Joint European-Chinese Collaborative Learning project on the role of Urban Forest nature-based solutions (UF-NBS) for sustainable urbanisation and resilient cities, launched at the beginning of September 2019. Sendzimir Foundation is among 27 partner institutions realising the project. It is a project on urban forests and nature-based solutions to enhance the resilience of cities that are facing major environmental, socio-economic and cultural transitions and challenges.
CLEARING HOUSE – Collaborative Learning in Research, Information-sharing and Governance on How Urban forest-based solutions support Sino-European urban futures project is led by European Forest Institute from Finland and has five main objectives:
- Analyse current frameworks, public perceptions and demand towards UF-NBS (WP1). We will research social, economic and policy drivers of UF-NBS, their design and implementation, and analyse their impacts on the urban ecosystem and human well-being across continents.
- Evaluate impacts on urban societies, including aspects of socio-environmental justice and gender, cost-effectiveness and replicability for diverse contexts (WP2). The project will perform a comparative analysis of ten case studies in Europe (Barcelona, Brussels, Gelsenkirchen, Krakow and Leipzig-Halle) and China (Beijing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong-Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Huaibei, and Xiamen), including a citizen science approach.
- Facilitate a collaborative learning process on UF-NBS, connecting practitioners, businesses, policymakers and scientists (WP3). A co-design approach early in the project will be implemented to ensure that its research programme fits well the demand of end-users, and engages stakeholders and scientists in problem-oriented knowledge generation through a set of targeted learning mechanisms.
- Develop decision support tools and guidelines for cost-effectively expanding, governing and managing UF-NBS (WP4). The goal of the project is the development of user-targeted outputs to support cities, planners, businesses and civil society in implementing UF-NBS. The tools will support decision making and provide knowledge on the design, governance and management of UF-NBS, and sustainable business models relating to them.
- Increase awareness of the benefits of UF-NBS and disseminate it among governments, businesses, civil society and academia (WP5). Target group specific communication and dissemination activities complement the project. These include Sino-European science-policy symposia targeting senior decision-makers, activities targeting businesses and civil society organisations, and measures reaching out to citizens including schoolchildren.
Dr Tomasz Bergier is the Sendzimir Foundation expert engaged in this project, co-leading WP4.
More information can be found on the project website: http://clearinghouseproject.eu
Project budget: the total budget for the 4-year project is 7.7 million EUR, of which the EC is contributing about 5 million EUR. This project has received funding from the European H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement n° 821242. Several Chinese CLEARING HOUSE partners have also contributed to the funding.
The kick-off meeting took place in Bonn on 5-6 September 2019.
