In cities, climate change creates key challenges but for which our old friends, nature-based solutions offer an effective, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing solution. However, these solutions require coordination between parts of the so-called quadruple helix (i.e., public authorities, businesses, academia and citizens). In the Interreg Central Europe project CONE (Cities of nature: nature-based-solutions in urban living labs), urban living labs are explored to establish more democratic and digitally driven approaches to NBS.
Democratic, inclusive governance of living labs is ensured by creating co-creation and co-design structures that bring together stakeholders from all sides of the quadruple helix. They can then work together on the concrete application of NBSs such as rainwater management, and can jointly overcome local challenges.
Led by UniSMART, the Foundation of the University of Padua, the project involves 5 Central European cities: Padua, Wejherowo, Jászberény, Poljacne, and České Budějovice. Further partners are Gdańsk University of Technology, the South Bohemian Agency for Support to Innovation and the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic.
BURST takes part in this project in three roles. First, we are led the consortium in settin up the project. This meant context analysis and framework definition, leading to the development of a joint Living Lab Guide. The guide presents replicable solutions for setting up living labs as a co-creation and co-design environment, supporting multilevel and interdepartmental governance, the participation of citizens and other stakeholders, data collection, and monitoring. Second, we participate in the dissemination of the project results. We will create replication protocols for use outside the project. In Hungary, we will disseminate results through the Team Hub, while on the international arena, we help the creation of a Central European NBS innovation platform that will foster networking and dissemination. Finally, we mentor the Hungarian and Slovenian cities in the project, Jászberény and Polajcne, in their living lab.
As BURST team member Attila Varga explains, the project’s approach enhances regional resilience. “This participatory approach ensures that the environment is better adapted to the needs of the community. The project uses Urban Living Labs to innovate and test solutions through collaborative research, experimentation, and feedback. By focusing on context-specific nature-based solutions and integrating climate change concerns into strategic planning, the project promotes community empowerment and sustainable development.”
The success of this project will help cities involved and, in the future, other Central European cities to overcome key challenges. These include heat stress and urban heat islands; biodiversity loss; water-related issues such as flooding, water scarcity and water quality; and infrastructure and property damage resulting from these. However, increasing the climate awareness of citizens is an important key to these, a challenge in itself that environmental projects sometimes overlook. Similarly, collaborative and integrated approaches, as well as technology and data sharing need to be incorporated into CONE in order to ensure its success. This, for example, means a close integration of climate adaptation into urban policy or the development of data platforms.
Results are summarised into a guide that will allow other cities to establish their own living labs. This way, project results are channeled into a wider effort to fight climate change with the use of NBS.