UrbanGaia Research Project

Ghent, is a belgian city, with a maritime climate. It has about 200.000 inhabitants, and the 2nd biggest city in the Flanders region. The medieval centre is surrounded by a dense belt of urban neighbourhoods built in the 19th century. Apart from water regulation issues, the city suffers from noise and serious air pollution from traffic and industrial activities and lack of accessible green space.

The cities’ inhabitants and government are taking major efforts to increase available green space, decrease traffic and pollution, reduce climate impacts and increase biodiversity. Major efforts have been undertaken to increase the ecological network in and around the urban zone, for ecological as well as socio-economic reasons. The city of Ghent is a living laboratory of well-documented experiments with urban ecosystems at various scales and from townhall-directed to entirely autonomous in governance.