PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Nearly four out of five European citizens live in cities, which are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as heatwaves, flooding and droughts as well as to other typically urban phenomena, such as the urban heat island effect. Specific urban adaptation strategies are therefore needed to make cities more resilient to climate change. In this context, urban green areas (UGAs) and infrastructures are seen as among the most widely applicable, economically viable and effective tools for combating the impacts of climate change and for help people adapt to or mitigate its adverse effects. Local governments invest considerable resources in the maintenance and safety of UGAs, but they are increasingly faced with budget constraints, which could eventually compromise the existing benefits of green infrastructure. Furthermore, the benefits of UGAs – improved air quality, reduced heat build-up, rainfall retention, etc. – are often not quantified easily, nor communicated to the citizens using these areas. Although some tools are available for supporting the management of these areas, there is a growing need to have in place smart and integrated systems, such as GIS, that can provide a good basis for integrating all assets, maintenance operations, environmental indicators and inputs from citizens.
OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of LIFE URBANGREEN was to consolidate the knowledge base and availability of tools to effectively manage the maintenance of public greenery, based on an innovative management approach to UGAs that allows cities to respond to climate change. This was achieved by optimising an innovative technological platform to monitor the ecosystem services of UGAs and demonstrating its use in real world scenarios. The aim was to improve UGA management in Rimini (Italy) and Krakow (Poland). The platform is based on GIS technologies and includes an assessment of the ecosystem services provided by green areas in cities, a smart irrigation system based on meteorological data and the transpiration of trees, the use of remote sensing data, an efficient management of jobs in the field and public participation tools.
Specifically, the project aimed to:
● Manage trees and green urban areas more efficiently, optimising water consumption and maximising tree benefits, thus addressing the priorities of the EU Water Framework Directive and the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change; and
● Develop and implement local adaptation and mitigation initiatives, contributing to the preparation of the future Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) of the City of Rimini, signatory of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate Change
RESULTS
The LIFE URBANGREEN project consolidated the knowledge base and tools for the development, evaluation and implementation of climate policy and legislation in Urban Green Areas. This allowed for a more efficient and effective management of green areas, and the improvement of related ecosystem services.
To achieve this goal, the project team:
● Installed a network of sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) tools in the two pilot cities of Rimini and Krakow, and used LiDAR and satellite imaging to create the green inventories of the cities;
● Monitored dendrometric, environmental and physiological parameters of control and pilot trees of the most significant species in Rimini and Krakow;
● Applied innovative management practices on pilot trees in comparison to traditional practices on control trees
● Designed and developed advanced modules in the urban green asset management software GreenSpaces, addressing irrigation needs, efficient job planning and scheduling, real-time weather forecast, and ecosystem services calculation (e.g. CO2 assimilation, cooling, particulate matter deposition, carbon sequestration);
● Tested the tools over one year, allowing the assessment of the benefits linked with the improved management practices; and
● Started commercialising the developed tools to new cities, according to the business plan created during the project.
The main project outputs were five new GreenSpaces software modules, and a business plan for their commercialisation. There is a high potential for replication of the developed method thanks to the high interest from several municipalities, who are in part already customers as they use other tools from the Coordinating Beneficiary R3GIS.
Environmental benefits were evaluated, confirming on pilot trees:
● Increase in carbon sequestration of about 24% in Rimini and 15% in Krakow;
● Increase in PM10-100 removal of about 20% in Rimini and 12% in Krakow;
● Increase in PM2.5-100 removal of about 31% in Rimini and 11% in Krakow;
● Increase in PM 0.2-2-5 removal of about 34% in Rimini and 20% in Krakow;
Given these environmental benefits, the project contributed to achieving the objectives of the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy, Directive 2008/50/EC on air quality, the European strategy “Innovating with nature” and the Green Infrastructure Strategy. The project’s detailed methods for the accounting of ecosystem services from urban green areas are also of relevance to the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus initiative.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
