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Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

This domain will initiate and sustain dialogue among the various stakeholders (private and public sector, architects, practitioners, policy maker), on nature-based solutions in the context of sustainable urbanization in cities and human well-being. The dialogue will address the available opportunities for existing and new NBS associated with materials, buildings and infrastructure in cities. The incorporation of NBS in building and at district level will also be explored. The generation of co-benefits through greening cities in relation with climate change adaptation and mitigation will be examined as well as the role of cultural heritage in renaturing cities and how to incorporate existing knowledge from historic buildings and districts in restoration with nature. The role and effectiveness of NBS in advancing sustainable and resilient infrastructure development and upgrade will be explored together with replication strategies for renovating cities with nature. Methods for robust monitoring of the performance and assessment of the impact of deployed NBS will be examined.

An assessment framework for climate-proof nature-based solutions

Submitted by Stavros Stagakis on May 17, 2019 - 10:09am

Raising interest in ‘nature-based solutions’ (NBS) has inspired attempts to organise their principles and qualities within comprehensive and internally consistent evaluation frameworks, so as to demonstrate the superior performance of ‘working with nature’. However, the proposed frameworks stop short of taking into account the changing conditions in which NBS are set to operate. Climate change, in particular, can alter ecosystems and their services, and may undermine the performance of green solutions that rely on them.

Volunteered information on nature-based solutions — Dredging for data on deculverting

Submitted by Stavros Stagakis on April 19, 2019 - 10:41am

Much has been written about the potential contribution of citizen-science approaches to further urban environmental sustainability, and associated interventions such as nature-based solutions (NBS). Engagements between researchers and stakeholders relying on bottom-up information provision, for instance community mapping, are often purported to play a vital role in developing shared knowledge, achieving greater impact and stimulating innovation. However, relatively few studies within the realm of NBS have reported on experiences in using volunteered information, or their results.

ThinkNature Webinar 1

Submitted by Somarakis Giorgos on March 27, 2019 - 5:34pm

This report was prepared by Emmanuelle Cohen-Shacham, Nikolaos Nikolaidis, Nadja Kabisch (1st ThinkNature Webinar speakers) and ThinkNature Webinars Team in order to provide an overview of the 1st ThinkNature Webinar “NBS: Concept, Practices and Benefits” about the presented issues by speakers, polls' results and the discussion (attendees' questions and speakers' answers) in the end of the Webinar.