Impact Funding Resources
The Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway (CUE TP) aims to support cities to become more resource efficient and reduce their impact on the planet. CUE encourages cities to implement circular measures that address socio-economic inequalities, promote social cohesion, and improve access to urban resources, services, and green and blue spaces. Safeguarding and enriching urban ecosystems and biodiversity emerge as critical imperatives for fostering sustainable urban development in the face of mounting ecological challenges. This topic underscores the importance of collaborative efforts among policymakers, urban planners, environmentalists and communities to implement effective strategies for preserving and restoring urban biodiversity; paradigm-level shifts are envisaged and expected. It is centred on the reshaping of urban planning policies to rejuvenate ecological landscapes within urban and peri-urban settings and mitigate the adverse effects of urbanisation on biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Start Date02 Sep 2024 End Date14 Nov 2024 Funding Resource TypeProposal
Funding ProviderDriving Urban Transition (co-funded by the European Union)
Proposal
Driving Urban Transition (co-funded by the European Union)
This topic underscores the importance of collaborative efforts among policymakers, urban planners, environmentalists and communities to implement effective strategies for preserving and restoring urban biodiversity; paradigm-level shifts are envisaged and expected. It is centred on the reshaping of urban planning policies to rejuvenate ecological landscapes within urban and peri-urban settings and mitigate the adverse effects of urbanisation on biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Proposals submitted to this topic should concentrate on innovative approaches to urban biodiversity conservation, encompassing mitigation and adaptation measures in urban planning and design, and for both redevelopment and new construction projects in urban environments including but not limited to public spaces, urban nature and greenery, and infrastructure. The topic emphasises the importance of preserving and enhancing urban biodiversity through legislative measures, community engagement and sustainable urban planning and design practices, as well as the exploration of nature-based solutions to address different urban pollution issues. The topic entails circular challenges related to urban biodiversity issues regarding land availability, property management, and unsealing practices, requiring paradigm level shifts. It also emphasises how various legislative and other initiatives, can catalyse change by influencing new planning rules and promoting intensified urban renaturing for European cities and beyond.
Project proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following questions:
• How can urban green and blue spaces be effectively protected, enhanced and managed to safeguard urban ecosystems and biodiversity?
• How can legislation and other driving forces that negatively affect urban habitats, nature and biodiversity be analysed and addressed? How can legislative targets be utilised to enhance and restore biodiverse urban habitats while actively engaging urban communities in capacity building?
• How can biodiversity considerations be seamlessly integrated into urban planning, design, architecture and landscape architecture to ensure the protection and enhancement of urban landscapes?
• What are the economic and societal, including amenity, health and well-being benefits of biodiversity measures and nature-based solutions in urban areas? How can these be effectively demonstrated through practical projects? How can trade-offs between long-term benefits and short-term costs of urban biodiversity measures and nature-based solutions be negotiated and researched, leading to a paradigm shift?
• How can and/or do circular urban business models contribute to circular solutions in relation to effective strategies and policy reshaping?
• How can circular urban business models offer ecosystem services while also considering biodiversity footprints, including material origins and destinations? Additionally, how can we measure the CO2 emission reductions resulting from implementing nature-based solutions in these models?
• How can justice – encompassing obligations and rights, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages – be incorporated into urban biodiversity initiatives? Furthermore, how can appropriate goals be incorporated into urban biodiversity initiatives, and incompatible goals be balanced?
• What role do urban circular supply chains, waste management systems, and recycling initiatives play in supporting urban biodiversity conservation efforts, and how can they be optimised to minimise habitat destruction and pollution while maximising resource recovery and reuse in urban spaces?
• How can cities leverage circular business models, such as ecosystem services’ trading, green procurement and biodiversity offsetting, to incentivise private sector involvement in urban biodiversity conservation and sustainable development?
• How can nature-based solutions be designed in urban landscapes and green-blue structures to function as adaptation measures against climate’s impacts like temperature shifts, extreme weather, flooding, and drought?
