A21 Scotney Castle Green Bridge
To mitigate the development of a 3.2km bypass by building a green land bridge to enable the historic West drive to be reinstated on its original line and provide landscape and habitat connectivity.
To mitigate the development of a 3.2km bypass by building a green land bridge to enable the historic West drive to be reinstated on its original line and provide landscape and habitat connectivity.
The study area is the city of Porto, which has around 42km2 and a population around 220000 inhabitants. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, located in the northwest of Continental Portugal, limited by the Atlantic Ocean in the west and by the Douro River...
The aim of the project is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Green and Blue infrastructure (GBIs) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs within a place-based and socio-ecological research framework. The project consists of three main approaches which converge in a transdisciplinary analysis of GBI performance: ecological science, political economic analysis and stakeholder co-creation.
A network of attractive open spaces as a counterpoint to the region's grey infrastructure.
The vision is to create a network of attractive, accessible, welcoming and diverse open spaces that functions as a counterpoint to the region’s grey infrastructure.
The main purpose of the roof is to offer an unique green environment to the residents in the house. In the project every surface, also on the ground below, is maximized with greenery. The greenery offers a range of ecosystem services which also benefits the neighbors and the city.
The aim is to establish a network of demonstration sites covering a broad range of European forest types in which integrative forest management measures are being practiced. Having such sites will help train and eventually improve decision making capacities related to integrating biodiversity aspects into managed forests.
Protecting areas to protect biodiversity: The IBRM is home to several remarkable protected sites, high biodiversity richness and an important cultural heritage. However, pressures from human activities in the area are threatening these distinct values. Our aim is to use diverse data plus stakeholder input to understand the social and ecological system and design a multifunctional network of areas – that allow conservation, exploitation and restoration - and identify ideal sites for restoring degraded freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.
Formulating a widely supported vision for developing a sustainable flood control area. To gain local support, local and societal needs were taken into consideration. Also, possible disservices needed to be tackled, while developing valuable nature values.
“Let’s Crop the Diversity” (LCD) aims to redevelop urban spaces through the coproduction of solutions based on nature (NBS) to promote resilience and environmental quality of the geographical areas of intervention.
The goal of this project is developing an Urban Agricultural System that, thanks to the...
Designing conservation strategies and adaptive management for the French Alps region. In particular, management options are targeted to support stakeholders and policymakers in making choices.
To create a sustainable service station which has minimal impact on its surroundings and is sensitive to surrounding environment of the Cotswolds (AONB).
The objective is to demonstrate how nature conservation can be integrated into practical forest management. Steinkreuz is part of the “European demonstration site network for integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management” (https://www.oppla.eu/casestudy/18019).
The objective of the project is to investigate the future possibilities of green area development, by exploring the functionality of green areas on the roofs of apartment buildings and to gain insight into the impacts green roofs may have on housing and the sense of community.
The project promotes urban butterflies conservation, thanks to the involvement of fragile people as citizen scientists. It aims to create and connect Butterfly oasis, to allow butterflies to cross the city; and to involve people with mental or physical disabilities, to fight the social stigma
Informing Barking Riverside's green space design by incorporating regional biodiversity.
The studio led by Italian architect Stefano Boeri came up with the concept of Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest, as a way to combine high-density residential development with tree planting in city centres.
Vertical Forest is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of...
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area consists of the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen and it is located in the south coast of Finland. The Metropolitan Area covers 772 square kilometres and contains a total population of approximately 1.1 million. With about 19 per cent of the country’s population in just 0.2 per cent of its surface area, the housing density of the area is high by Finnish standards. Despite the intensity of land use, the area also has large recreational areas and green spaces.
Our EnRoute city lab covers the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. The tiny...More
To improve the public realm of a neglected and poorly accessible square.
To build a school that would blend into the surrounding hillside and to ensure that all water would remain on site to prevent flooding of the local drainage system.
To provide 187 new homes for private and affordable housing and refurbish a Grade II* listed Hall, whilst retaining the views of Hanham Hills and achieving the 'Zero' carbon standard.
Identifying the ecosystem services and their connections to biological diversity and forest ecosystem functioning, to support local communities and their traditional activities.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
Collaborating to halt declining biodiversity: Despite designation as a Marine Protected Area, biodiversity in the Faial-Pico Channel is falling. Our aim: to collaborate with local stakeholders and policy-makers and apply the AQUACROSS Assessment Framework to understand social and ecological aspects of the Channel, and identify actions to efficiently and equitably ensure the Channel’s long-run sustainability, balancing the objectives of commercial and recreational fishers, tourism operators, and other local stakeholders.
To regenerate a brown site to develop 150 new homes, an improved park area and a BREEAM outstanding green business park. To deliver high quality jobs, family housing and a better green space.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
To untangle the tracks approaching London Bridge station reducing delays and to achieve net positive biodiversity.
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
Objective of these prototype moss installations was to find out the possible challenges of using moss in different locations and structures. We need to know what type of moss can be used and what are the actual costs of building moss green roofs and walls.
Enhancing conservation of biodiversity, sustainable management and the utilisation of forest resources by addressing ecosystem services that are central to local livelihoods.
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service delivery and resilience, using advanced noninvasive spectral and physiological sensing technology, diameter growth measurements, and urban biophysical modeling; and (iii) to develop and test (in situ & ex situ) a dedicated EcM-inoculum to improve urban tree health, and ecosystem service delivery and...
Identification of the health of the coral reef of St.Eustatius. The reefs are important drivers for dive tourism, they support local fisheries and they protect against storms.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
Rapid urbanisation in the Philippines has given rise to many challenges as increasing infrastructure developments contribute to reduced open spaces and increased energy consumption.
Both the public and private construction sectors are responding by reshaping the cityscape and designing building structures that are as environmentally responsive as they are beautiful and compact. Now, buildings should not only be sturdy and spacious, they should also be efficient in energy consumption and adaptive to the changing environment.
LafargeHolcim Philippines (LafargeHolcim) has...
Rönne å catchment area is a river watershed located in Southern Sweden and includes lakes (e.g. Ringsjön), rivers (Rönne å) and marine coastal areas (Kattegatt). The AQUACROSS Case Study looks at the process of eutrophication and restoration of good water quality and their implications for the provision of ecosystem services along the Rönne å catchment.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
To improve public space functionality and use, to increase access to green spaces for district residents (Eixample), to contribute to higher biodiversity in the city, and to promote more and different retail activity at the ground floor of buildings, so to rejuvenate/boost the local economy.
Involving managers and residents in designing an integrated land management plan for biodiversity and tourism. Biodiversity and visiting people.
The objective of the catalogue of actions set out in the Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plan is to implement a strategy for improving existing green heritage and for preserving and enhancing Barcelona’s biodiversity to provide the inhabitants of Barcelona with many ecosystem services.
Freshwater ecosystems in the Swiss plateau are threatened by multiple stressors that deteriorate water quality and hydromorphology. This is the result of channelization, dams, wastewater, and agriculture, among other causes. To restore these ecosystems and stop the biodiversity decline, multiple management measures will be implemented over the next decades. We propose methods for prioritising the location and timing of restoration measures to maximise their effectiveness, considering many sectors and multiple societal objectives.
The Dutch coastal zone is prone to flooding. The Netherlands has chosen to protect the coast by means of soft adaptive solutions such as (mega) suppletions with the aim of maintaining the coastline (…) Before the construction of the sand engine, some 12 million cubic metres of sand suppletions were dumped along the Dutch coast annually. ...
The main objective of the project is to increase the biodiversity of a peri-urban area, re-naturalizing it through the creation of an urban edible forest.
The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue-Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.
BEGIN’s driving ambition is to substitute traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ such as concrete for ‘blue-green infrastructure’ (BGI) such as parks, rivers, and lakes.
Restoring river-floodplains to protect biodiversity: The Danube’s river biodiversity is threatened by changes to hydrology and geomorphology (so-called hydro-morphological alterations), such as disconnection of floodplains. Multiple human activities, including the construction of hydropower plants, expansion of agriculture, and large-scale river regulation measures to increase navigation and flood protection are resulting in an ongoing loss of habitat and biodiversity. Our aim: In this Case Study, we apply the AQUACROSS Assessment Framework to identify how management of...
Over the last few decades, Lisbon has lost a third of its residents (Green Surge: Lisbon case study) as a result of uncontrolled urban development (urban sprawl in the suburbs coupled with depopulation and decaying neighbourhoods in the historical centre). This has led to a deterioration of the quality of life in the city. It is currently facing challenges...
The study also aimed at enhancing the wider understanding of the significance of pollination services to the mountain agricultural economy. Institutional capacities at provincial and national level needed to be strengthened to promote honeybee pollination management.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
The aim is to develop realistic indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant GBIs in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs within a place-based and socio-ecological research framework. The project consists of three main approaches which converge in a transdisciplinary analysis of GBI performance: ecological science, political economic analysis and stakeholder co-creation.
The objectives are create long term conditions for a metropolitan periurban park Confluence (Soutok in Czech) and introduce tools for coordinated and sustainable development of periurban landscapes.
The main aim is to create harmony in between supported natural processes, economical interests and the visitors activities. Set conditions for formation of landscapes rich on natural biotop diversity, transparent and penetrable suburban areas with alive flowing river, side by side agriculture, integrated flood protection and management, and economic and sport activities....
Assessing ecosystem service delivery and the options for biodiversity offsetting (compensation measures for biodiversity impacts). Also, the future resilience of offsetting in the context of climate change is being studied.
The AQUACROSSCase Study examines the implications of the regulation on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) (i.e. non-native plants and animals harming the local ecosystem) for practical management in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, in the context of existing environmental commitments under EU legislation.
The objective is to make the Montpellier agricultural systems more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as increasing temperatures or droughts, water and biotic stresses and more extreme events.
Main benefits can be summarized as follow:
INRA (Institut Nantional de la Recherche Agronomique) researchers showed that the production from one hectare of a walnut/wheat mix is the same as for 1.4 hectares with trees and crops separated. This was a 40% increase in productivity, far better than any other innovation introduced by agronomists in the recent past.
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The objective of the LIFE-EnviFriendly project was to demonstrate low cost, nature based solutions that if used by all farmers within a watershed it will improve the water quality of the waters significantly. The NBS used in this case was a riparian forest restoration coupled with a river bank erosion protection.
To create a new wetland reserve on a brown field site and agricultural land to mitigate the loss of mudflats in Cardiff Bay and the two designated species that were displaced when the Taff/Ely SSSI was destroyed.
The URBES project focusses on functional diversity, urban ecosystem services and NBS, institutions, economics and resilience science and worked to translate research insights into principles, landscape designs and applications. It explores the drivers behind loss/enhancement of urban ecosystem services delivered by nature based solutions such as urban green space, monetary and non-monetary valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the urban landscape and what are the most effective mechanisms for the governance of non-marketed ecosystem services.
In the Berlin case study,...
This study aims to identify and communicate areas and management solutions that synergistically support biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, as well as the growing demand to feed an increasing global population, using the ecosystem services concept.
Viridian were asked to model an entire lowland catchment of approximately 750 km2 for a basket of ecosystem services, so the client could better understand where to focus effort on the ground, assist with planning, inform stakeholder engagement and influence policy formation.
The Municipality of Lisbon covers an area of 8 km2 and has a population of 506,892 residents (and about 300,000 commuters). The metropolitan area is larger and has a total population of 2,821,697 inhabitants (data from 2011).
As strategy for sustainable land use the main policy issue in the Lisbon Municipality is to establish a coherent and interlinked urban green infrastructure (UGI) not only within the municipality but with the UGIs of the surrounding municipalities
The strong urban character of Lisbon a large forest park of Monsanto with 1000 ha and numerous others parks,...More
Informing policy makers at national and EU level about the short and long term consequences of forest bioenergy production and its trade-offs for other ecosystem services.
The AQUACROSSCase Study aims to improve the knowledge base available to stakeholders to enable a more informed decision-making process toward the achievement of the Biodiversity Strategy targets, including the provisioning of ecosystem services. This includes several existing European marine policy frameworks: Habitats and Birds Directives, MSFD, CFP & IMP.
Favoring of environmentally sustainable materials and solutions has been the main objective in the construction and services of Village Elves Hideaway. The newest ecological knowledge is integrated with mythology of Lapland in order to produce fascinating stories for guided tours. For this reason the green roof of Wise Elf´s house was built.
The construction was carried out as a part of larger project ‘From forest Baths to Green Roofs’ which aimed at new practices in nature-based services that enhance the wellbeing of travelers.
Minimising the impacts of dredging and flood bank extension: In 2018/2019, in the Ria de Aveiro two management interventions will have negative unintended impacts on biodiversity: 1) a dredging programme to manage water flow and navigability in Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon, and 2) the extension of a flood bank to stop surface saltwater intruding onto local farmland. The goal of this study is to apply adaptive management and minimise foreseen but unintended management challenges in a Natura 2000 protected area, which crosses fresh and marine waters, in the context of EU...
The aim is to develop a realistic framework of indicators to evaluate, manage and develop performant Urban Green-Blue Infrastructure (U-GBI) in cities and intensively managed landscapes. UrbanGaia explicitly focusses on analysis of ecological and socio-economic features of the many existing GBIs. The evaluation of one the green axis of the ecological network in Ghent will serve as a case study for the framework of indicators. Furthermore, policy, governance and management practices of U-GBI are analyzed to identify innovative approaches to GBI implementation and usage.
To work with landowners to improve habitat management for wildlife and to promote soil management to help mitigate flooding, improve water quality and increase habitat for wetland birds.
The main objective of our BIOVEINS proposal is to use functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning, and to provide, together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge to identify the critical features of GBI, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges, like habitat fragmentation, air pollution, and urban heat island.
This main objective will be accomplished by...
The aim is (i) to provide an assessment of the EcM community and functional group composition of urban trees, and of its environmental drivers, using next generation sequencing techniques; (ii) to relate specific EcM, or functional groups of EcM, to tree health, and tree ecosystem service delivery and resilience, using advanced noninvasive spectral and physiological sensing technology, diameter growth measurements, and urban biophysical modeling; and (iii) to develop and test (in situ & ex situ) a dedicated EcM-inoculum to improve urban tree health, and ecosystem service delivery and...
Promoting the improved management of the "montado" multifunctional ecosystem, reconciling resources use with conservation interests. This will be achieved by bringing the ecosystem services and natural capital concepts into practice.
Operatie Steenbreek is a foundation that organizes awareness raising campaigns and offers assistance with regards to greening private gardens. Many gardens and streets in the Netherlands are covered with tiles that cannot absorp the rainwater from heavy rainfall.
The idea behind the initiative is to encourage citizens to remove the tiles and stones from their gardens/backyards and replace it with grass, plants and trees for better drainage and to increase the biodiversity.
Thanks to an app., citizens can be adviced and exchange plants with neighbours. Citizens can...
To improve an over wide and heavily silted reach of the river Somer running through Midsomer Norton high street, providing a diverse habitat for native fish, particularly wild brown trout, plants and invertebrates.