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News

Final ENABLE Conference on 9 October 2019 – Register Now

The conference "Equitable and resilient access to the benefits of green and blue infrastructure" marks the final phase of the research project ENABLE (Enabling Green and Blue Infrastructure Potential in Complex Social-Ecological Regions). It will bring together green space practitioners from the cities Oslo, Stockholm, and Łódź with policy-makers and leading researchers to explore how green and blue infrastructure can be planned and managed to deliver multiple benefits, and how to make sure these are fairly distributed to all urban dwellers. The event is free of charge, but seats are limited! To secure your spot register online by 27 September 2019.

Publication

Multi-level Policy Framework for Sustainable Urban Development and Nature-based Solutions – Status quo, gaps and opportunities

CLEVER Cities Deliverable 1.2

This report by Ecologic Institute explores the extent to which current policy frameworks support sustainable urban development and nature-based solutions (NBS). It reveals that a variety of different terms are used across countries and from the local to international scale in policies and discourses in support of sustainable urban development, with green (and blue) infrastructure being the most frequently used. However, while many policies were shown to have strong explicit support for sustainable urban development, these often lack mandatory policy instruments. The full deliverable explaining the findings and conclusions in detail ist available for download.Read more

Presentation

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Sustainability

Water

Water in Berlin – Virtual Water

TimeLoc

7 August 2019

Berlin

Germany

Hannes Schritt

Hannes Schritt hold a presentation concerning water in Berlin and Virtual Water at the BUNDjugend German-Egyptian Youth Exchange in Berlin. As part of the presentation he explained the water cycle of Berlin: Treated waste water is reused as drinking water to ensure water availability. In addition, Berlin gets drinking water by river bank filtration from Havel, Spree and Dahme. As a result of both, Berlin's drinking water quality depends on good water quality of the effluent of the waste water treatment plants and the rivers crossing the city. After presenting primarily technical aspects Hannes Schritt talked about political conflicts and inititiatives concerning water in Berlin and the concept of Virtual Water. The presentation slides are available for download.Read more

News

Biodiversity

Cities

International Development

Sustainability

Strengthening Co-operation between EU and CELAC Regions on Urban Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based solutions are an attractive proposition to address urban challenges in Europe and Latin America. While some of the environmental and socio-environmental challenges are specific to each region or even individual cities, there are many shared challenges such as impacts of climate change, air pollution or social cohesion. Research institutes and local governments in both regions can benefit from the exchange of experiences, knowledge, solutions, and techniques for addressing those challenges. To foster such exchange scientists from Ecologic Institute visited the Alexander von Humboldt Institute in Bogota (IAVH), a renowned Colombian research centre for the study of biodiversity.

Project

Digital Water Cities – Leading urban water management to its digital future (DWC)

June 2019 to November 2022

European cities face major challenges to achieve the desired level of sustainability in the management of urban water systems. Digital technologies such as mobile devices, sensor network, real-time monitoring, machine learning, and modeling tools have the potential to improve the management of water infrastructures significantly. In addition, they can improve the quality of services provided to citizens as well as awareness and cooperation between utilities, public authorities, and citizens in urban water management. The main objective of the project is to boost the integrated management of water systems in five major European cities, Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen, Paris, and Sofia, by leveraging the potential of data and smart digital technologies.Read more

Presentation

The EU-funded H2020 Programme for Nature-Based Solutions

TimeLoc

10 April 2019 to 11 April 2019

London

United Kingdom

McKenna Davis

At the 2019 European Urban Green Infrastructure Conference (EUGIC), Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis chaired a session looking at the role of Horizon 2020 funding for nature-based solutions (NBS) and co-organized a side session to present insights from the NATURVATION project. The conference took place from 10 to 11 April 2019 in London (England). Approximately 350 urban green infrastructure experts, practitioners, policy makers, designers and implementers came together to share and celebrate nature-based solutions for climate-adapted, resilient, healthy cities.Read more

Event

Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in Cities - Expert Talk

TimeLoc

7 March 2019

Berlin

Germany

On 7 March 2019, experts working on nature-based solutions (NBS) met in Berlin for an exchange of experiences. The discussions focused on the challenges of planning and implementing NBS and the opportunities and creative solutions to overcome them. The results of this meeting will be integrated into including the development of a catalogue of NBS and an overview of policy instruments to the "Climate NBS Polska" project.Read more

Event

Dialogues on Long-Term Climate Strategies

TimeLoc

27 February 2019 to 28 February 2019

Copenhagen

Denmark

The third set of dialogue workshops for government officials and experts from the "Climate Recon 2050" project were held in Copenhagen at the end of February 2019. The project team have been organizing two main fora for that workshop: a Technical Dialogue, for modellers and other experts designing 2050 climate policy scenarios – and a Policy-Maker Platform, to create a space for experience sharing among representatives from different EU countries.Read more

Publication

Document

Biodiversity

Cities

Impact-driven Financing and Investment Strategies for Urban Regeneration

CLEVER Cities Factsheet 3

Private businesses lack awareness of market opportunities and appropriate business models for deploying nature-based solutions. This CLEVER Cities factsheet outlines types of NBS financing sources and the potentials of public-private partnerships. The CLEVER Cities factsheet No 3, edited by Ecologic Institute, is available for download.Read more

Publication

Document

Biodiversity

Cities

Green Market Opportunities and Business Policies for Urban Nature-based Solutions

CLEVER Cities Factsheet 2

Private businesses lack awareness of market opportunities and appropriate business models for deploying nature-based solutions. This CLEVER Cities factsheet outlines green market opportunities and potential business policies for urban nature-based solutions. The CLEVER Cities factsheet No 2, edited by Ecologic Institute, is available for download.Read more