Integrated NBS Urban Planning Methodology for Enhancing the Health and Well-Being of Citizens: The euPOLIS Approach
The euPOLIS aims to improve Public Health in cities by introducing nature-based solutions into urban planning practices.
That means that our experts are taking the best from nature’s ways to regulate and improve biodiversity by incorporating various BLUE (water) and GREEN (plant life) aspects of nature into urban open spaces where it can intensify people’s wellbeing in terms of climate, ecological and socio-economic conditions. Our methodology introduces several analytical procedures making the process more transparent and open to stronger IT support. One of the specialties is the planning of urban spaces populated with vegetation with a proven beneficial impact on cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. The philosophy is deeply grounded in the extensive and permanent citizens’ participation in urban-planning processes.
Unlike the "gray" infrastructural solutions that rely on finite, unrecyclable, and more often than not, harmful materials, the NBS includes restoring and conserving natural biodiversity in the endeavor to harness rising environmental issues in urban cores.
And while the traditional approach may appear quicker to solve many of the issues, it has to be maintained and restored, again causing more damage, waste, and vast interventions. NBS has to be kept up as well, but its maintenance is way less costly in money and finite natural resources, and it’s self-sustainable to the most extent. As a plus, it is proven that staying surrounded by natural elements improves our physical and mental health, thus magnifying all our capabilities.
We believe citizens are the ultimate experts on matters of the quality of their lives.
With participation being one of the crucial pillars of the euPOLIS philosophy, the Front-Runner cities are in a constant co-creative process that puts together a team of professionals with the genuine, grounded experience and needs of local citizens. That means collecting their insights, emotions, hopes, and even psycho-physical state (through wearing special biometrical devices) and including them in the designing processes of implementing the NBS. All these steps aim to help cities embrace the transition to bottom-up decision-making methods and empower citizens to participate in inventing their public environment.
Alongside nature’s solutions being reinaugurated into urban cores, the euPOLIS uses innovative technologies to support this process:
- The myFeel application - Existing and New Functions tailored to the euPOLIS project (Sentio Labs)
- The euPOLIS BioAssist application (BioAssist)
- The Urban Water simulation tools (NTUA - UWMH Lab)
- The network of permanent sensors (Plegma)
- The euPOLIS 4D Visualisation module (GSH)
- The euPOLIS Master Planning Methodology, the GDPM (EnPlus)
- Innovative Model of Cultural - Social Community Hub (Mikser)
Integrated NBS Urban Planning Methodology for Enhancing the Health and Well-Being of Citizens: The euPOLIS Approach
The euPOLIS aims to improve Public Health in cities by introducing nature-based solutions into urban planning practices.
That means that our experts are taking the best from nature’s ways to regulate and improve biodiversity by incorporating various BLUE (water) and GREEN (plant life) aspects of nature into urban open spaces where it can intensify people’s wellbeing in terms of climate, ecological and socio-economic conditions. Our methodology introduces several analytical procedures making the process more transparent and open to stronger IT support. One of the specialties is the planning of urban spaces populated with vegetation with a proven beneficial impact on cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. The philosophy is deeply grounded in the extensive and permanent citizens’ participation in urban-planning processes.
Unlike the "gray" infrastructural solutions that rely on finite, unrecyclable, and more often than not, harmful materials, the NBS includes restoring and conserving natural biodiversity in the endeavor to harness rising environmental issues in urban cores.
And while the traditional approach may appear quicker to solve many of the issues, it has to be maintained and restored, again causing more damage, waste, and vast interventions. NBS has to be kept up as well, but its maintenance is way less costly in money and finite natural resources, and it’s self-sustainable to the most extent. As a plus, it is proven that staying surrounded by natural elements improves our physical and mental health, thus magnifying all our capabilities.
We believe citizens are the ultimate experts on matters of the quality of their lives.
With participation being one of the crucial pillars of the euPOLIS philosophy, the Front-Runner cities are in a constant co-creative process that puts together a team of professionals with the genuine, grounded experience and needs of local citizens. That means collecting their insights, emotions, hopes, and even psycho-physical state (through wearing special biometrical devices) and including them in the designing processes of implementing the NBS. All these steps aim to help cities embrace the transition to bottom-up decision-making methods and empower citizens to participate in inventing their public environment.
Alongside nature’s solutions being reinaugurated into urban cores, the euPOLIS uses innovative technologies to support this process:
- The myFeel application - Existing and New Functions tailored to the euPOLIS project (Sentio Labs)
- The euPOLIS BioAssist application (BioAssist)
- The Urban Water simulation tools (NTUA - UWMH Lab)
- The network of permanent sensors (Plegma)
- The euPOLIS 4D Visualisation module (GSH)
- The euPOLIS Master Planning Methodology, the GDPM (EnPlus)
- Innovative Model of Cultural - Social Community Hub (Mikser)
euPOLIS Cities:
euPOLIS Cities:
News
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The euPOLIS experts are identifying sound business models, replicable to other markets, and developing new resource activation techniques and ways to scale up Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). This will support a gradual transition to a leading market position for the euPOLIS project, moving it to the forefront of…
Urban Planning Gamification by euPOLIS
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euPolis, GoGreenRoutes, IN-HABIT, and VARCITIES presented their joint Manifesto during the EU Green Week at the Network Nature Event
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“Tour de Bogotá” – A Six-Kilometer euPOLIS Bicycle Ride
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News
Can Green Be a Profitable, Fast-Growing Business – the euPOLIS Angle
The euPOLIS experts are identifying sound business models, replicable to other markets, and developing new resource activation techniques and ways to scale up Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). This will support a gradual transition to a leading market position for the euPOLIS project, moving it to the forefront of…
Urban Planning Gamification by euPOLIS
As part of creating and developing tools and methodologies to level up urban planning, creating sustainable, livable, and resilient cities for the future – now, a euPOLIS expert, Ioannis Kavouras from the National Technical Univesity of Athens, made a demo version of the euPOLIS urban…
euPolis, GoGreenRoutes, IN-HABIT, and VARCITIES presented their joint Manifesto during the EU Green Week at the Network Nature Event
The EU Green Week 2023 has begun! Europe’s biggest annual event on environmental policy gathers over 250 partner events organized across Europe and beyond, allowing everyone to be part of the debates. EuPolis, GoGreenRoutes, IN-HABIT, and VARCITIES, the four European projects that designed the Manifesto,…
NetworkNature Taskforces Cluster Meeting and Annual Event
The NetworkNature Taskforces Cluster Meeting of 7th June will aim at showcasing the main results, tools, and products from the Taskforces, as well as from the NBS projects, enabling exchanges and dialogues on how projects’ experiences and results can be strengthened and directed towards better…
Plenary Meeting + Expert Training by The euPOLIS Team
The fifth plenary meeting of the euPOLIS project consortium took place in early May in Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen. All partners’ representatives gathered to evaluate the so far road taken, mark the milestones, and debate on future steps on all project’s aspects: technological, social, economic, cultural,…
“Tour de Bogotá” – A Six-Kilometer euPOLIS Bicycle Ride
Our Colombian partner, the Follower City of Bogotá recently held an interactive demonstration of the euPOLIS methodology, by engaging professionals and citizens in an immersive sports, cultural and educational event, the Rodada euPOLIS bike ride. The “Tour de Bogotá” ride was organized by the ERU’s…