www.clevercities.eu

Co-creation of Nature-based Solutions: between technical

Challenges and practical shared governance bottlenecks.

THE CLEVER CITIES experience!

02 – 10- 2019 - THINKNATURE Forum- RE-THINKING THE NATURE OF CITIES

ISRAA MAHMOUD Urban Simulation Lab (Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana Fausto Curti)

CLEVER Cities Project - DASTU, Politecnico of Milan. Milan, Italy

israa.mahmoud@polimi.it

www.clevercities.eu

1. Introduction to Co-Creation and explanation of CLEVER Cities Guidance

framework theoretical and practical toolkits.

2. Examples from NBS implementation in 3 FR cities on their action labs

3. Governance models and lessons learned from practical implementation.

4. Spatial challenges and Stakeholders engagement to catalyze decision-

making mechanisms.

Points of agenda:

www.clevercities.eu

CLEVER Cities is a project that experiments Nature–based

Solutions (NBS) and green infrastructure aiming to spread them

out over the cities.

Vision in Milan

• We will build NBS with citizens, in neighborhoods, in

buildings and infrastructure. We want to be the voice that

shows NBS feasibility and efficiency and we want the be the

driver that multiplies NBS in Milan and beyond.

CLEVER CitiesCo-designing Locally tailored Ecological solutions

for Value-addEd urban Regeneration

CALL HORIZON 2020 SCC-2 2017 Demonstrating innovative nature-based solutions in cities

June 2018 – June 2023 - Budget 15 ml Euro

This project has received funding from the European

Union’s Horizon 2020 Innovation action programme

under grant agreement no. 776604.

EUROPEAN UNION

London

Milan

Madrid

Malmö

Belgrade

Hamburg

Larissa

SfantuGheorghe

www.clevercities.eu

#NBS Cooperation

MANIFESTO

Source: https://platform.think-nature.eu/nbs-

manifesto

www.clevercities.eu

A guidance for cities to accompany the process towards a successful implementation of NBS in a shared governance and inclusive way.

Co-creation defined in action of :

• Establishment of the UIP*

• Co-creation planning

• Co-design

• Co-implementation

• Co-monitoring

• Co-development

CLEVER Cities Guidance on Co-Creating Nature-based Solutions

PART I: The Framework and the Pathway

CAL

*Urban Innovation Partnership (UIP) and CLEVER Action Labs (CALs)

www.clevercities.eu

This part is composed by three Chapters:

1- Co-creation for the successful implementation of nature-based solutions • What is co-creation ? What are Co-creation principles? How to co-create in urban

planning

• Co-creation of NBS, what does it mean? Taxonomies, policies, challenges and urban

regeneration processes.

2- Understanding the Co-benefits of NBS • Definition of co-benefits, impact framework, etc.

3- Stakeholder engagement at all levels of implementation• Importance of mapping and engaging stakeholders in co-creation.

• How to do it: identifying, analysing, mapping, prioritising, and engaging.

• Monitoring and evaluating stakeholder mapping & engagement.

CLEVER Cities Guidance on Co-Creating Nature-based Solutions

PART I: The Scientific Framework and Stakeholders Engagement

www.clevercities.eu

NBS Co-Benefits

Four main macro categories :

1- Human Health and Well-being

2- Sustainable Economic

Prosperity

3- Social Cohesion and

Environmental justice

4- Citizen safety and security

www.clevercities.eu

CLEVER Cities Guidance on Co-Creating Nature-based Solutions

PART II: The Co-creation Pathway in 16 steps

Each phase encompasses a number of steps to be

realised

Each step is composed by one or more activities,

which can be flexibly adjusted by each city,

depending on their local contexts.

Each step contains a series of tools that you can use

accordingly with provided templates to write down

your output reports for each phase.

For each Step it is important to achieve an outcome.

Optional

Step/tool Recommended

Step/tool Fundamental

Step/tool

www.clevercities.eu

CLEVER Cities Guidance on Co-Creating NbS

16 steps are envisioned to support cities to

accomplish successful implementation of NBS.

Each city has its own geography, geology,

climate conditions, as well as social,

economic and cultural structures.

Hence, the content is merely flexible to

be translated and transferred in each city

local setting.

Optional

Step/tool Recommended

Step/tool Fundamental

Step/tool

PART II: The Co-creation Pathway in 16 steps

https://clevercitiesguidance.wordpress.com/

www.clevercities.eu

1- Urban Innovation Partnership launch, November 2018.

2- Road Mapping CLEVER Action Labs (CALs), October 2018 – December 2018, till June 2019.

3- Stakeholders mapping matrix and Constellation of local context strategic planning framework.

An application: Milano as a test-bed for Co-Creation methodologyAn ongoing process

Figures: from left: UIP Launch, Road-maps and timeline planners for Milan CAL1 (green roofs). CLEVER Cities constellation within the city of Milano strategic context and stakeholder mapping matrix Source: the authors, CLEVER Cities local Cluster - Workshop 29 October 2018, Fondazione del Politecnico di Milano

1 2 3

1

2

3

www.clevercities.eu

In Milan, specifically on the local cluster scale; we can identify few lessons learned from co-creation pathway implementation:

1. Co-Creation brings together different knowledge and capabilities

2. Co-Creation is expressed through collective governance

3. Co-Creation brings Co-benefits and future spin-offs in shared results

Could Co-Creation process be a catalyst for NBS?

Learning from experimentation and co-planning = implementing the framework – PART I

Learning from Implementation = putting Pathway into practice – PART II

Nature-based Solutions: could be challenging to get implemented in specific place-based urban regeneration projects.

1. NBS in Urban Regeneration should be oriented towards addressing community needs

2. Co-benefits of Nature-based Solutions are fundamental driver on a multi-functionality scale

3. Embedding NBS into city’s strategic planning is crucial to bring on board all actors and a larger pool of local stakeholders involvement and collaboration.

FRONT RUNNER

CLEVER Cities experiences

Hamburg, London & Milan

Co-creation in action and practical

aspects of NBS in urban areas

• Governance challenges

• Financial challenges

• Spatial challenges

www.clevercities.euProject area in Hamburg, Germany

CAL 3

CAL1

CAL 2Focus

Area

Cross

Topic

CLEVER Action Labs

www.clevercities.euCo-creation in Hamburg CALs.

CAL 1

- Urban gardening activities,

planting actions, high beds

(Refugee Camp, Church parish)

CLEVER

CAL 3

-Nature based solutions for a Public School

yard

-Garden design based on the workshop

with students

-Permaculture /

-Researchers Garden

-Aquaponics system

www.clevercities.euProject area in Milan, Italy

CLEVER Action Labs

CAL 1: “Rinverdiamo Milano”

CAL 2: “Giambellino 129”

CAL 3: “Tibaldi train stop”

www.clevercities.euCo-creation in Milan CALs.

CAL 1: Rinverdiamo MIlano

- A public bid for Green roofs

- Financial benefits of Green roofs implementation

- Technical support from architects for co-design of

solutions

- Public campaign on green roofs and vertical green

benefits

CAL 2: Giambellino 129

-Co-design by immersion in green areas

- a new neighborhood park for Giambellino 129

-Water solutions and

Collection of run-off

- Maintenance of eco

habitat

www.clevercities.euAn exhibition for

CLEVER Cities in

Milan

Fabbrica del

Vapore, 27th

September 2019.

www.clevercities.euProject area in London, UK

CLEVER Action Labs

Thamesmead - South Thamesmead, Parkview and Southmere Neighbourhoods

Source: Nicola – Murphy Evans, GLA.

www.clevercities.euCo-creation in London CALs.

CAL 1: Connecting people and places

- Health issues with child obesity and low-income

rates

- Co-design with residents to identify important

issues

CAL 2: Activating southmere lake

-Co-design by immersion in blue areas and resident led co-

mapping

-Raised beds food growing

-Community SUDs

www.clevercities.eu

WHAT DID

WE LEARN

FROM THE

CO-

CREATION

PROCESS?

www.clevercities.eu

CLEVER CitiesCities face many challenges at once

Climate Change

Population Growth

Increasing Diversity

Inequality

Biodiversity

Social Inclusion

Maintenance

Legitimacy / Transparency

www.clevercities.eu

TOPIC Hamburg London Milan

CLEVER NBS strategy in

place + urban

regeneration challenges

Corridor of interventions to connect green roofs and facades with school yards interventions

Targeting a neighborhood with social cohesion problems Thamesmead.The CALs take place in an urban context in current regeneration

Targeting a transect in south Milan for a new hub of green noise barriers and public park in Giambellino 129 (Municipal area 6) An awareness campaign in all Milan on green roofs and walls

UIP ESTABLISHMENT

CLEVER Mobile van to circulate around the dist.

Official launch with partners and citizens from the community.

2 Small scale events + press and media support

Co-creation pathway

governance

All CALs are considered a one process since it is a green connecting corridor with

Citizens are in the center of the interventions. Co-design events launched.

CAL 1: Ambiente italiaCAL 2: co-design process leads by Eliante CAL3: collaborative

Expected impacts

NBS educational campaign and awareness

Social inclusion Health and well being Safety and security

Co-benefits Env, social and cultural Env, citizen engagement Env, citizen engagement

Stakeholders engagement

in co-Implementation

process

More technocratic and top-down approach.

more touch ground experiences with local community members and common ground facilitator

Slow but steady inclusive co-creation, public events, activation of ULL in physical loco

Maintenance and

upscaling possibilities

Financial analysis to maintenance and upscale of NBS in the school yards

A study to possible small-scale upscale interventions in the same neighborhood of thamesmead

Currently the municipal authority will be in charge for the 3 CALs interventions till another mechanism of securing financial resources is guaranteed in the future.

www.clevercities.eu

Conclusions: BOTTLENECKS in NBS co-creation (1) Spatial Challenges

• The variety of NBS typologies, extension and localization criteria, makes the overall spatial challenge hard to deal with generally valid rules.

• NBS should not be considered as stand alone new interventions, but also as tools to properly maintain existing green, grey and blue infrastructures.

• It is essential to balance trade-offs while delivering multiple NBS and applying targeted participation programmes to engage vulnerable residents.

www.clevercities.eu

Topics Strong influences Weak/negative influences

Spatial Challenges

Scale of intervention

- Hamburg: opted for a single district green Corridor, unifying efforts on stakeholder’s engagement and collaboration

- London used a “hybrid solutions” model for a classic District urban regeneration process for testing the co-creation of NBS methodology.

- Milan has fragmented action labs of interventions which requires more “diversity” of stakeholders and further collaboration beyond one CAL specific scale.

- All: large scale interventions require long-term maintenance, the current co-implementation plan of the 9 CALs are still developing to include a section on the scale of the intervention

Type of interventions

- Hamburg: a diversity of solutions in School yard sand green roofs hence enabling a variety of co-benefits.

- Milan: innovative solutions in a transportation Hub (Tibaldi station), a possibility to embed Green noise barriers and a public “living” space on an existing infrastructure line.

- Milan: has a variety of types of interventions which makes the prioritization of specific NBS in place a hard process in co-design

- All: Integration of CALs in existing urban contexts is weak since citizens engagement is happening in a gradual involvement process.

Maintenance and upscaling

- Possible success stories in European contexts due to citizens stewardships in London for instance.

- Benchmarking CLEVER CALs against standalone interventions in all cities.

- Hamburg: educational aspects and awareness raised in school students for possible future interventions.

- Lack of financial resources due to long-term feasibility models that require return of investment in sustainable planning.

- All: Citizens stewardship is still getting tested against the co-creation and co-design process and requires long-term involvement of stakeholders.

www.clevercities.eu

Conclusions: BOTTLENECKS in NBS co-creation (2) Shared Governance Challenges

• The road to integration of NBS in planning tools and adopting planning laws and update procedures and tenders of public works to support NBS proliferation is still long.

• As well as the political support to rely on citizen-led initiatives to realize NBS in order to overcome the short-term political decision-making cycles (Schmalzbauer, 2018). While NBS are relevant for various departments in parallel, that requires clear responsibilities and coordination across offices and overcoming knowledge gaps on NBS design features.

• Moreover, co-creation expertise needs to be internalized in public administration and become the common rule of decision-making concerning urban regeneration interventions.

www.clevercities.eu

Governance Challenges

Urban policies and regulations changed

- Milan embedding co-creation in public bid of green roofs and facades implementation with stakeholders (municipality, professionals and citizens)

- Hamburg opted for digital participation (DIPAS) for citizens engagement in the process.

- London: if any?

- All: many assessment frameworks, implementation inequalities that a specific pathway for implementation does not necessarily work perfectly.

- No specific guidelines on how NBS should be co-created and upscaled in urban contexts, see 2.

- Cities are improvising in some sense to overcome implementation technical barriers,

Urban Innovation Partnership

- Milan: innovation to embed co-creation in a municipal governance process,

- London: inclusive process by bringing on board, citizens, residents, environmental agencies and local government authorities.

- Milan: fragmentation of resources and specific authorities which required “longer” time to overcome the breaking siloes process, see 3.2, early defined as path-dependency in the literature review,

Management and monitoring

- London: potential usage of smart Applications already in the market to measure the success of cohesion in the area, safety and security

- Hamburg: Lack of adequate framework for assessment of NBS impacts of social cohesion (in general) and specific measures

Communication

- Milan: periodic newsletter sent to a network of stakeholders for events and participation.

- All: cross cutting collaboration and information circulation between FR and all involved partners due to shared platforms, see http://clevercities.eu/

- Change of Language in Hamburg and Milan made the communication with public harder due to translation of Nature-based resources concept and materials.

- All: benchmarking CLEVER CALs is challenging to communicate in a

www.clevercities.eu

Conclusions: BOTTLENECKS in NBS co-creation (3) Financial Challenges

• The implementation and mainstreaming of NBS to address challenges is highly influenced both on the value and the ways in which the investment is secured and could be maintained over the long-term (Perrin, 2018a, 2018b)

• However, attracting private actors and demonstrating the return of investment of adaptation measures remains a big challenge.

Financial Challenges

Securing long term funds

- Milan: public and private funding opportunities on a public bid with (25%?) augmentation in case of implementing a CLEVER intervention in green roofs and walls.

-

- Milan: difficulties of establishment a steady financial resource in Tibaldi station since the whole project is sustained from Private investment resources (RFI, Italferr).

SHARE YOUR GOVERNANCE

CHALLENGE CO-CREATION LESSON

LEARNED

BEST PRACTICE

Enabling shared

governance in public

administration routines

Make co-creation a day to day activity

with stakeholders

Align strategies, values of green and

break sylos

- CLEVER cities co-creation guidance

toolkit

- Localizing NBS into ongoing

processes:

Homogenizing

approaches for different

NBS interventions

NBS should aim addressing specific

environmental and social challenges

present in place.

- Immersion in co-design,

- Personas, bring all people on board

- Do not ignore digital participation, a lot

of data comes in there

Make NBS an urban

regeneration priorityMake sure you highlight co-benefit to

end-users

- CLEVER cities similar experience from

London and Hamburg

Communicate with all

partners interested and

Communicating NBS to

public:

Build a network of stakeholders with a

strong vision.

- Urban Innovation Partnership (UIP) di

CLEVER Cities Milano, Milano+Verde

Make sure supply and demand

parties for the service is present

- UIP CLEVER Cities

- Engagement platforms

labsimurb - http://www.labsimurb.polimi.it

THANK YOU !

Israa MAHMOUD, Dastu- Polimi

Israa.mahmoud@polimi.it