NBS for water and heat stress resilience: the GrowGreen NBS Compendium
On 3rd December, Modena City Council held the webinar “NBS for water and heat stress resilience: The GrowGreen NBS Compendium” to explain the role of the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in the climate change adaptation.
The online event, moderated by Susanna Gionfra, from IUCN European Regional Office, aimed to provide an overview of the Compendium of NBS and grey solutions, examples of NBS implementation in GrowGreen and other European cities, and an explanation of business models for NBS.
The webinar started with an intervention by Alessandra Filippi, City Executive of Environment, Agriculture and Sustainable Mobility of Modena who underlined the importance of NBS for the city of Modena to address local challenges – mainly related to water problems and heat waves. She stressed the evolution of the regional and local context, today increasingly orientated towards environmental, economic and social sustainability. As regards to the local context, Modena has recently approved two important strategies: the Urban Plan of Sustainable Mobility, and the Action Plan for Sustainable Energy and Climate. The adoption of a New Green Plan is also foreseen.
The event continued with an intervention by Maria Gina Mussini, from the Modena City Council, who provided an introductory presentation of the objectives of the Grow Green project.
Foivos Petsinaris, Environmental Policy Consultant at Trinomics, explained the structure and the use of the Compendium of NBS and ‘grey’ solutions to address climate- and water-related problems in European cities. The Compendium focuses on the most common six challenges across European cities which can be addressed through NBS: heat stress, river flooding, surface water flooding, coastal flooding, water scarcity and poor water quality. Foivos provided five examples of NBS that would be relevant to Modena to tackle heat waves, flooding, and water scarcity, highlighting their features, benefits as well as potential challenges: green roofs, pervious surfaces, swales, rainwater harvesting systems and sustainable drainage systems.
These NBS have been implemented in several of the GrowGreen cities, facing similar challenges to Modena. Susanna Gionfra illustrated two NBS examples implemented in two GrowGreen cities related to flooding and heat stress: the Manchester West Gorton Community Park and the Green roof in Valencia.
Finally, Adelio Pagotto, Consultant on the GrowGreen project at Modena City Council – with the support of Kym Whiteoak who leads Trinomics’ involvement in GrowGreen project – presented the financing assessment of NBS Strategies. Adelio illustrated five steps to evaluate the possibility of financing, basing them on hypothetical examples. He presented a practical case study from the Metro-ADAPT project in Milan and concluded by providing an overview of the management and implementation costs of the NBS from the chosen case study.
The event concluded with a Q&A session among participants and speakers, moderated by Maria Gina Mussini. The panellists addressed questions from the audience concerning the NBS presented, discussing the potential challenges and opportunities.
To access the recording of this session, please find here the link.
The webinar’s presentations are available here: