Researchers/University

Thessaloniki has a dense urban structure with limited open and green spaces. As a coastal city severely impacted by climate change, it faces multiple interconnected challenges, including extreme weather events, flooding, and peri-urban forest fires. These issues are further compounded by the city's aging infrastructure and deteriorating buildings, increasing its vulnerability (Ref 1).
Kipos 3, a community garden, is part of the "Green Neighborhoods" project proposed in the Thessaloniki 2030 municipal resilience strategy (ibid.). Established in 2015 on a 600-square-meter plot donated by the municipality, the garden is now managed by 30 local families under the continued stewardship of the Municipality (Ref 2, 3). The garden's creation was supported by a team of architects, landscape architects, and agriculturists, and features a variety of herbs and edible plants grown using permaculture methods (Ref 3).
The garden hosts a greenhouse along a range of environmental, recreational, and educational activities, providing an opportunity to foster a more cohesive, inclusive, and resilient community. It also serves as a space for synergies and discussions about the future of the city (Ref 3, 4). Recognized as a good practice, the intervention has been showcased in national, European, and international networks (Ref 2, 4).

The Floating University was initiated in 2018 at the rainwater retention basin of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin. Though not an official university, it serves as a space for transdisciplinary, communal learning, transforming an abandoned urban site into a vibrant community resource. The project reclaims the basin, hosting workshops and events that range from ecological lectures to cultural and art programs, fostering collaboration between diverse disciplines and communities.
The architecture collective raumlaborberlin originally envisioned the project as a six-month initiative. Artists, universities, and seminar groups contributed to designing the space and organizing workshops. However, due to its success, an NGO, Floating e.V., was established to sustain the project. Today, the NGO manages the site and continues its mission of engaging communities with urban and ecological themes.
After Tempelhof airport closed in 2008, the basin was infrequently cleaned, leading to contamination and sediment accumulation. Over time, a wetland ecosystem emerged, attracting plants, insects, birds, mammals, and amphibians. This natural development complements the Floating University’s infrastructure, which consists of open timber structures like a kitchen, art installations, communal spaces, vertical gardens, gardening beds, and an auditorium. These structures integrate seamlessly with the basin’s existing technical framework and wetland environment.
Floating e.V. aims to make the basin accessible to Berlin’s urban population while sparking discussions about urban climate, resource management, and water cycles through diverse and artistic programs. Smaller initiatives focus on specific ecological themes, such as plant diversity and soil health, through projects like a seed archive and soil lab.
The Floating University exemplifies how abandoned urban spaces can be revitalized into hubs for learning, creativity, and ecological awareness. (1-3, 8, 9)

A community garden opened in 2023 on the Technological University (TU) Dublin Blanchardstown campus. This environmental education and social inclusion project is a collaborative effort involving Fingal County Council, Global Action Plan Ireland, TU Dublin, and the local community. It provides a space for local groups and schools to grow fresh produce, reconnect with nature, and foster a stronger sense of community.
Rooted in a successful template developed by Global Action Plan in Ballymun, this initiative promotes social and cultural inclusion alongside environmental education. The Green Living & Sustainability Community Garden (GLAS) aims to create an inclusive environment that welcomes individuals of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. More than a site for cultivating plants, flowers, and vegetables, the garden serves as a hub for fostering social connections, enhancing well-being, and offering valuable educational opportunities.
The garden provides individuals with the chance to engage in social horticulture, exploring the connections between food, health, biodiversity, and global issues such as climate change. It operates on organic and regenerative principles, with all tasks and harvests shared by volunteers. Additionally, the garden will support youth gardening projects and public workshops on topics such as growing food, composting, water harvesting, and waste management. Beyond its environmental benefits, the garden helps people connect with one another, positively impacting social, physical, and mental well-being.

The Gårda pilot rain garden has been constructed as part of the research project Innovative Rain Gardens at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. In addition to causing flooding, runoff rain water in urban environments can be contaminated with microplastics, organic pollutants and metals which can spread into the natural environment. Yet, most of the storm water in urban environments is not treated. The purpose of the Innovative Rain Gardens project is to research the ability of a pilot rain garden to treat such pollution. The project acknowledges the function of a rain garden to prevent flooding, but in this study only the pollution treatment potential is investigated. The pilot rain garden was constructed next to the E6 highway in central Gothenburg [Ref. 1-4]. It includes several different bioretention filters where selected plants are grown in filters containing different materials such as biochar, ash and soil [Ref. 2, 3]. Results so far show that the use of rain gardens can significantly reduce pollution. However, further research is needed to determine the long term function of the bioretention filters and the potential of scaling up the NBS. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), IMMERSE - Implementing Measures for Sustainable Estuaries, an Interreg project supported by the North Sea Programme of the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union, and COWIfonden (private foundation) [Ref. 1-3].

Sourced from Northern Worcestershire, the River Stour has played a significant role in the industrial heritage of Birmingham and the Black Country (Ref 1). It consists of 11 Water Framework Directive water bodies and multiple tributaries, spanning 200 km in length (Ref 2, 3). Once a pristine Salmonid river that powered the Industrial Revolution, rapid industrialization severely impacted the river, leaving it heavily polluted with sewage (ibid.).
Initiated by the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust (BBCWT) in 2021, the Love Your River Stour (LYRS) project focuses on Dudley and Wolverhampton, aiming to transform the River Stour and its surrounding green spaces into a beautiful, wildlife-rich source of pride for local communities and to create a corridor for wildlife to thrive through the heart of the Black Country (Ref 4).
Phase 1 of the project was completed in June 2023, bringing significant improvements along the river (Ref 5, 6, 7, 8). In Phase 2, the project will extend to a stretch running through Cradley Heath and Lye (Ref 7, 8). This initiative is funded by the UK Government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

As an industrial city under climate change, Birmingham has been confronted with multiple environmental risks such as air pollution, fluctuating precipitation and flooding (Ref 3). The Big City Plan is a 20-year city center regeneration plan to support Birmingham’s sustainable transformation, where the delivery of the Eastside City Park was prioritized (Ref 1, 2). Completed and opened to public in 2013, this first new park in Birmingham for 130 years is a linear site which connects the city center along the frontage of Millennium Point eastwards towards the Digbeth canal. (Ref 1, 4, 5). Providing 2.73 ha of urban green spaces, the multi-award winning development features more than 300 trees, a 110 meter canal water feature and a public square with 21 jet fountains, and offers “a moment of green in a journey through the city” (Ref 1, 6).

Peru is classified as one of the 17 most biodiverse countries in the world, so biodiversity and its conservation are important national aspects (2, 3, 4). However, one-third of the native flora currently assessed is threatened (3, 4). Thus, the creation of the Botanical Garden represents the opening of a space to learn about, study and conserve the national flora by strengthening Peruvian society's awareness of its value (4, 5).
The Botanical Garden is in its early stages of development and is not open to the public yet, but its development and implementation have the support of several associations such as the British Council, Concytec, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Culture, the British Embassy and the Asociación Pro Jardín Botánico Nacional de Lima (1). The initiative has been incorporated as part of the Bicentennial City project of the Ministry of Environment in Ancon (6).
The implementation began in 2021 on a 10-hectare plot of land donated by the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM) in Lima (3), and it will be carried out in several stages. An Inter-Institutional Committee has been established to oversee its development (3). In addition, it is planned to extend the idea of botanical gardens to other regions of the country, creating a network that will allow the conservation and study of flora in different contexts (4, 5), as the purpose of its development is to condense in one place all the biological richness of the country (7).
With this project, they aim to strengthen the conservation of plant species, the generation of inputs for education, and as a source of cultural spaces and for the well-being of its citizens, among others (1, 2). The Botanical Garden is intended to house a select sample of the more than 25,000 species in Peru, emphasising those that are endemic, threatened and of social, cultural and economic relevance (8).

In September 2018, a new didactic itinerary on invasive alien species was inaugurated in Cagliari's botanic garden. The initiative has been initiated in order to raise awareness and share important legislative and scientific knowledge on the matter (Refs. 1, 2 & 3). It has been curated by Life ASAP, which is an EU co-funded project focused on targeting the introduction of animal and vegetal alien species in Italian territory (Refs. 4 & 5). The initiative in the botanic garden focuses on a 13-pannels pathway through the garden, which will guide visitors towards the discovery of the issue of the introduction of alien invasive species on the territory. The goal is to attract the population's attention to the topic through a sensorial and interactive experience. In fact, the panels are easy to understand, colorful, and accompanied by explanatory images and bas reliefs. Children and youngsters can also participate in a laboratory called "the alien's identikit," according to which they have to recognize the newly learned alien species around the garden (Refs. 1, 2 & 3). This Path represents the first (and only) permanent space dedicated to biological invasion processes and invasive alien species in the network of Italian Botanical Gardens. (Ref.2).
Therefore, the project, in collaboration with the University of Cagliari, promotes education for all ages on the risks and consequences of such an underestimated problem and aims to educate citizens on how their actions can prevent the phenomenon from spreading further (Refs. 1, 2 & 3).

The Gothenburg Botanical Gardens are replacing and expanding their old greenhouses, which had serious flaws in terms of work environment, climate and accessibility [Ref. 1]. The new greenhouses will be divided into sections with a diverse set of climates and preserve over 4000 species, some of which are extinct in their natural environments [Ref. 1-2]. A new visitors centre is also being built and will have ameneties such as a café, a shop, toilets and places to sit, which will improve the Botanical Gardens' ability to invite the public and educate about biodiversity. The greenhouse project aims to strengthen the Gardens' national and international standing within research and education [Ref. 4]. A significant share of the visitors today are domestic and international tourists, and the new greenhouses aim to promote that further. The Botanical Gardens are owned by the regional government (Region Västra Götaland), which is funding these new project activities. The construction is ongoing and plans to finish in 2028, but the greenhouses will not be fully open to the public before the inauguration in 2030. The project has an investment budget of about 56 million EUR, and will, in total, occupy 6600 sqm [Ref. 1-3].

The NatureRx Rain Garden Pilot is a community-driven initiative aimed at addressing urban runoff and its associated challenges, implemented by Bí URBAN, a community hub and social enterprise in Dublin focused on urban regeneration. The pilot project developed in Stoneybatter, Dublin involves diverting rainwater from residential rooftops into specially designed rain gardens (1). The area is used as the first trial area by installing around 100 rain gardens (3, 11). Built to fit neatly into available spaces, these self-sustaining planters will filter rainwater through the garden, with overflow pipes in place to prevent flooding during heavy downpours (1).
It is expected that these gardens will transform sterile urban spaces into green areas, enhancing biodiversity, providing habitats for pollinators, and acting as carbon sinks (1,3).