Sports areas and equipment

Funded by the ERDF through the financial instrument JESSICA, the aim of the ecopark is to compensate for the tree felling during the construction of the second rowing canal by the river Maritsa, provide a natural place for recreation, and restore the ecological stability of the area. This is accomplished by restoring elements of the natural habitat in the river and the land nearby: trees, terrestrial and water plants, and small islands.
(Ref. 1; Ref. 2)

The intervention will be carried out in the Zen neighbourhood, as part of an overarching project which includes the care of green areas and plantation of new trees in the parks, especially those close to public schools. There will be 11 specific areas of intervention within the Zen neighbourhood. In addition, it is underlined the specific service provided by those new areas, such as the positive impact of the green view, the mitigation of effects such as urban pollution and human impact on the environment. (Ref.1.)

The project involves the formation of a statutory Green Belt of 3,500 hectares as part of the broad strategy of the Tyne & Wear County Structure Plan to restrain the further spread of the built environment and to safeguard the city's countryside from encroachment (Ref 2). The Green Belt prevents small villages to merge with large towns, preserving their individual identities, and also accommodates a wide variety of the borough's environmental assets, including Local Wildlife Sites and wildlife corridors (ref 3). It is claimed to contribute significantly to the city's green infrastructure (Ref 1 & 4).
The Green Belt boundaries have not changed since 1998 (Ref 1), but it is currently (in 2020) under reassessment in response to the development needs of adjacent towns (Ref 1). Thus even though the intervention started almost 50 years ago, it is an ongoing process.

The project RUIS (Riqualificazone Urbana Infrastrutture e Sicurezza), stands for the regeneration of urban infrastructure and safety. The initiative is carried out by the municipality of Palermo, in order to improve the urban resiliency of the intervention area, with the creation of further green areas in neighbourhoods dealing with problems of heatwaves and environmental degradation. The main areas which will be the focus of the regeneration process will be those considered to be in degradation state. It is expected that the quality of life of the residents will significantly improve (Ref.1.).

The Generalunternehmung Losinger Marazzi AG is developing a sustainable city quarter with Greencity, incorporating alley trees, pocket parks, house gardens, and green areas attached to the buildings (Ref 2). The landscape concept contrasts the new concentration of urban housing, services, and businesses with the landscape’s natural geomorphological features. The place is very close to the Sihl river. The river landscape defines western and eastern Manegg which benefit from other characteristic natural features, forests and the grasslands of the Entlisberger embankment. The newly erected, densely built “GreenCity” dovetails with the natural landscape it’s nested in (Ref 1).

An ongoing extensive expansion of park Lauta in Plovdiv has been carried out. The primary nature-based means used in the project is tree planting. However, animals were also introduced to the habitat. The project aims at creating a suitable place for recreation, purifying the air of Plovdiv, and enriching the park's fauna (Ref. 2; Ref. 3; Ref. 7).

The former site of the Krupp cast steel factory was transformed into a 230 hectares green belt stretching from the city
center to the district of Altendorf, while the adjacent industrial wasteland was turned into an 11 hectares add-on to the Krupp Park (Ref. 1). The landscape vision "Freiraum creates urban space", in which the Krupp Park is a building block, is a comprehensive strategic approach that aims to gradually build up new urban landscape structures and to create diverse qualities of location for different urban uses" (Ref. 9).

The initiative created the first in the city anti-smog garden around a local school. The garden serves multiple purposes as it will include: a greenhouse and a composter, the air-pollution absorbing plants that will attract birds and insects and protect the school from urban dust and noise, a vegetable garden, houses for hedgehogs, birds and butterflies, a 'sensory' path for medicinal gymnastics, a roofed gazebo, a meteorological station and a book exchange booth. It is open to other schools and kindergartens and the general public during the school working hours - for educational purposes and recreation [1,2].

Numerous developments have been carried out at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse's (ENVT) green campus to make the site more conducive to the maintenance and development of biodiversity as result of the school's "VERT VET" (GREEN VET) club (Ref. 2). The green changes began as a result of the school's 2008 sustainable development policy (Ref. 1). Among its many functions and activities, the policy helped raise awareness, clean ponds, and a well, construct a vegetable garden and make beehives and bird nest boxes in the campus's two classified forests (Ref. 3).

The community garden is located in the midst of a housing quarter and in the city district of Grünau, a former Plattenbau-area and forms part of a wider area redevelopment project which turns former brownfield (from the DDR era) into generationally mixed housing units with higher living standards. The idea for the garden arose among its residents, who determined its design and elements. It consists of multi-use zones for young and old residents: a central square, a pond with special flora, plant beds for gardening and harvesting, a wild meadow for recreation and picnics (2,3).