Increase accessibility to green open spaces

The CLEVER Way: Hamburg, Neugraben-Fischbek

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 of green roofs on existing buildings; and (c) address the topic of environmental education and connect the youth with nature.

Hamburg has aimed at addressing the following challenges, including:

Increase biodiversity and nature in the city: To address this, the city

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 development focuses on actions that pupils or children can take in order to improve both biodiversity and well-being within the schools.

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 and raising awareness among residents
Increasing biodiversity by planting pollinator- friendly species
Developing a sense of community, spatial belonging and co-ownership to ensure co-maintenance by residents together with the city administration

This NBS aims at improving the usability of the area:

to recover an abandoned and underutilized former industrial lot and to return it for public use;
to favor the transition of pollinating insects, following the directions of the ecological corridors identified by proGIreg;
to activate local inhabitants in taking care of the new green installations, by stimulating them through citizens-science activities;
to favor a collaborative setting of different stakeholders, in order to guarantee the sustainability of the intervention in the future

The objectives and goals of the educational activities can be summarized as follows:

promote the active role of the local educational system during the proGIreg project by consolidating active co-planning processes of school communities to provide continuity of the learning experience
schools serving as a point of reference on environmental, cultural and socio-economic issues related to the concept of Green Cities.
support the development of co-design processes
define management models of NBS foreseen in the project by evaluating the possible

The NBS aims to improve environmental, spatial and social issues in the Mirafiori district:

improving the urban quality and quality of life in otherwise neglected areas,
stimulating the active participation of citizens in the processes of urban transformation,
creating opportunities for aggregation and cooperation among citizens on issues of environmental sustainability and urban horticulture, technological and social innovation, care and sharing of common goods
fostering social inclusion, by addressing community gardening activities to disadvantaged

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 attractiveness and raise awareness of environmental sustainability, NBS and how they can improve life quality in the cities.
The educational training also has goal of increasing the attractiveness of Mirafiori schools while teaching practical environmental behavior.

Given competition of land uses in urban areas, the scarcity of the resource soil endangers urban environments. Contamination, poor chemical, physical and biological fertility and high heterogeneity are common traits of urban soils. Previous and ongoing projects have typified soils, fertility and environmental quality.

Therefore, the NBS aims at:

testing and providing soil of good agronomical and environmental quality for new urban green areas and restoration of derelict industrial areas.
pursuing minimum maintenance of new soil composition.

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 Deusen district for pollinating insects and biodiversity topics
Sowing flower meadows or planting insect friendly plants that increase biodiversity on public or private land in cooperation with owners
Participating in events to inform about pollinator friendly measures

The urban dominant model in Spain, which is characterized by the diversification of activities and population increase, has aggravated the urban risks and environmental problems that already existed, such as the high consumption of soil, energy, water, and air pollution. It is also important to highlight the significant difficulties caused by the increase in distances, and the permanent requirement of the use of the car. The strategic line of Valladolid is situated within the frame of the urban city model. Its objectives are to develop an innovative and entrepreneurial culture, and to...