Cities | Ecologic Institute: Science and Policy for a Sustainable World

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Creating Green Cities

Adaptation

Cities

Climate

Urban Trees and Gardens: How Good Are They Really for You?

2nd episode of the podcast "Creating Green Cities"

This podcast explores different aspects of urban nature through stories of innovators from across Europe who use their passion and creativity to make cities green.Read more

News

Adaptation

Cities

Climate

Creating Green Cities – NATURVATION Podcast

Creating Green Cities is a podcast on urban-nature based solutions, explained through stories of inspiring innovators from across Europe who have used their passion and creativity to make cities greener. We talk to guests from Barcelona, Budapest, Malmö and Utrecht to find out why green roofs are so cool, what happens when you start talking to hundreds of people about trees, and why it is more difficult to run a community garden than to start one.

Publication

Audio

Creating Green Cities

Adaptation

Cities

Climate

Bringing Nature Back into Cities

1st episode of the podcast "Creating Green Cities"

Green roofs make buildings cool. Literally. As cities deal with the impacts of climate change, green roofs can offer solutions and help with rainwater management, insulation and cooling, amongst other benefits. No matter the weather, installing a green roof also benefits biodiversity and can transform inaccessible, unused areas into inspiring communal green spaces in the middle of densely built urban centres.Read more

News

Biodiversity

Cities

Fostering a Green Recovery through Nature-based Solutions

The importance of urban green areas has gained increasing attention in recent weeks, providing a welcome refuge to many city dwellers in light of COVID19-induced lockdowns. For those without private gardens, natural areas such as parks, urban forests or riverbanks offer critical opportunities for relaxing and being physically active. These and the wider metal and physical health benefits generated from spending time in publicly accessible natural areas are well documented, but have won new importance in this crisis. However, urban nature is more than just a city's parks and squares.

Event

Urban Nature-based Solutions in Germany – experiences, successes and future challenges – Expert workshop

TimeLoc

5 May 2020

online

On 5 May 2020, the expert workshop "Urban nature-based solutions in Germany – experiences, successes and future challenges" took place online as part of the NATURVATION project. At this workshop, more than 60 experts from policy, administration, practice and research jointly discussed current challenges, need for action and options for a broader application of nature-based solutions in Germany.Read more

Publication

Tackling Climate Change: Give Cities a Voice

Local governments have little influence on short- and long-term climate policies taken at national and supranational levels. As the role of global cities is put to test by the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for an urgent and coherent management of the emergency in urban realities places further emphasis on the quest for sustainable urbanisation processes and strategies worldwide. Ewa Iwaszuk (Ecologic Institute) provides a commentary on the contribution of global cities to meeting the SDG13 within the ISPI Dossier "Global Cities in the Age of Covid-19: Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development".Read more

Presentation

What Does the European Green Deal Mean for Cities and Metropolitan Areas?

TimeLoc

10 March 2020

Barcelona

Spain

Doris Knoblauch

The Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) and the Àerea Metropolitanade Barcelona (AMB) invited Doris Knoblauch from Ecologic Institute to speak at the workshop "Metropolitan Challenges in the post 2020 European Union" in Barcelona (Spain), on 10 March 2020. In her presentation, the expert discussed the substantive and organisational importance of the European Green Deal for cities and metropolitan areas.Read more

Publication

Sieben auf einen Streich

Regionale Ernährungsstrategien als Schlüssel für eine nachhaltigere Stadt-Umland-Kooperation

The German article "Seven at one blow! Regional Food Strategies as key to more sustainable Urban-Rural cooperations" deals with the role of regional food strategies as a promising approach for an integrated, sustainable development of urban and rural areas. The article, written by Stephanie Wunder, Coordinator Food Systems at the Ecologic Institute and Franziska Wolff, Head of Environmental Law & Governance at Öko-Institut summarizes the results of the UBA project "Rural Urban Nexus", led by Ecologic Institute. The text is part of "The Critical Agricultural Report". Since 1993 "Der kritische Agrarbericht" is an annually published flagship book, that critically reflects about agriculture in Germany in the context of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The 2020 edition focused on the changing relationship between rural and urban areas. Read more

Publication

Addressing Climate Change in Cities – Catalogue of Urban Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are solutions that are inspired and supported by nature. They can be used in urban settings to complement or replace "traditional" or "grey" solutions to perform functions, such as thermal insulation and stormwater retention and filtration. Focusing on addressing climate change, this catalogue presents a wide selection of NBS that exemplify high climate mitigation potential and applicability across a range of urban contexts.Read more

Publication

The Transformative Potential of Local Climate Change Strategies

In this chapter Ewa Iwaszuk, Linda Mederake and Doris Knoblauch (all Ecologic Institute) analyse the extent to which municipal long-term climate strategies contain formulations and measures aimed at promoting urban transformative change (defined as non-linear change for sustainability that profoundly transforms cities and the systems they form part of). The methodology is applied to the strategies of three cities from around the world (Austin, Texas, USA; Berlin, Germany; Melbourne, Australia) to understand the extent to which the visions outlined in these local-level strategies can be said to be transformative.Read more