1. Main outcomes of the workshop

Cities in the future

• City vs. Nature: a complex relationship that has been developed over a long period of time. When cities were first created, they were small and there was no nature inside, cause nature was all around. Somehow, this notion still structures our architectural thinking today.
• Two factors will shape our cities in the near future: Resilience against extreme climate phenomena and decarbonisation of life styles. There is an urgent need for an efficient urban cooling system because dense cities, as European ones, tend to be hot cities. This is only amplified by the so-called "heat island effect".
• We need to rethink our understanding of a city. In the future, we will have smaller, denser groups and multiple centres in cities. There is a heightened importance of keeping the surrounding countryside around cities alive. The so-called periurban natural space, or Periurban Park (when the area is protected).

Periurban natural space

Historically, the edges of towns are often heavily neglected and unmanaged. This makes them vulnerable and prone to fires and soil degradation. Additionally, illegal uses and settlements often occur. As such, these areas have a bad image, bad accessibility and require restoration. There are a number of measures that can improve this situation:

• It is important that people start using and valuing these spaces. In order for that to happen, accessibility, ecological connectivity and management needs to improve.
• The creation of green corridors, to connect these spaces with the city and improve accessibility. However, this can present (real or imagined) safety problems and cause feelings of insecurity amongst citizens, for example through a fear of the wild (boars, jackals, and insects).

Green Infrastructure and Nature Based Solutions

When planning for these, it's important to consider:

• Local green infrastructure should be harmonised with larger (regional level) strategic green infrastructure plan.
• Nature Based Solutions (NBS) require long term planning and also sacrifices. It's important to gain acceptance for the fact that they are potentially more expensive in the short term, but pay off in the long term.

Social Dimension - Public

• Due to the fact that modern cities are very complex systems, the social point of view needs to be considered at every design scale.
• A community is made up of multiple voices, with different approaches. Creating cities of the future means we need to learn how to unify these different inputs. There are different ways of doing this, like bottom-up approaches or platforms with horizontal structures. However, it is important that city planners avoid only hearing the vocal minority and also consider the silent majority.
• Public participation can be a very useful tool when planning the cities of the future. However, it needs to be considered that the general public are more likely to defend their own interest, as opposed to the collective interests. The question is about ownership - we are shared owners of community land, so there is a need to create a culture of democracy and share responsibilities. Additionally, someone should represent the non-human role: nature and the common good.

Social Dimension - Private

Companies that contact Parks to develop their Corporate Social Responsibility schemes, are often looking to:

• A team building exercise;
• Promote themselves;
• Raise awareness amongst employees;
• Contribute to local green development;
• Compensate the greenhouse effect;
• Market positioning;
• Create long term partnerships

As such, when looking to cooperation with the private sector, it's important to create programmes that fill one or more of these needs.

Political dimension

At present: urbanism is mandatory - nature is not.

That is why it's time for a new paradigm:

• Green Infrastructure should be prioritised over other planning uses. There should be a new hierarchy of green and urban planning. However, this new paradigm is still hardly accepted and is difficult to achieve, especially because of the economic and transport sectors. Laws would also need to be adapted to this new paradigm.
• Co-creating processes could lead to better planned cities. By including different sectors in the planning process, more voices will be heard. This allows for urban greening initiatives to also be included.

Social Dimension - Public

• Understand your community: use “emotion assessment techniques” such as the Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions to get a good understanding of your community.
• Small local actions: create small urban greening actions on communal level. When successful, these can then be scaled up and connect to the metropolitan level.
• Urban stewardship for Nature Based Solutions: involve people in the management of NBS, for exampling greening school yards by children.
• Funding: fundraising addressed to citizens to support maintenance activities. In order for this to be successful, citizens must be aware of the benefits the green area brings and feel a connection to it.

Social Dimension - Private

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): new organisations have emerged that act as third parties to help connect companies interested in developing concrete CSR and sustainability actions with Parks where these actions can take place. They provide specific expertise, e.g. agronomic knowledge if the activity involves planting trees, for example. These organisations help boost cooperation between companies and Parks. A good example of this type of cooperation is delivered by Rete Clima and Parco Nord Milano.
• Funding: from private companies as part of their CSR.

Political Dimension

• Development of a decision support system to help decision-makers with land allocation. This is especially helpful when dealing with trade-offs. e.g. Barcelona Sociecological Integrated Analysis - The territory as a (socioecological) system.

The plenary sessions and workshops were supported with real life examples through study visits to the Woluwe Boulevard, Woluwe Parc and Sonian Forest. More information on these visits, as well as further interesting case studies can be found here.

The workshop was very fruitful and provided a valuable chance for the partners to get together face to face for the first time since the start of the project. All information gathered will feed into one of the main outputs of the project: the LIFE Urban Greening Plans Knowledge Hub.