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)
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)
euPOLIS Cities:
euPOLIS Cities:
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Belgrade demo site – The Zemun Oasis
The Belgrade euPOLIS experts’ team recently held an outdoor workshop with the neighbors and passers-by of one of the local demo sites, the Danube Quay. The participants were presented with the draft design of the demo park and an eco-edu center, created by the winning…
Can the Western Balkans be an Example of a Green Transition?
In 2019, 30,760 premature deaths were recorded in the Balkans region due to air pollution alone. Due to the poor condition of the water supply network, we lose 50 percent of drinking water. If this is not alarming and frightening for all of us, I…
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Blue Green Healthy Cities for Happy People: The euPOLIS approach in modeling Nature-based Solutions impacts in integrated urban planning & design webinar will take place under the umbrella of EU Green Week events, on June 1st, starting at 1 PM (UTC+01:00 Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London),…
Waterscape Politics in Urban Contexts Lecture
Prof. Čedo Maksimović (ICL) will give a lecture within the Waterscape Politics in Urban Contexts seminar, organized by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, taking place on May 20th, starting at 11 AM CET at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in…
Are Food Delivery Apps Making Us Obese?
Well above half of the European adults and one in three children are either overweight or obese, and this stat stands for all countries of the “old continent”. In some regions, these diseases prevailed in children and teenagers during the pandemic. However, the numbers are…
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The team of euPOLIS partners from Universidad de Los Andes, Imperial College London, and the Faculty of Civil Engineering from Belgrade will be the guest-editors of the upcoming Special Issue of the “Sustainability”, an international, cross-disciplinary, scholarly, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal of environmental, cultural, economic, and…