Cities around the world are facing multiple environmental challenges which, in turn, affect water security and human health. The sustainable restoration of urban ecosystems through nature-based solutions (NBS) can help address these challenges, while also providing wider social, environmental and economic benefits. INTERLACE will improve the knowledge of restorative NBS, promote ecologically coherent city planning, and lay the foundation for lasting peer-to-peer interactions between EU and CELAC cities. A network for stakeholder exchange will promote cooperation for transformative impact and the project’s innovative methods will enable the co-production of governance tools for restorative NBS.

The project applies an integrative, city-driven approach to address urban challenges through the restoration, rehabilitation and (re)connection of natural and social processes between places. A three-tiered mechanism for city and wider stakeholder exchange and learning – the City Network Accelerator – will strengthen cooperation and peer-to-peer interactions on the local, regional (EU and CELAC) and global scales. Innovative forms of inclusive participation will optimise the collection of available knowledge and experiences and the co-production of governance instruments and tools for restorative NBS. Six committed EU and CELAC partner cities are central to this process – Chemnitz (Germany), El Corredor Biológico Interurbano María Aguilar (CBIMA; Costa Rica), Envigado (Colombia), Granollers (Spain), Kraków (Poland) and Portoviejo (Ecuador). These cities will provide and share experiences with other cities globally and will build technical and procedural capacities.

The international city network partners UNGL, Climate Alliance and United Cities and Local Governments will facilitate a wide dissemination and application of project outputs through effective pathways to impact. The web-based Innovation Hub will support these efforts by disseminating INTERLACE’s City NBS tool for urban ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation and promoting project result exploitation. Comprised of integrated assessment systems, a catalogue of policy and governance instruments, city impulse papers, business cases, guidance documents, and more, the tool will support decision-making processes for urban ecological restoration in EU and CELAC cities and beyond. INTERLACE will advance knowledge and awareness of restorative NBS, foster more ecologically coherent and integrated city planning processes, and lay the foundation for sustained multi-directional cooperation and exchange between EU and CELAC cities for wider transformative impact.

INTERLACE aims to foster participatory engagement to co-produce and promote ownership of guidelines, decision support systems and tools for the design, construction and monitoring of cost-effective restorative NBS. Beyond that, the objective is to increase the capacity of local governments to implement integrated and ecologically coherent urban planning and governance approaches responding to their needs and challenges. The project will be of interest to cities and regions that are exploring the use of NBS as part of their Circular Systemic Solution, for a variety of purposes with the overarching goal to effectively restore and rehabilitate (peri)urban ecosystems towards more liveable, resilient and inclusive cities.

Programme:

• H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Topic:

• SC5-13-2018-2019 - Strengthening international cooperation on sustainable urbanisation: nature-based solutions for restoration and rehabilitation of urban ecosystems

Ecologic Institut Gemeinnützige GmbH

Contact the project

• Yepezsalmon Yepez Salmon Asociadossa
• Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
• Universidad Nacional
• Fundacja Sendzimira
• Eigen Vermogen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek
• Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation
• Stiftelsen Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning Nina
• Commune de Nanterre
• Climate Alliance - Klima-Buendnis - Alianza del Clima E.V.
• Union Nacional de Gobiernos Locales
• Stowarzyszenie Metropolia Krakowska
• Asociacion de Desarrollo Integral de Salitrillos de Concepcion de la Union
• Stadt Chemnitz
• Gobierno Autonomo Descentralizado Municipal del Canton de Portoviejo
• Alcadia de Envigado
• Ajuntament de Granollers
• Oppla Eeig
• Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza Colombia - WWF Colombia
• Instituto de Investigacion de Recursos Biologicos Alexander von Humboldt
• Flacma Mexico
• Sociedad Civil