UrbanGaia Project

UrbanGaia will achieve its five objectives (see the 'about' section) by implementing five work packages, composed of several tasks that provide a rational and manageable workflow:

• WP1 - Ecological analysis of case studies
• WP2 - Governance description of the case studies
• WP3 - Assessing urban U-GBIs’ multiple values and ecosystem service demand
• WP4 - Typology and scenarios of Nature Based Solutions
• WP5 - Dissemination and outreach

Some tasks require stakeholders engagement in a set of participatory processes as well as mobilising citizens in a citizen science initiative.

The aim is not only to draw data from stakeholders, but also to validate scientific methods and results, to co-create outcomes which are scientifically sound and locally credible, legitimate and relevant to raise awareness on the value of biodiversity and urban ecosystem services, as well as to build capacity to develop and manage urban green infrastructure by implementing the project’s outcomes.

Task 1.1: (Lead: UM). Data collection

Description of land use patterns, ecological quality and connectivity from available local maps and remote sensing data, using quickbird / ikonos images (from google earth) and locally available data sources.

Task 1.2: (Lead: UM). Ecological characterization of the study areas

Additional remote sensing to classify the different land uses (using other wavelengths, whenever possible), production of land use, land change maps, ecological quality, connectivity and biodiversity maps.

Task 1.3*: (Lead: MRU). Validation of data by the stakeholders

Additional validation of biodiversity, ecological quality and functions, using a local expert participation workshop and/or field surveys using the citizen science application. Will be focussed to context-specific content by coupling with task 3.1.

Task 1.4*: (Lead: MRU). Mapping ecosystem functions and biodiversity

Focussed on the production of case-study tailored maps on ecosystem functions and biodiversity components which underpin the locally relevant services (see WP3), as well as ecological performance indicators.

Task 1.5*: (Lead: MRU). Development of spatial indicators

Analysis of ecological settings and development of spatial indicators for evaluation, development and management of U-GBI (joint analytic task with WP 2, 3, 4)

Task 2.1: (Lead: ESAC). Survey and analysis of current policies

Description of existing management, planning, governance and policy tools, practices and structures being implemented at each study areas. This implies the survey and analysis of detailed, municipal and regional plans, the management praxis and the legislation for the study areas, in cooperation with local experts.

Task 2.2: (Lead: ESAC). Strategic Environmental Assessment

Comparison of the governance setting in all countries based on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) approaches [Careiras et al. 2014], to evaluate the internal coherence of the governance and management tools at different levels (i.e. laws, policies, programmes and actions), against a framework of desirable outcomes.

Task 2.3*: (Lead: ESAC). Assessment of governance impact

Assessment of the impact of governance, in terms of ecological quality, connectivity, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This will be addressed by preparing a portal to collect the nonconformity, malfunctions and preferences of the users and practitioners acting at the different U-GBIs. This task will be focussed to context-specific content by coupling with task 3.1.

Task 2.4*: (Lead: UFZ). Governance performance indicators

Development of governance performance indicators to evaluate, develop and manage U-GBIs. This entails performance ranking of green spaces in each of the case studies, communication of malfunctions and suggestion of improvements, as well as synthetic analysis of best available strategies and techniques to improve governance (i.e. management, planning, rules and legislation set to enforce a shared vision).

Assessment of the role of U-GBI in improving resilience of urban areas, as well as their contribution to wellbeing, will be realized in participatory stakeholder workshops in every urban case study. Demand will be assessed by a survey of the various ecosystem services, using a local application of the IPBES conceptual framework and the associated values/benefits.

Societal valuation of services will be performed following multiple values (intrinsic, natures’ benefits, human wellbeing, combined with the participatory analysis of trade-offs and synergies. Stakeholder analysis will also be made prior to the workshops will guide the development of the workshops, and missing essential stakeholders will be contacted to capture their views.

Task 3.2*: (Lead: EV-INBO). Foci for ecological function and governance analyses

Deriving context-adapted foci for ecological function and governance analyses. These foci will be derived for every urban case study using the stakeholder-based valuation and trade-off analysis and matching them with scientific outputs from ecological and governance descriptions (task 1.1 and 2.1).

Task 3.3*: (Lead: UFZ). Assessing ecosystem service flows from U-GBI using scientific data, participatory mapping and citizen science validation

U-GBIs types will be assessed based on the atlas developed in WP1, existing ecosystem service data in the urban case study or regional level, and construction of a matrix-based approach validated at the local level. Further fine-scale citizen science validation will be provided through application of the MapNat application.

Task 3.4: (Lead: EV-INBO). Performance indicators

Linking valuation of ecological, economic and social aspects of U-GBI ecosystem service flows to ecological and governance key performance indicators (task 1.4 and 2.4) to develop a framework for effective and sustainable evaluation, development and management of U-GBI.

Task 4.1*: (Lead: UFZ). Refinement of the U-GBI typology and analysis of policies according with stakeholders

Refinement of the U-GBI typology and analysis of existing related policies and practises used by the stakeholders in the case studies. This analysis draws upon ecological and governance analyses carried out in WP1 and 2, to be linked with the views of the stakeholders on the U-GBIs considered relevant in their cities. In each workshop, we plan to provide input from the other three case studies to test their relevance for identifying both problems and new strategies (cross-fertilisation). Both governance analysis and stakeholder workshops are expected to contribute to identifying bottlenecks to the development and functioning of U-GBI and their governance in the case studies [Hauck et al. 2013]. The results are considered key-inputs for the scenario development in task 4.2.

Task 4.2: (Lead: UFZ). Integrating U-GBI into locally adapted scenarios for each case study

The scenario development takes into account common boundary conditions, e.g. from the OpenNESS EU scale scenarios, to increase comparability across case studies and to consistently deal with influences of global change on U-GBIs. The scenarios will be conducted in participatory workshops on the city- and/or district-level. The scenarios are considered locally adapted, as they take into account the case study scale, ecological and governance contexts based on the corresponding U-GBI diversity. It is planned to elaborate different strategies (=scenarios) to increase and improve U-GBI, such as increasing balcony flower boxes, spaces for urban agriculture, or the connectivity of existing/future U-GBI structures. Two stages are envisaged for the participatory workshops. In stage 1, the scenarios are developed and subsequently fed into task 4.3. In stage 2, the results of the impact assessment (task 4.3) will be discussed with stakeholders.

This task addresses benefits/synergies and trade-offs, so that the latter are avoided as much as possible. This will be done on two nested scales: level of individual U-GBI (e.g. pointing out species in order to minimise allergy potential or ozone production by trees) and city level (e.g. location of U-GBI to foster social cohesion / avoid segregation). The impact assessment of task 4.3 makes sure that the effects of U-GBI onto the environment and the social system are evaluated.

This is especially important and policy relevant for U-GBIs that are newly created / adapted to climate change conditions. The impact assessment will be based on a combination of results from WPs 1-3, qualitative and quantitative assessment methods, such as freely available modelling tools like INVEST or tools from the new EU OPPLA platform, results from the literature, or expert judgements. The impact assessment feeds into the participatory activities in task 4.2.

Task 4.4: (Co-Lead: All). Synthesis and comparative analysis of case studies

Synthesis and comparative analysis of case studies building on the results of WPs 1-4. This analysis will focus in “cross-fertilisation” aspects which contribute to identify relevant U-GBI classes, limits and new ecological and governance strategies and consequences for wellbeing and resilience. Results from this task are intended to be delivered in the form of synthesis papers, policy briefs at regional and EU/global level, as well as being communicated to the local partners (see WP5 for communication channels).

This WP will use a broad range of communication channels for different target groups aiming to raise attention, to attract, engage and involve these groups. A second aim is to disseminate ideas, concepts, tools and results developed in UrbanGaia, again using different channels and formats to appropriately address the intended scientific and non-scientific audiences.

While communicating via web and social media nowadays is almost a standard, we plan to go one step beyond and additionally focus on linking up with the information channels established by the local partners, enabling us to reach broader audiences, while benefiting partners by providing new information and participation options for their members and audiences.

Task 5.1: (Lead: ESAC). Project website

UrbanGaia will develop a multi-language project webpage providing information about the consortium, as well as concepts, tools and results produced by the project and its partners. This webpage will also serve as a starting point for links to be established to the websites of partners such as official and commercial city pages aiming at the broad public, or the homepages of NGOs or citizens’ associations.

The website will have different entry points for different target groups (local stakeholders including policy makers, national to EU stakeholders, scientific audience). We plan to announce web-channels in local print media, local radio stations and regionally social media (see task 5.2).

Engagement of local stakeholders, focusing on local (web-)radio stations and social media. The two communication channel aim (i) at the broader public (radio) and (ii) communities of more specialized interests addressed by associations and NGOs via their social media pages / news. UrbanGaia makes use of the facts that (i) nowadays even in medium-size cities such as the UrbanGaia case studies one or more city-broadcasting stations are active, usually reaching a large fraction of people interested in local news, and that (ii) authorities, NGOs and other groups share the interest to make their activities publicly known. We suggest to approach local radio stations to introduce UrbanGaia and its objectives, announce activities and to attract participants e.g. for ES-mapping, U-GBI site visits and workshops.

Print media, such as regional/local newspapers and public or commercial city magazines, will be used to reach wider audiences By including print media, we address a broader and different group of U-GBI users, which likely differs in their interests and types of U-GBI use from users of electronic media. Electronic and print media also provide the opportunity to introduce the European partner cities of UrbanGaia and contribute to the “cross-fertilisation” of U-GBI strategies. While the first part of this task can be considered episodic, social media require regular inputs to be attractive for users. As the UrbanGaia consortium is relatively small, we have to make sure that communication material is used / reused in different channels to ensure efficient and continuous communication and outreach activities across all WP5 tasks.

Task 5.3: (Lead: ESAC). Engagement and information of national to EU stakeholders

The focus of this task is the development of policy briefs, based on key-outputs of WPs 1-4 and the partners collaborating with them. Policy briefs will be aimed at the local / regional scales of the case studies and at a later stage at the national and EU level, as soon as comparative analyses and lessons learned become available. To reach national and EU stakeholders as well as local city planners, project results will be presented on policy-oriented conferences, e.g. the European Conferences on Sustainable Cities & Towns or the Informed Cities conferences organised by ICLEI (ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability network).

Task 5.4: (Lead: UFZ). Scientific outreach

On top to the common scientific outreach activities such as scientific publications, conference presentations and press releases, UrbanGaia will contribute tools and results to the new EU OPPLA platform (oppla.eu), as this pathway is considered to reach additional broader audiences, mainly aiming at scientists, (city) planners and administration. An important aspect of OPPLA is that it ensures the availability of results and other products beyond the project’s lifetime (assuming that the current plans of the FP7 projects OpenNESS, OPERAS and the EU commission are implemented).