From 19 November 2024 to 21 November 2024 the City of Palermo hosted the first NBS HUB Italy annual meeting (the City of Palermo is a Founding Member), organized by the Environmental Policies Area, Ecological Transition and Green Regeneration of the municipality in collaboration with the  Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET) of the National Research Council (CNR), focused on the vital and fruitful contribution of the restoration of Biodiversity for the regeneration of urban environments, with methods and techniques based on NBS (Nature Based Solution).

1  – The event – Lanza Hall – Botanical Garden

The meeting addressed the most pressing and imminent issues and challenges that Europe and Italy must face with the introduction of NBS in Plans, Programs, and interventions, both in policies and in practices and technological innovation, and presented ongoing achievements and solutions also in the sector of standardization and standardization of processes and applications.

2 – Registration at the event

On November 19, the NBS Italy Hub members met at the GAM (Palermo Modern Art Gallery) conference room.

3 – The Gymnasium – Botanical garden

On November 20, at the Lanza Hall of the Botanical Garden of Palermo, an intense debate took place, in a hybrid mode, online and physical, with a large participation, including thematic round tables, with interesting experts’ contributions from the European Commission, Universities, CNR IRET, MASE, the Regions and the most active Municipalities, including the Municipality of Palermo, which presented the current state of the performance of the Municipal Environmental Information System (SIAC) – designed and managed by the Environmental Policy Area and, in particular, showed the “Change detection” application, of which the Municipality boasts the primacy at Italian level and which allows to detect and identify any changes in land use within a specific period of time. During the event posters were displayed in the Gymnasium, including some related to the euPOLIS project.

4 – Palermo euPOLIS team

5 – The posters exhibition

Through the SIAC, Palermo is the first among the large cities in Italy to have a real-time monitoring service extended to the entire municipal territory.

The applications are multiple:

– Monitoring of land use;

– Identification of potential building abuses;

– Identification of illegal landfills;

– Study and analysis of the evolution of the city of Palermo;

– Protection of the coast and verification of its correct use.

Eupolis project was also presented to the large audience showing its methodology and progress both in the front runner cities and in the city of Palermo.

6 – euPOLIS project presentation during the event

7 – Botanical garden visit

8 – La fontana delle ninfee – Botanical garden

On November 21, the experts of the Municipality of Palermo illustrated to the Organizing Committee and to other citizens the species and habitats of scientific and landscape importance of the Favorita Park, which contribute to ensuring the values ​​and benefits of natural and agricultural biodiversity within the city, as NBS structuring the territory of Palermo.

9 – Old agriculture tecniques – Villa Niscemi

10 – Favorita Park’s visit

11 – Green wall – Teatro della Verdura

The visit ended at the Teatro della Verdura where a green wall was installed.

Giuseppina Liuzzo & Elenia Drago