Public regional budget

To mitigate environmental pressures, including air pollution and urban heat island effects and to improve urban resilience, the municipal government in Beijing has launched the largest afforestation Programme in 2012, Beijing Plain Area Afforestation Programme (BPAP). The aim was to create huge forest patches, develop urban forest park clusters and optimise the large-scale forest patterns. By 2015, BPAP has created green strategies with nine green wedges, multiple green belts, and green corridors around Beijing's old city centre. More than 70,000 hectares of forest (more than 54 million trees) have been planted, and the survival rate has exceeded 95%. BPAP has been considered one of the most ambitious projects for a high-density urbanised area like Beijing. [1, 5]

As a solution to the increasing population, pollution and high energy consumption, the municipal government of Shiraz has launched the Green City project in 2008. The main aim of this initiative is to reforest the city's periphery and encourage citizens to plant gardens on rooftops and the private sectors to adhere to the city’s development plan with all construction projects. [1]

Eco-district creation in Ulaanbaatar comes under the Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing and Resilient Urban Renewal Project (AHURP). The planned development areas are hotspots of greenhouse emissions and air pollution, mainly due to the widespread use of coal for heating and cooking. The project will transform the highly climate-vulnerable and polluting "ger" areas (traditional Mongolian tents) into zones that are low-carbon emitting, climate-resilient and affordable. This will be done through low-cost urban infrastructure, public facilities, and social housing units. The project's five phases will deliver about 20 eco-districts or sub-projects, with each covering an average of 5 ha. The project is a large-scale demonstration initiative that will leverage private sector investment to deliver affordable and green housing stock, and redevelop "ger" areas into urban areas that are resilient to climate change, contribute to decreased air and soil pollution, and will provide a liveable urban environment to "ger" area residents. It will also establish policies, mechanisms, and standards for sustainable affordable housing and green urban redevelopment. [1, 2, 3]

The Anderson Road Quarry, once a vacant 40-hectare site is getting transformed into a sustainable residential neighbourhood while ensuring climate resiliency and low environmental impact in Hong Kong. The site will supply housing for 25,000 people. In addition to this, the city is employing a wide array of adaptive and resilient approaches including saving around 3,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, helping the city live up to its 65% to 75% carbon reduction goal by 2030 set in Hong Kong Climate Action Plan. [1]

Medellin is the second-largest city in Colombia. The city used to be one of the most dangerous in the world, as Pablo Escobar founded here the Medellin cartel. After the death of Escobar, the city's homicide rate has decreased by 95% and extreme poverty by 66%, thanks in part to a string of innovative mayors who laid out plans to integrate the poorest and most violent hillside neighbourhoods into the city centre in the valley below. The same innovative mayors realised that Columbia and its cities are very vulnerable to climate change being located in a tropical zone and is influenced by El Niño and the La Niña. In Medellin, the municipality has built upon a tradition of planning to become an urban lab for the construction of public life with the aim of inclusive, peaceful and sustainable development. As such starting in 2008 Medellin began implementing a green strategy whose goal was the creation of a green belt around the city as well as waste control. The intervention discussed in this case is one initiated in 2014 when the municipality carried out planting and reforestation projects for the protection of the eastern slopes of the city. (1,2,3)

St Inez creek was an ecologically functional tidal waterbody in Panaji, Goa. Panaji has been identified as one of the most vulnerable coastal cities from floods due to the predicted sea-level rise. St Inez creek is one of the very important freshwater bodies in the city because of its cultural, social and biodiversity value. Recently, the ecological functionality of the creek was severely compromised through a combination of natural degradation and anthropogenic influences, which includes sedimentation, collapsed embankments, eutrophication, weed growth, pollution, the release of raw sewerage from neighbouring informal settlements and dumping of construction debris. The current intervention is about the restoration of the creek to conserve the urban nature and ecological systems and to increase the resilience of the city. [1, 2]

The city of Algiers initiated in 2010 a project in order to establish a green belt around its areas and some northern municipalities. The project aims to create agro parks, allotment gardens as well as parks as a strategy for reintegrating the concept of the green belt into the Algerian territory. Through this intervention, the municipality aims to put into practice environmental values ​​linked to improved quality of life and social well-being, for the benefit of the local community. The intervention plans to introduce different species of trees and include for the first time in Africa agro parks as spaces which are designed to reconcile urban and agricultural functions in a win-win strategy. The action was thought to respond to the impacts of climate change in the country, which faces rain events that are less frequent but more intense, and droughts that are more common and longer. (1,2,3,4)

Kaysone experiences severe flooding events on an annual basis due to its location to the banks of Mekong river, as well as periodic storms, and past responses to these threats have focused on the Savanxay Market and the Southern Flood Gate, but with limited success (Ref. 1). This intervention focuses on the development of an integrated adaptation plan for the area around the market and adjacent to the Mekong canal. This plan includes NBS-specific components considering how the market's parking area provides an important opportunity for bioengineering and green cover, and that there is "an opportunity to use adjoining land as a constructed wetland and park for recreation, flood retention and storm water treatment" (Ref. 1). The adaptation plan comprises seven points overall, focusing on wastewater recycling, walking paths, proper drainage and green space in addition to an educational component related to climate change and its impacts (Ref. 1).

The Krubong landfill site has been proposed to undergo a "thorough and safe environmental rehabilitation program[me]" so that the site can be developed as a public park (Ref. 1). Following completion of a feasibility study, it is envisaged that significant rehabilitation work to address environmental degradation and restoration of natural habitats will be required, after which the site will be developed into a public park (Ref. 1). The programme remains in its planning stage, but seeks to address Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) 11.6 and 15.1 through protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of ecosystems and reversing land degradation and/or biodiversity loss; and reducing the environmental impact of cities by paying special attention to waste management and providing access to safe, open public spaces (Ref. 1). At a more local level, the programme intends to complement additional programmes laid out in Melaka's Resilience strategy document, including promoting both cycling and pedestrian networks and reshaping public spaces in the city (Ref. 1).

The Tagabe Riparian Corridor Regeneration Project is an integrated catchment project ‘designed to build resilience into the riparian system to safeguard human wellbeing in the face of current and future climate change challenges and key population/ resources demands’ (Ref. 4). The project is focused on the ‘riparian margins of mid to lower catchment streams in the Tagabe catchment’ (Ref. 4,5). Activities consist of ‘riparian revegetation and stream bank protection; sustainable land management of adjacent farmlands; and point source pollution prevention and remediation’ through a series of 5-year management periods (Ref. 4,5). The project was part of the larger PEBACC (Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change) project and is now supported by the Vanuatu Government and various other initiatives like the Pacific R2R – Ridge to Reef programme (Ref. 8,9).