Imagine using plants, wetlands, and green spaces as a natural shield to protect city pipes, roads, and power grids from floods or storms. Instead of just building bigger concrete walls, this approach uses nature to absorb the blow. It's like giving a city a natural sponge and armor to keep essential services running during disasters.
Urban critical infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to natural and man-made hazards. Traditional concrete-based protection is often expensive and lacks social acceptance.
A toolkit for choosing effective nature-based solutions and a methodology to evaluate ecosystem responses to hazards.
If you are an urban infrastructure firm dealing with rising flood risks to city assets — this project developed a toolkit that helps you choose the most cost-effective natural barriers to protect those assets.
If you are a climate adaptation agency dealing with the need for sustainable city planning — this project developed a methodology to evaluate how natural ecosystems respond to hazards to improve risk assessment.
If you are a municipal government dealing with high maintenance costs for grey infrastructure — this project developed 5 City Labs to demonstrate that nature-based solutions are budget-friendly and socially acceptable.
Based on available project data, the project aims to demonstrate that these solutions are budget-friendly at the local scale, though specific pricing is not provided.
The project focuses on scaling up these solutions across the EU by sharing best practices and using 5 representative European regions as testing grounds.
Based on available project data, the project produces a toolkit for community empowerment and infrastructure protection, but specific licensing terms are not mentioned.
It uses a co-design and co-creation process involving end-users, managers, and local authorities to ensure the solutions fit local needs.
The project runs from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2026.
The consortium is heavily research-oriented with 8 universities and 3 research institutes, but maintains a practical edge with 3 industry partners (17% industry ratio) and 3 SMEs. This balance suggests the project is moving from theoretical climate science toward practical, deployable tools for 10 different European countries.
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