Welcome to the ECOCITY 2022 Interactive Programme

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For decades, urban and regional planning in Colombia has been characterized by the absence of directives guiding territorial settlement and setting requirements for settlements that are coherent with existent ecological structures, and by the lack of instruments for evaluating the sustainability of new settlements. Furthermore, Colombia is simultaneously characterized by the proliferation of spontaneous informal settlements that are products of high levels of rural-urban migration occasioned by forced displacement due to violence and the limited opportunities available in rural regions.

However, in 2015, the Colombian National Government adopted Objective 11 of United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “Sustainable Cities and Communities” into regional planning, requiring that planners and developers include environmental determinants as a primary criterion for the development of a territory for human settlement, attending to the environmental problems that result from the aforementioned spontaneous informal settlement in parallel with assuring the conditions of habitability in the same, responding to a dual agenda of sustainability and habitability.

To achieve the conjunction between sustainability and habitability, the concept of sustainable construction becomes a key factor. However, merely speaking about the basic indicators of architectural habitability is insufficient when considering sustainable construction. The discussion of sustainable construction must also include the analysis of external habitability, understood as the valuation of the environment that supersedes the architectural scale to permit the effective enjoyment of one’s rights.

In this presentation, the authors seek to identify the determinants of the implementation of the paradigm of sustainable construction on the populations of people who have been forcibly displaced by violence and conflict. The study centers on the displaced population of the neighborhood La Primavera, an informal settlement, located in the municipality of Barbosa, Antioquia, Colombia. We conclude that the politics of environmental conservation, in many cases, are at odds with the needs of the affected community, generating a false dichotomy in the face of which sustainable construction, as a planning principle, offers many possible responses to explore.

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The paper presents an urban planning approach to nature protection and riverbed regulation on the example of the Detailed regulation plan for the "Mileševka riverbed with a part of the protected environment of Mileševa monastery" which promotes nature protection and natural landscaping of the Mileševka riverbed and riverside, as well. The area covered by the Plan mostly consists of low urbanized or partially urbanized zones of the municipality of Prijepolje (which extends into the southwestern part of Serbia), while the southeastern part of the Plan encompasses rural area. The special significance of the Plan is in the presence of protected spaces – a part of the plan’s area is located within the Protected Natural Area of ​​the Mileševa Monastery, as well as in the ecological network of the ecologically important area "Uvac and Mileševka". Further, the existing land use of the area covered by the Plan includes green areas stretching from the central city park, throughout the undeveloped riverside of the Mileševka river and up to the protected surroundings of the monastery Mileševa. The Plan also includes residential areas with unevenly developed infrastructure (especially drinking water and sewage networks) and underdeveloped commercial facilities.

Aiming to preserve the riverside vegetation along Mileševka river in its natural and close to natural state, the planning solutions promote nature protection and, in that sense, support the formation of a green corridor – linear park that includes existing vegetation as well as forests and forest land. All landscape interventions correspond with the Project for the Mileševka riverbed regulation and imply, above all, the respect of the landscape naturalness so that the planning solutions are fitted into the environment and connect the subject area with the landscape. For the protective green corridor – linear park, the rules of arrangement and construction are conditioned by the width, position in space and gravitational area they serve. Thus, in addition to planting, on the surface of up to 5%, the planning solutions envisage pedestrian and bicycle paths and the construction of accompanying indoor facilities (places for rest, music and art pavilions, picnic points, etc).

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Because of unsustainable development model and climate change, cities are reinventing themselves searching for new approaches dealing with design complexity, planning and managing their built environment (infrastructure), preserving and protecting their nature (city environment) and improving their citizens’ wellbeing to become more sustainable (greener). The Green City Concept is a new approach cities are using to become energy efficient, less dispersed, equitable, liveable and greener. This paper uses the Green City Conceptual Framework (IHS-GCCF) and three tools: the first measures the Environmental Performance (EP) over time called the Green City Index (IHS-GCI) applied to twelve Asian cities, the second introduces the Green City Action-Plan (IHS-GCAP) which discusses the results using the calculated EP for Manila City; the third presents and discusses key results of the Green City Performance Indicators (IHS-GCPI) calculated for twelve European cities. The EP results of twelve Asian cities measured during the period of 2016-18 showed Hong Kong and Singapore had the highest EP improvement and Bangalore the biggest reduction in the study period. A strong increase in population size is behind this reduction. Implementation of water management and climate change strategies were factors explaining the improvement in Hong Kong’s EP. The results showed that the implementation of a GCAP largely depended on strong political will, institutional linkages and the integration of cultural and social acceptance. The GP measured during the period of 2013-17 in twelve European cities showed Copenhagen with the highest GP followed by Amsterdam and Berlin. Heerlen, Rotterdam and Copenhagen had the largest amount of green space per capita and the lengthiest cycling lanes; Berlin, Barcelona and Copenhagen the lengthiest mass transport network system and Copenhagen the highest use of renewable energy. The tools showed in this article can be used to measure EP and GP, to explain factors influencing the calculated EPs and GPs, set targets, track achievements and help in the preparation of a city’s GCAP. The GCCF and the tools are adaptable to individual city needs.

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Forests connect across territorial borders, watersheds, and ecosystems, and are not defined by cultural and political boundaries. Within 3 months, the forest transforms into a transition space between urban and natural ecosystems. Through theOtherForest’s afforestation projects, we are addressing the negative impacts of urbanization and lack of green public spaces in the cities of Lebanon.

Since the beginning of our pilot project “Beirut’s RiverLESS Forest” in May 2019, the forest-making process has been constantly bringing people together on the afforested land and turning it into a public space. Throughout the journey, volunteers, community members, and laborers contributed to bringing the barren soil to life. They were introduced to native species planting them and maintaining the forest for months after it was created.

While implementing the urban afforestation programs, we have documented the transformation of the planted lands from empty abandoned plots into educational and public spaces for workshops and natural discovery. This way, we can catalyze communities to take ownership of spaces they preside over by creating spaces that are meant to be shared. These forests contribute to solving environmental issues by restoring native fauna and flora, tackling urban flooding, as well as reducing pollution and urban heat island effect.

As designers, our role is to create conditions conducive to other living organisms; not just that of the human species. “How can we enable the native plants, birds, insects and fungi to reclaim their rightful place as well?”

After 6 months of Beirut’s RiverLESS Forest, we started to see native fauna coming back to live in the newly established ecosystem. By planting 2,000 trees and shrubs in 500sqm, we are preserving biodiversity and providing a nature-based solution for Beirut’s water shortage problem. These solutions are sustainable alternatives to harmful interventions such as dam projects that lead to the destruction of millions of square meters of natural, historical, and rural landscapes.

How can we as designers reinvent urban escaping and grow more nature in the heart of cities?

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The demand for urban green spaces is growing to improve life quality in cities, leading to a higher awareness of the artificialisation process of urban soils. To provide sustainable green spaces and ensure plant growth in constrained environments, pedological engineering is developing. Reconstituted Anthroposoils created by engineering processes are made of stripped and transported topsoil reimplemented in the urban area following the model of natural soils and their layer pattern (Baize & Girard, 2009). Several ecosystem services are provided by these neo-formed soils depending on their chemical and physical properties. Among these soil properties, the physical structure (i.e. the arrangement of particles) is highly involved in the plant growth ecosystem service. The dynamic of soil structure is dependent on biological activity and particularly on earthworm bioturbation which leads to two kinds of soil structures: burrows and casts. However, earthworm bioturbation remains largely unknown in Anthroposoils, whose soil material has been completely disturbed during the engineering process. The objectives of this study were to (i) quantify the soil structure patterns produced by earthworm bioturbation in Anthroposoils at the profile scale, to (ii) assess the influence of earthworm abundance, biomass and richness, and soil age on bioturbation rates.

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Raising and nurturing the right trees in the right places suiting the nature of the terrain and the businesses of the given urban environment needs an integrated application of the science of ecology, botany and arboriculture. This paper illustrates a project being in implementation that aimed at introducing a group of 21 Rare, Endemic, and Threatened (RET) tree species which are suited to the urban and peri-urban areas in the Wayanad district of Kerala, India – a Biodiversity hot speck in the Global Biodiversity Hotspot Western Ghats. Apart from the rarity and threat status, these species qualify for their beneficial traits like high dust absorbance, balanced evapotranspiration, local identity and adaptation, good canopy density, timber value, and edible fruits and flowers that attract other forms of manageable biodiversity are the preferred traits in the selection of trees for greening. The Silviculture techniques of these 21 species have been worked out and a campaign is going on to plant these trees in urban and peri-urban environments- in parks, arboretums, institutional premises, along avenues, and coffee plantations. Three Municipalities of Wayanad district have been started focusing on greening their town limits by growing native tree species and medicinal plants. This project supports these efforts as part of a Conservation campaign called “Grow our dying” trees (God Trees), which aims to save 100 endangered tree species of Western Ghats- the most human dense global biodiversity hotspot in ex-situ condition as arboretums. A scientifically and aesthetically developed “green infrastructure” in cities and towns becomes an urgent strategic intervention in temperature reduction. This urban forest project has designed with this purpose and expected to bring results that would help achieve SDG 11 targets of reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities; universal access to safe and green public spaces, and strengthening links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas. The project is also to contribute the SDG 13 of climate mitigation and adaptation and Goal 15 of conservation of life on land.

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Protected areas (PAs) are essential tools to conserve the biodiversity of ecosystems. However, anthropogenic climate change might affect the effectiveness of current PAs by causing large shifts in species distributions. By the end of this century, more than half of the plant species in Europe are projected to lose climatic suitability in existing conservation areas. This has led to a concern that whether species within current PAs are able to reach suitable climate conditions in the future.

Maintaining and improving the climate connectivity of protected areas are important to ensure the long-term survival and persistence of species. Here, we assessed the climate connectivity of the forest areas in European protected areas to their future climate analogues. Climate connectivity is defined as the extent to which the spatial configuration of a landscape allows species to track suitable climate conditions. Methods to assess climate connectivity have been proposed in recent studies to identify priority areas for connectivity conservation under climate change, based on the identification of either the closest climate analogues in the future or the coolest reachable habitat along temperature gradients. However, most of them do not fully consider the influence of species dispersal ability on climate connectivity .

Here, we integrated the factor of dispersal distance into the assessment of climate connectivity to quantify the climate connectivity of forests and highlighted sites of particular importance for range shifts where additional conservation attention is needed. We found that, about 50% of protected forest areas are successfully connected to their future climate analogues for the movement of species with small dispersal distances (2km and 10km), followed by 31% for medium-mobility (30km) and 10% for high-mobility species. On average, species with small dispersal distance and habitat requirement have a better chance to reach future habitats as climate warms, but their dispersal probability is more sensitive to climate change. If the climate changes more rapidly, more forest areas will lose their climate connectivity for low-mobility species.

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CONTEXTUALIZATION and FEATURES OF THE PROJECT

At the beginning of 2019 , as part of a participatory research and meta-project work , a qualitative multiple-choice survey was launched on the Public Green in the Novoli district in Florence, based on the 2030 Agenda : a calendar of activities , respected by all countries in order to improve the environment and contain Climate Change. Novoli’s research used in particular three types of shared and weighted indicators:

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDG’s;

The one of the European Fund for Regional Development (FESR);

The Indicators on the Common Goods suggested by the inhabitants.

The stakeholders are: the Research Unit PPcP (landscape, cultural heritage, design) , the ' Cultural Association " Novoli Common Good" and the City of Florence .

So this is a project with characteristics of co-design among stakeholders mentioned, whose aims and main themes are: to promote a Metaproject Inclusive, through a participatory activity on three main aspects :

- Public green , urban forest and agroforestry ;

- The future of the Central Market Area (Mercafir) ;

- Enhancement of cultural aspects (Application in the neighborhood of the “Uffizi spread across the territory” project;

- The lighting of the “orphan” streets of Novoli , that is, completely degraded private streets for public use. Streets " Pedibus ", pedestrian paths that connect the various schools in the neighborhood.

The urban landscape project " The METAPROJECT OF GREEN AND MICROREALIZATION OF A SMALL PARK" defined by the project team in 2020, includes two main aspects:

The GREEN META-PROJECT that involves, Novoli of about 25,000 inhabitants, part of the north area of Florence City, and outlines the characteristics of Green Infrastructures District seen as a major component for the actual recovery of a new local identity of the inhabitants;

MICRO-REALIZATION OF A SMALL PARK A Micro project -to build now with Municipality and regional funds- of a park overlooking the main avenue of access to the District and that links together many SDG’s : the theme of integral urban green the contrast to effects of climatic change, the recovery of urban identity of the inhabitants, the inclusion, and sustainable linkages with the recovery of the livability and energy saving ( with the intelligent lighting) of some of the so-called orphan streets in the neighborhood.