Protect and enhance urban habitats

The Street Office (Gatukontoret) and VA Syd rebuilt Fjärilsparken (The butterfly park) in Bunkeflostrand (Malmö). For the shallow stream that runs through the park the slopes of the dikes have been made flat, meadow vegetation and wetland-plants planted in the wetlands. An area east of the park was built with houses and stormwater was managed in new ways (ref. 1). Opening the park up to the sea, flower beds were planted for richer plant and wildlife, butterfly-attracting plants were planted, lighting for safety was installed and areas with benches and bridges were created (ref. 1).

"Micro-flowering are participative urban gardening projects that allow the vegetation of streets by small plantations of annuals and perennials, vegetable and ornamental, in the municipal public space. Generally, it is a matter of developing a mineral surface on the municipal surface of the city by planting pockets. These are then maintained by the inhabitants who requested micro-flowering. Micro-flowering is a place of sharing and conviviality that allows the inhabitants to be actors of their neighborhood" (Ref. 1). In 2018, formalized 'greening permits' were launched. In this system, micro-flowering permits are requested by residents and "The municipal agents come to drill the concrete of the sidewalks and the City provides the plants" (Ref. 9 and 11).

Sweden's second largest population of the acutely threatened Green Spotted Toad ("Bufotes viridis") populates in the Northern harbour (Norra hamnen) in Malmö. In 2014 when inventories were carried out, it was shown that four water areas were used for reproduction. Despite a major exploitation interest, city administrations and landowners, together with the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen Skåne), agreed to protect the population and to take measures to maintain its status (ref. 1, 2). A 15.5 hectare area had been protected until further notice from continued land changes and other disturbing activities, and the area had been fenced (ref. 1).

Larkhill Gardens Lake improvement is a collaborative project between the City Council, the Environment Agency and the local community. It is part of the long-term project, Liverpool Park Lakes Project, whose aim is to tackle many problems faced by shallow park lakes. Larkhill Gardens Lake (4936m2) a circular shaped, steep, vertical hard-banked lake, situated in a small estates garden in the city. Like many lakes, Larkhill Gardens Lake experienced problems linked to structural decline, lack of water, poor water quality, poor habitat quality, loss of management of the user and lack of proactive management by the City Council. The improvement of the lake included changing its structure to create a deep-water fishing area, shallow water area and wetland.
The project was funded by a partnership between Liverpool City Council and the Environment Agency (Reference 1).

"Since August 2004, the city of Montpellier has allowed residents to rent plots of garden, called "Les jardins Familiaux"(family gardens). The first plots were located in the Mosson district, but in view of the success of this operation, the city decided to open additional gardens at the Grands Grès site in the Port Marianne district, then at the Rieucoulon in the Croix- Money. The enthusiasts of green spaces can thus indulge in the pleasure of gardening in family thanks to these brackets of greenery. They grow vegetables and fruit as they please"(Ref. 1). Seventeen gardens (as of August 3, 2020) are located in different areas across the city (Ref. 6). "These gardens are urban planning tools favoring the social bond and the preservation of biodiversity and the urban landscape, for the gardeners interviewed these are essentially places of nature and well-being in the city"(Ref. 4)

Approximately one-fifth of the rain that falls in Malmö's urban area is led to Risebergabäcken, which makes it by far Malmö's largest watercourse. None of the other watercourses receives more than a very small part of the municipality's stormwater. The flow in Risebergabäcken is in many places it is narrow and deep, which means that the water rises quickly when there is a lot of rain (ref. 7). Large precipitation and asphalt industrial environment in Skogholm's meadows (Skogholms ängar) have long been a problem of overload in Risebergabäcken, but the ecological stormwater system delays and cleans the water, as well as preventing erosion and floods (ref. 1).

With its parking areas, ponds, the Lutter stream, playground facilities, walking and jogging paths, the green corridor of Bielefeld, called Luttergrünzug offers recreation opportunity to around 36, 000 people, living in the surrounding areas. As a link between the eastern city center and the district of Heepen, it also enables walking and cycling routes for commuting and shopping away from the busy streets of the city (7). However, the green corridor has been showing some structural and functional defects such as the silting up of the ponds, conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists and the increasing overgrowth of the green belt (8). In order to solve these problems, the renovation and redesign of the Green Corridor was proposed. The regeneration project addresses different needs and requirements of the municipality, namely providing the comfortable infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, and the increase of attractiveness of the neighbouring residential areas. In the planning process, special attention was paid to the improvement of the draining system and the reservoirs of the area that will protect the Belt from flooding. (8)

Two regeneration plans were developed with citizens' involvement and presented to the political committee. In 2017, the implementation of the "smaller" variant was voted for, which was already presented in the first citizens' workshop (1, 4).

The BiodiverCity-project aimed to develop products, services and processes which support and enhance the city’s biodiversity and thus contribute to a vision of a green, attractive and healthy city (ref. 1). The project had been divided in three steps, step 1 involving preliminary studies and step 2 was practical work for two years. During step 2 different cases were identified to test new ways to e.g. increase the city's biodiversity. Step 3 included spreading to other sectors through seminars, education and exhibition activities. It also included the commercialization of green solutions (ref. 2).

The landscape in the Bielefeld agglomeration is exposed to stress from high settlement pressure and expansion of the infrastructure as well as in parts of intensive agricultural use (2). Since 2003, the Senne and neighbouring areas of the Teutoburg Forest which is protected under the Europe-wide protected area system, Natura 2000, become part of the funding program of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and become one of Agency's Large-scale nature conservation projects (NGP) (2, 5,13).
The project area lies in the transition area between two major German landscapes: the Senne as part of the north-west German lowlands and the Teutoburg Forest as part of the Central European low mountain range. The juxtaposition and close interlocking of numerous habitats such as species-rich beech forests, remains of acidic deciduous mixed forests, dry and humid heathland or natural sandy streams form the basis for diverse flora and fauna. Many of the numerous rare plant and animal species are rarely found in North Rhine-Westphalia outside of the NGP area (13).

The natural area complex Senne and Teutoburg Forest was declared by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) to be one of the 30 hotspots of biological diversity in Germany due to its nationwide uniqueness ( overview map ). These “Treasure Chests of Nature” (BfN 2015) distinguish regions in Germany that have a particularly high density and diversity of characteristic habitats, species and populations.(13)
The NGP was funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia with contribution of participating municipalities and the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation (13). The Teutoburg Forest / Eggegebirge Nature Park is also sponsoring the project (12).

The Rákos-patak Green Corridor is a large-scale development project aimed at revitalizing the environment of the Rákos Stream on a 23 kilometre long path from it's areas in the outskirts of Budapest to the city center. The most important element of the development project is the planned bicycle lane, which would connect the already existing bicycle lanes along the stream into a full 23 kilometre one. In some areas of the planned corridor, other developments will happen with the goal of preserving and restoring habitats which originally existed in the area before it was first regulated. Near the outer areas of the stream, afforestation will also take place. (Reference 9) The area of the stream is currently underdeveloped. According to the plans, the new green corridor could help decrease urban stress.