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Urban Releaf

About the project

Innovating together for just
and green urban transitions

Our Mission

Urban ReLeaf promotes collaboration between local communities and public authorities to address urgent climate issues related to urban greenspace planning, heat stress, and air pollution.

Together with six European cities, we nurture citizen-powered environmental monitoring projects that bring the benefits of nature to everyone. Our mission focuses on community placemaking, public sector innovation, and tailored strategies to reach our common goal of creating greener, more just and resilient cities for all.

A look at the
project in numbers

  • 15 Partners
  • 6 Pilot Cities
  • 10 Accelerator Cities
  • 4 Years
  • €5.2m Budget
  • 9 Countries

Our objectives

  1. Understand current urban greening policies in six pilot cities and co-develop opportunities for citizen participation to complement existing practices.
  2. Support the long-term inclusion of active and passive data from citizens within official data streams for urban monitoring, planning and innovation in public policy.
  3. Mobilize and empower local communities in issues of public interest surrounding urban green infrastructure and environmental stewardship.
  4. Establish a community of practice and an accelerator programme to encourage knowledge exchange and training across relevant actors, reaching beyond the six pilot cities.
  5. Offer flexible and innovative ways of governance that can underpin inclusive green urban planning in support of the European Green Deal and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Workpackages

Connect

Stakeholder Dialogue and Inclusive Citizen Participation

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Local stakeholder dialogues, pop-up community labs and futures storytelling workshops form the basis for co-developing urban greening strategies, and inclusive civic engagement, involving citizens, communities, city authorities and other local actors. These exchanges help to assess current policies and highlight pathways for community-led contributions to the wider data ecosystems and promote dialogues on urban nature-based solutions.

Build

Bridge Citizen-powered and Authoritative Data Ecosystems

Institute of Communication and Computer Systems

Current data landscapes around urban greenspace, air quality and heat stress across six cities are mapped to identify possible opportunities for citizen-powered science. For the engagement campaigns, robust tools and applications for data collection and visualisation are developed and piloted. Citizens’ observations and data contributions are validated and integrated into official data flows and products for decision-making.

Empower

Mobilise Participants and Implement Urban ReLeaf City Pilots

International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis

Seasonal citizen engagement and data collection campaigns are launched and implemented in the six Urban ReLeaf cities, guided by an iterative, multi-stage action planning process. A comprehensive assessment will give detailed insights into achieved impacts, such as the acceptance and uptake of citizen observations in policy processes.

Sustain

Accelerate the Uptake of Citizen Observations for Decision-making

ICLEI European Secretariat

A dedicated Community of Practice with three working groups stimulates knowledge exchange, builds partnerships and promotes mutual learning. Adaptive and innovative governance models will be co-designed and developed to support inclusive, data-driven urban greening. An accelerator program targets public-sector innovation, offering actionable insights for key actors via the Urban ReLeaf toolkit and adoption roadmap.

Influence

Dissemination, Exploitation and Strategic Communication

University of Dundee

Strategic communication will guide and increase engagement, knowledge exchange, and wider dissemination of Urban ReLeaf values, activities, and outcomes, based in deliberate data governance, gender equality and inclusiveness principles. Relationships with wide-reaching networks will be nurtured to ensure visibility and awareness of Urban ReLeaf activities, which include Design for Business sprints aimed at promoting the exploitation of key results.

Meet our
Advisory Board

  • Julie Berckmans European Environment Agency
  • Núria Castell Norwegian Institute for Air Research
  • Helen Cole Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice & Sustainability
  • Cecil Konijnendijk Nature-Based Solutions Institute
  • Jan Peters-Anders Austrian Institute of Technology

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