Service On Demand
What can we offer to you? Please, let us know...
As a program that is bridging between science, policy-making, and civil society, we invite you to click on the learning unit you may like to request to increase your current knowledge on a specific field and we will get back to you for proposing the best match between your needs and our possible service delivery. We are here to hear your needs, and explore with us customised training services to help you.
Cities Panel and Peer-to-Peer exchange
Establishing contact and fruitful exchange with other local governments, practitioners and parties involved in the planning process that have already successfully implemented sustainable planning to mitigate specific environmental problems is a very powerful capacity-building format. We think it crucial to promote peer-to-peer between cities on how NbS has been implemented, analysing the different steps to accomplish this (following the ISO based Integrated Management System, from the UrbanByNature Programme). Peer-to-peer will be benefitting cities under similar policy frameworks and in need for similar NbS actions.
A gap in covering current planning processes with the traditional approaches, and committing to answer real local and regional challenges seems to be there, and the Cities Panel knowledge exchange guarantees a dialogue among stakeholders for framing the current planning tools that can support a transition towards a more sustainable spatial planning and design. Training on how other cities have been incorporating NbS actions to the new planning frameworks such as the Urban Greening Plans, making use of their experiences through their engagement in the NbS Task Forces, implementing modelling softwares (GIS, SWMM and new tools developed by researchers in H2020 programs) can be developed further based on these panel discussions outcomes.
Find some more information on past Cities Panel editions here: https://nice-nbs.eu/events?c=search&uid=8YbRcCUq
Online technical webinars
H2020 Projects have shown there is a gap in covering current planning processes without tailored technical training for technicians, current landscapers, engineers, who lack the knowledge for the technical design. NbS are sometimes designed by more aesthetical purposes. Whereas civil engineers are in lack of guidance on how to incorporate soft green&blue infrastructure, such as bioswales, bioretention systems, green walls or wet ponds. Training on NbS design is crucial, even though manuals and standards exist. We propose offering problem-solving exercises to learn on how to apply the concepts and calculation methods contained in such manuals when developing a landscape, urban or infrastructure design through a customised training service delivery.
You can find more information on publicly available training here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRBWu17gOqY&list=PLSeeP4Rig0aPC1-zhF_6n…
Local kick-off with fieldtrip campaign
Raising awareness on the challenge, providing general concepts about NbS to mitigate current and future problems, and bringing in together key stakeholders to start joining forces in local and regional contexts is a crucial step towards transformation of current planning approaches and integration of NbS and more sustainable actions. Fieldtrips together with collective assemblies with stakeholders help to put users in direct contact with the environment that is focus of study, empathising with the environmental problem that adds an underlying social and economic concern.
Interactive problem-solving exercises
UrbanByNature wants to offer options for innovative learning methods that turns the student into an active piece of the learning process. In the interactive problem-solving exercises, participants, divided by groups, with support of qualified NbS experts, navigate around an interactive environment where they access information of a specific environmental challenge in a role play setting, get a training on technical design procedures and theoretical concepts, and conceptualise a project with ideas on how to overcome the environmental challenge by making use of NbS and a more ecosystem-based approach (materials with NbS experts presentations and a factsheet about the case study challenge sent prior to the training).
More information on similar innovative problem-solving exercises can be found here: https://nbseduworld.eu/events?c=search&uid=lXhh4wWn
New free and open source visualisation and modelling digital tools, updated unified manuals and guidelines for NbS technical design, construction, operation and maintenance, and innovative cost-benefit evaluation methods and financial models are produced under the umbrella of EU-funded H2020 and Horizon Europe projects. Aren’t they a resource for society to become more resilient and well-adapted to sustainable challenges? And, if so, wouldn’t it be incongruent that, after the completion of those projects, EU-funded resources remain unused and in the shadows? Our UbN Integrated Management System consisting of 7 steps for a full cycle of analysing barriers, achieving action, and acceleration of action wants to answer what, to whom and how to communicate those results and make them usable. Our future within this platform is to approach scientists to decision-makers, finding the matches between scientists, practitioners, entrepreneurs, students, educators, private facilities, and politicians. We are working on a plan for bringing tailored contents, and the most suited training and exchange format.
We look at the future of this program to exploit current EU project results through service delivery of training modules, adapted to local and regional challenges. ICLEI, with its multi-level stakeholder engagement and participatory activities experience, wants to act as intermediating to maximise the impact and increase the full replication and up-scaling potential of NbS developed by our EU-funded projects, assessing the question: what comes next for the mainstreaming of NbS?
Contact us
Our partners
The UrbanByNature programme is funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union under Grant Agreements No. 730222 and No. 776604. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies within UrbanByNature and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.