life and the city’s smart, sustainable and inclusive growth towards a good living environment.
Alba Iulia (RO) - Bragança (PT) - Candelaria (ES) - Perugia (IT) - Wroclaw (PL) - Võru (EE) - Limerick (IE) - Budafok-Tétény 22nd district of Budapest (HU)
The challenge is to build on the cities' opportunities. The partners of the project need to identify locally a strength, which was built as a sustainable mechanism generating urban development. The goal of this network is to explore and enhance the potential of the city, combining strategic marketing approach with innovative smart city tools.
Messina (IT) - Botosani (RO) - Oulu (FI) - Portalegre (PT) - Roquetas de Mar (ES) - Saint- Quentin (FR) - Trikala (EL) - Ventspils Digital Centre (LV)
This network aims to set up an acceleration mechanism to enable cities to catch up the digitalisation opportunities in hard & soft infrastructure. Remove all the obstacles encountered by mid-sized cities in their digital journey: lack of strategic & global vision lack of technical and engineering capacities difficulties in incorporating the digital innovation. Municipalities need to guaranty the uptake of digital innovation by the local stakeholders: citizen and entrepreneurs.
Fundão (PT) - Dodoni (EL) - Jelgava (LV) - Nevers Agglomeration (FR) - Razlog (BG) - Ånge (SE) - Kežmarok (SK) - Åbo Akademi University (FI)
The objective is to encourage the creation of a network of European cities committed to the design of digitalization plans based on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to increase the quality of life in small and medium sized EU cities, guiding us through a new age of digital transformation.
Amarante (PT) - Balbriggan (IE) - Pori (FI) - Pärnu (EE) - Grosseto (IT) - Gabrovo (BG) - Heerlen (NL) - Kočevje (SI) - Medina del Campo
(ES) - Saldus (LV)
This network aim to produce 10 different and unique robust economic development strategies, targeting their own genuine niches, and generating urban innovation ecosystems. City partners will focus on deepening the understanding of their own local economic strengths and establish strategic methods to revitalise their economy, adapt their city to the next economy and to future economic changes, establishing methodological bases for generate resilient cities.
This network aims to explore how tourism can be sustainable in medium-sized cities, reducing the negative impact on neighbourhoods and areas interested by different types of tourism to reach this ambitious aim, the project will create integrated and inclusive strategies which can keep a balance between the needs of the local community, in terms of quality of life and of services available, and the promotion of sustainable urban development at environmental, social and economic level.
Clermont Auvergne Metropole (FR) - Bialystok Association of the Functional Area (PL) - CIM Alto Minho (PT) - Rouen Normandie Metropole (FR) - Elefsina (EL) - Galati (RO) - Palma di Montechiaro (IT) - Tampere EcoFellows (FI)
Local authorities embrace the ambitious goal to become a zero-net energy territory within the next 30 years. Thus, the aim is to define the local action plans to become zero-net (ZNE) territory by producing and delivering local, renewable and regulated sources of energy by the implementation of an energy loop which gathers all the stakeholders of this circular economy, especially the consumers included in this fair trade business in and around the metropolitan area.
Manchester (UK) - Bistrita (RO) - Zadar (HR) - Modena (IT) - Frankfurt am Main (DE) - Tartu (EE) - Vilvoorde (BE)
The network will support capacity building of cities to establish science-based carbon reduction targets and their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) aligned to Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Working with 7cities to adopt different approaches to carbon budgeting and science-based targets, the network will undertake a programme of capacity building in order to support their local activities and integrated action plan and influence Covenant of Mayors' signatory cities.
Barcelona Metropolitan Area (ES) - Porto Metropolitan Area (PT) - Krakow Metropole Association (PL) - Paris Metropolitan Area (FR) - Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area (PL) - Amsterdam Region (NL) - Transport for Greater Manchester (UK) - Thessaloniki Major Development Agency (EL)
The overall goal is to rethink, transform and integrate mobility infrastructure aiming at reconnecting people, neighbourhoods, cities and natural spaces. The project will develop planning strategies, processes, instruments and partnerships, fostering public transport and active mobility, reducing externalities and unlocking opportunities of urban regeneration with the objectives of structuring the territory, and achieving a more sustainable, equitable and attractive metropolis.
URGE (circUlaR buildinG citiEs) aims to design integrated urban policies on circularity in the building sector – a major consumer of raw materials – as there is a gap in knowledge on this topic. The result is an in-depth understanding of this theme and a first plan for a tailor-made methodology that allows the circular dimension to be widely integrated in the large construction tasks the URGE partnership is facing. URGE thus accelerates the transition towards a circular economy.
Vic (ES) - Anyksciai (LT) - Bradford (UK) - Alphen aan den Rijn (NL) - Falerna (IT) - Farkadona (EL) - Loulé (PT) - Pärnu (EE) - Malta Planning Authority (MT)
This network aims to deepen the relationship between health and the urban environment, planning actions that focus on improving the population’s health, while developing a rigorous health impact assessment methodology around it. Urban Planning can become a health generator on many grounds, and this network of cities reflects the multiplicity of possible approaches to tackle the issue: green areas, mobility, social cohesion or promotion of sports are some examples.
The ultimate goal is to represent a moment of change, improving the urban environment of cities involved, developing heritage-led urban regeneration. It will enhance the potential of heritage in small and medium cities developing strategies for economic and social cohesion, inclusion and sustainable urban development. This network fosters the transnational exchange of experiences to test an innovative policy framework, combining a sound integrated approach with a real transformation purpose.
The Hague (NL) - Bucharest 3rd district (RO) - Ciudad Real (ES) - Mechelen (BE) - Cáceres (ES) - Patras (EL) - Oslo (NO) - Opole (PL) - Vila Nova Famalicão (PT) - Zagreb (HR)
This network seeks to develop the next generation of urban resource centers to promote the positive economic, environmental and social impacts for the circular economy. They facilitate waste prevention, reuse, repair and recycling. The centers also work as connection points for citizens, new businesses, researchers and the public sector to co-create new ways to close resource loops at the local level.
Coimbra Region (PT) - Alba Iulia (RO) - Córdoba (ES) - Larissa (EL) - Szécsény (HU) - Bassa Romagna Union (IT) - Tartu Tartumaa Arendusselts (EE) - BSC Kranj and Gorenjska (SI)
Recent experience suggests that it is necessary to promote a transition towards regional food systems. This network encourage the creation of a network of European cities committed to the design of food plans that extend from the urban and periurban areas through a corridor that facilitates urban-rural re-connection. This approach enhances production and consumption environments founded on a base of economic, social and environmental sustainability, integrated into development policies.
Hegyvidék 12th district of Budapest (HU) - Espoo (FI) - Limerick (IE) - Messina (IT) - Breda (NL) - Poznań (PL) - Santa Pola (ES) - Suceava (RO) - Tartu (EE)
As a response to the various health risks related to rapid urbanization and the densification of cities, this network project promotes health-responsive planning and management of urban green infrastructure with an overall aim to bring health and wellbeing benefits for citizens across Europe. The network applies a holistic approach that addresses the main functions provided by urban green infrastructure that deliver health and social benefits.
This network improves quantity and quality of attractive public spaces in urban areas. For this, it tackles the main public space use being transportation in 3 aspects: improving user experience and adding space to pedestrian networks and (semi) pedestrianised places, upscaling intermodal hubs to urban centres of mixed use as well as reducing and optimising parking in public space. The project takes a user-centric approach by users assessing and creating future use and design of public space.
Parma (IT) - Antwerp (BE) - Igoumenitsa (EL) - Klaipèda (LT) - Nova Gorica (SI) - Oradea (RO) - Santo Tirso (PT) - Radom (PL) - Southwark London Borough (UK) - Debrecen Economic Development Centre (HU)
This is a network that addresses the bottlenecks in sustainable urban mobility. The project will focus on the economic and social benefits of sustainable mobility, rather than on the widely demonstrated environmental effects. The network argues that working with local amenities and social networks at neighbourhood level could unlock the hidden demand for active mobility in cities, and thus act as enabler of behaviour change towards more resilient and liveable neighbourhoods.
Heerlen (NL) - Aarhus (DK) - Baia Mare (RO) - Fundão (PT) - Kecskemét (HU) - Pordenone (IT) - Zaragoza (ES) - Võru Development Centre (EE)
This network aims to explore how social impact bonds can be used to improve public service delivery in areas such as employment, ageing, and immigration. Often, the delivery of services is hindered by fragmented and siloed agencies and budgets, financial and political shorttermism, and an aversion to risk and difficulty creating change. The social impact bond is a promising model that ameliorates these issues by increasing collaboration, prevention, and innovation.
This project aims to eradicate homelessness through innovative housing solutions at city level. It will exchange knowledge on how to gather accurate data and make the conceptual shift from the symptomatic management to the actual ending of homelessness, with Housing First and Housing Led as guidance model. This network will guide the partner cities towards integrated local action plans linked to the long-term strategic goal of Functional Zero (no structural homelessness).
Agen (FR) - Bistrita (RO) - Cento (IT) - Dinslaken (DE) - Hradec Králové (CZ) - Santa Maria da Feira (PT) - Saint-Quentin (FR) - Tartu (EE)
The aim of this network is to rethink the place of the citizens in the local governance by finding a balance between representative democracy and participatory democracy. This network of European small and medium-sized cities, with the same expectations and similar challenges, will notably take into account, to do this, new digital tools while integrating the issue of citizens away or not comfortable with digital tools.
Amsterdam (NL) - Dublin (IE) - Lisbon (PT) - Riga (LV) - Sofia (BG) - Tallinn (EE) - Vilnius (LT) - London Greater Authority (UK)
This network addresses the importance of inclusive cultural policies. A challenge all cities in this project face is that culture does not enrich or empower all people equally. We need to gain a better understanding of our communities in order to engage all citizens in our cities. We have identified four topics to work on that will enable us to gain that understanding and support us in reaching all population groups in the participating cities from the west, east and south of Europe.
Umeå (SE) - Frankfurt am Main (DE) - Panevèžys (LT) - Trikala (EL) - La Rochelle (FR) - Barcelona Activa SA (ES) - Celje JZ Socio (SI)
Creating conditions for gender equality through a holistic understanding of how gender inequality is created in the specific place. This network creates an exchange on challenges faced by cities with an understanding of gender inequality that is globally understood but locally contextualised.
Milan (IT) - Bratislava (SK) - Budaörs (HU) - Guimarães (PT) - Molina de Segura (ES) - Nantes Metropole (FR) - Rijeka (HR) - Kekava (LV) - Sofia (BG) -Vratsa (BG)
Through intensive capacity building of local actors, the network will increase collaboration among municipalities, businesses and the civic society in order to promote sustainable, inclusive & innovative urban change. The project aims at increasing the role and added value of companies’ CSR activities at local level, towards urban regeneration and social innovation, with a special emphasis on education, in order to better address emerging and unmet local needs.
How can we improve urban green spaces in order to promote mental and physical health for our communities? Health&Greenspace Action Planning Network links green infrastructure design and management to urban health policies and practices. The project focuses on physical and mental health benefits of urban green spaces, as well as their role in improving social health and air quality and reducing heat stress in cities. Actions targeted by the network are linked to both physical changes to the urban environment and the promotion of social activities such as community, cultural, education and physical activity programs in green areas.
Are we fully aware of the relevance of urban green spaces? We are hardwired in a way that our body and mind functions far better in natural environment. A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that exposure to urban green spaces has positive impacts on both our physical and mental health. But as cities expand and densify, our precious green spaces and urban vegetation are increasingly coming under threat.
Well planned and properly managed urban green spaces can contribute to healthy urban living, climate change adaptation and improved urban air quality. Yet despite their significant potential, the use of urban green spaces remains marginal, fragmented, and highly uneven within cities.
The URBACT Health&Greenspace Network was developed in response to the various health risks related to rapid urbanization and the densification of cities. The project launched in September 2019 promotes health-responsive planning and management of urban green spaces with an overall aim to bring health and well-being benefits for citizens across Europe. Zsófia Hamza, the Project Coordinator of Health&Greenspace, when touching upon the motivation of Budapest 12th District to initiate the project, highlighted that “For many years, the municipality has been working hard to protect green areas and improve health. The interconnection of these two fields, the interconnection of hitherto separate efforts can create a different quality and can dramatically multiply the achievements of the two sectors.”
Budapest 12th District leading the URBACT Action Planning Network will be teaming up with 8 other city partners – Breda (NL), Espoo (FI), Limerick (IE), Messina (IT), Poznan (PL), Santa Pola (ES), Suceava (RO), Tartu (EE). On the Kick-off Meeting, taking place in Espoo on 24-26 September, city representatives started to define the sub-themes of the project, and identified potential actions, learning needs and good practices.
Health and well-being benefits of urban green spaces
An analysis undertaken by researchers from the University of East Anglia that combined the results of multiple scientific studies, finds that increased greenspace exposure is associated with reduced blood pressure, better pulmonary and immune function, reduced risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and asthma.
Access to natural environments can also improve overall mental health. The impact of green spaces to mental health include reduces stress levels, improved general mood, reduced depressive symptoms, better cognitive functioning, improved mindfulness and creativity.
According to a study published in 2016, parks have notable cooling effects in the vegetated areas and also in the surrounding built environment. The oasis effect of parks will become ever more relevant for urban residents as climate change related heat waves presents a range of health risks, including potentially fatal heat stroke.
Vegetation has an important role also in improving urban air quality by removing pollutants through filtration, decomposition and assimilation.
Green urban areas also facilitate physical activity and relaxation and form a refuge from noise. Furthermore, parks and green spaces are places to connect with other people in the community and improve social well-being.
A range of actions in the spotlight
Local authorities can significantly influence how people use green spaces, as well as how to improve their potential to deliver health benefits. Actions covered by the network will be linked to both physical changes to the urban environment and the promotion of social activities, such as community participation in the design, establishment and maintenance of urban green spaces, and facilitated activities in parks. Health&Greenspace does not focus solely on parks, but also on street green and external building greens, such as green roofs and green façade walls.
Health&Greenspace will support actions linked to green space related interventions that directly improve the physical and mental health of urban citizens. Action to be addressed can include the development of therapeutic gardens, health-walk routes, and areas for relaxation. Actions can be linked both to preventative care and postsurgical medical treatment.
Health&Greenspace supports climate-responsive design of green spaces to increase the cooling capacity of urban areas. Urban authorities have a range of options to build on the cooling effects of vegetation:
the accessibility of public parks can be increased to provide shelter during heat waves,
the gardens of public parks can be opened for neighbouring residents,
cooling routes and cooling oases can be developed in the cityscape,
cold air corridors can be kept open in green spaces to improve ventilation.
The use of urban green spaces to improve air quality and mitigate noise from traffic is also one of the goals of the project. Vegetation barriers between road and pedestrians, specific green space design to provide ventilation to the city, vegetation structures functioning as sound barriers, and creation of quiet natural soundscapes in the urban fabric can be particularly effective in this regard.
Health&Greenspace is as much about social health and social cohesion as it is about physical and mental health benefits of green spaces. Designing green areas that function as outdoor community centres, organization of family days in parks, the development of recreational spaces can all serve to attract people to spend time in urban green areas and to strengthen social interactions.
Partners of the network represent a diversity of local contexts, entry points, and also struggle with diverse challenges. The starting position differs across cities. The 12th District of Budapest is struggling with the maintenance of large areas of green space. Espoo has a very high share of green areas but because of rapid urbanization the green network is narrowing down. Poznan has a unique ‘wedge-and-ring’ greenery system that needs to be maintained and upgraded. In Limerick the network of green spaces is relatively small and fragmented. In Messina and Santa Pola the urban areas are densely built-up. Tartu is preparing a new master plan for the development of urban green infrastructure that focuses on cooling solutions, the reduction of noise and air pollutant. Breda and Suceava are aiming for large-scale rehabilitation of green spaces.
Urban green spaces are becoming increasingly valuable, as artificial urban environment is rapidly expanding, and more and more people are forced to live in cities. The Health&Greenspace partnership will demonstrate to cities across Europe how the urban fabric can be transformed into a healthier environment for the benefit of its residents. Follow @Health&Greenspace and explore the details of the activities undertaken in the 9 partner cities!
