Increase quality and quantity of green and blue infrastructures

BIOVEINS - connectivity of green and blue infrastructures in Antwerp: living veins for a biodiverse and healthy city

The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.

This main objective will be accomplished by...

BIOVEINS - connectivity of green and blue infrastructures in Almada: living veins for a biodiverse and healthy city

This main objective will be accomplished by...

Green corridor in Passeig de Sant Joan, Barcelona (ENABLE project)

To improve public space functionality and use, to increase access to green spaces for district residents (Eixample), to contribute to higher biodiversity in the city, and to promote more and different retail activity at the ground floor of buildings, so to rejuvenate/boost the local economy.

Managing urban Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure to increase city resilience in Coimbra (UrbanGaia project)

The aim is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant GBIs in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs within a place-based and socio-ecological research framework. The project consists of three main approaches which converge in a transdisciplinary analysis of GBI performance: ecological science, political economic analysis and stakeholder co-creation.

Managing urban Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure to increase city resilience in Ghent (UrbanGaia project)

The aim is to develop a realistic framework of indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Urban Green-Blue Infrastructure (U-GBI) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs. The evaluation of one the green axis of the ecological network in Ghent will serve as a case study for the framework of indicators. Furthermore, policy, governance and management practices of U-GBI are analyzed to identify innovative approaches to GBI implementation and usage.

Measuring and Improving Urban Tree Vitality and ES Provisioning in Leuven through Inoculation with Ectomycorrhizal Fungi (URBANMYCOSERVE)

The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service delivery and resilience, using advanced noninvasive spectral and physiological sensing technology, diameter growth measurements, and urban biophysical modeling; and (iii) to develop and test (in situ & ex situ) a dedicated EcM-inoculum to improve urban tree health, and ecosystem service delivery and...

Measuring and Improving Urban Tree Vitality and ES Provisioning through Inoculation with Ectomycorrhizal Fungi in Porto (URBANMYCOSERVE)

Medmerry, West Sussex coastal flooding

The managed realignment project at Medmerry is the biggest on the open-coast in Europe (Image: Environment Agency)

Sustainable flood risk management: It will provide a higher standard of protection to the area
Creation of compensatory intertidal habitat: Delivering 183ha of intertidal habitat, including mudflat, saltmarsh and transitional grassland.
Involvement of local communities: Creating new access routes and viewpoints

Ecuador: The Socio Bosque Program

Map of priority areas for Socio Bosque. Source: Ministry of Environment, Ecuador.

Conserve native forests and other native ecosystems to protect their ecological, economic, cultural and spiritual values.
Significantly reduce deforestation and associated GHG emissions.
Improve the well-being of farmers, indigenous communities and other groups living in the country’s rural areas

Riparian Forest Restoration and River Bank Protection, Evrotas River, Greece

The objective of the LIFE-EnviFriendly project was to demonstrate low cost, nature based solutions that if used by all farmers within a watershed it will improve the water quality of the waters significantly. The NbS used in this case was a riparian forest restoration coupled with a river bank erosion protection.