Public local authority budget

This pilot project to create social gardens in Gdynia was developed by a cooperative of the local government, NGO sector and businesses. The project involved creating 3 (and finally 6) social gardens in different locations of Gdynia (Oksywie, Grabówek and Redłowo). They serve ecologic (greenery planting), horticultural (jointly managed vegetable and herb gardens), social (community integration) and educational (workshops on topics such as healthy lifestyle or building bird boxes) purposes. The gardens are being co-managed on a voluntary basis by the local communities with the help of an appointed gardener and an animator [1,4]. The project is based on 4 pillars: 1) social participation; 2) innovation; 3) social sensitivity; 4) food anthropology [5].

Tondiraba is a green urban area located in Lasnamäe, it is a valuable area with a diverse landscape which at the start of the initiative was severely overgrown and randomly used. The city planned to build an eco-golf course where the diverse and species-rich landscape and protected species are preserved. The architecture of the golf course is based on the advantages of the natural location and an ‘eco-golf course' concept. These landscapes and their flora were generated with landscape maintenance methods, which results in ‘micro-communities’ in which the ecosystems characteristic of the given area would start developing (ref 1, 5).

In 2017, under a bigger project, the municipality of Sintra started the work for the rehabilitation of an area that included beaches and rivers, such as the Mata river. The NBS solves a problem of accumulation of water and sludge that was unsolved, through the recovery and cleaning of Ribeira da Mata (small river/brook), planting trees and promotion of an improvement in water quality and sand on the beach.
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The Strasbourg Grandeur Nature Plan is engineered by Strasbourg Metropole and is focused on optimising the actions and resources and resources of local authorities in the maintenance of local biodiversity and improving the living environment (Ref. 7). It combines with local associations and citizens through organising interfaces (e.g. workshops, online tools) that allow relevant local authorities to engage with local projects and make interventions on the basis of proposals made by the community. The project aims at improving the maintenance and development of green spaces and biodiversity due to the environmental issues surrounding urban sprawls (Ref. 4).

This project aimed at the reconstruction of the Lepiku channel that is part of the drainage system, which starts next to the Tallinn Botanic Garden and includes wetlands, detention ponds, ditches and channels and flows into the Pirita river. The aim of the project was to improve the quality of the stormwater that flows into the Pirita river which is a Natura 2000 site and flows into the Baltic Sea. The work included: widening of channel bottom in different segments, creating artificial dykes and rapids and creating suitable conditions for the aquatic plants exhibited in Botanic Garden (ref 1). With the project, 200m of the channel was reconstructed (ref. 5).

Based on a neighbourhood survey the results pointed to a lack of green recreational spaces, in 2015 the citizens initiated a project to develop a new green square at the Zielona Street 19 in Gdynia. The project was implemented in 2018 and it aimed at improving the aesthetics of the district and provide green leisure space for the community. The initiative involves the management of the existing lawn, planting shrubs and trees, creating flowerbeds, building alleys and installing street lamps, creating variously-shaped wooden benches and litter bins, as well as building a fenced sandpit and a playground [1].

The Danube Eco-District project is Strasbourg's first eco-districy and is based on previous experimental designs in sustainable urban living (Ref. 27, 30). It is situated at the heart of the axis Deux Rives, and is thus a strategic point of the large Franco-German Deux Rives project (Ref. 28). The district will have the capacity for 20,000 residents, and will include green spaces, green roofs, insect hotels (Ref. 1), various water management facilities (ditches, swales... etc.), and composting facilities (Ref. 4). The project aims to improve biodiversity, social equality, ecology, reduce urban heating, and promote sustainable consumption (Ref. 30).

The "Ciobarciu wetland" project resulted in the creation of a wetland area of ​​about 224 hectares near the city of Iasi (30 Km distance). The area of ​​nature thus became in spring and autumn a significant resting place for migratory birds, and the specific types of natural vegetation are growing again, constituting a natural habitat for the locales specific to these places. The project was developed by the National Administration of the Romanian Waters alongside the Dutch Government in order to restore the area and to include it in the ecosystem of the place (1)

The idea of ​​the project Redevelopment Of Place d'Austerlitz was to create an autonomous ecosystem, including plants and animals, with wild grasses and native trees that attract insects, mammals and birds (Ref. 4). The restructuring involved a whole mixture of paths, fauna, flora and riverside, all within a framework promoting urban ecology and biodiversity (Ref. 5). The project was conceived as "an archipelago of nature in the city" (Ref. 10, 12).

The Development Of The Banks Of The Faux Rempart Ditch is focused on the biological and ecological continuity of the right bank of the Faux Rampart (Ref. 6). The ditch was abandoned, underdeveloped and found to be lacking of the rich biodiversity otherwise seen in the surrounding area. thus, at the request of the local inhabitants, the City of Strasbourg intervened to revitalise the accessibility and greenery located at the area (Ref. 4).