UrbanGaia Research Project

Genk, located in the east of Flanders, Belgium, is a city with about 66 thousand inhabitants. Due to its mining sites (last one closed in 1987) and presence of Ford Motor Company (factory closed in 2014) Genk grew exponentially over the last 100 years and became the industrial center of the province of Limburg. Genk is a strongly urbanized, fragmented city with areas that are dominated by grey infrastructure. As a consequence of its industrial past, Genk is one of the most culturally diverse cities is Flanders. Also since the decline of the mining industry, it has become one of the greenest cities too. While its inhabitants' average incomes are among the lowest in Flanders, social indicators point to Genk as one of the happiest cities. The municipality takes the multicultural and green features as strong points and sets out an ambitious participatory governance model, with 'iedereen Genkt' (everybody Genks) as their tagline.

The Stiemerbeek (a stream) and its valley form a green-blue corridor that crosses part of the city. The valley is largely enclosed by urbanized areas and is under pressure from urbanization.

Furthermore, the ecosystem and its functions are threatened by the many sewer overflows that occur during heavy rainfall. Nevertheless, the valley still contains ecological valuable elements which are protected as nature reserve. The poor water quality also threatens a Natura2000 area (nature reserve De Maten) that is situated downstream. Despite challenges with the water system, the city of Genk sees opportunities to strengthen the relationship between nature and culture in the Stiemerbeek Valley. An ambitious process was started to tackle the challenges with the water system and to increase the multifunctionality of the valley to the benefit of the city and nature values. Local stakeholders got involved with the development of the vision and during the participatory process a Masterplan (2018) was created that should guide the implementation of the vision. UrbanGaia will support a pilot-project within the Stiemerbeek Valley to highlight the different ecological, social and economic benefits the green-blue infrastructure provides and develop a relevant and realistic set of indicators to follow up on the performance of the green-blue infrastructure over time.