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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).

CityTree is a four-meter high freestanding installation that is able to purify city air of harmful pollutants by using a special moss culture. (Reference 1) The local government of the 3rd district tested the technology under a 6 month trial from September 2017 to March 2018. The CityTree pilot project in Budapest was concluded, once the district administration decided not to continue the project further due to technical reasons. The irrigation system started to malfunction very early in the trial period, which caused the mosses to dry out and thus producing no quantifiable results. (Reference 9)

Revitalization of the Brodowski Pond and its surroundings that include: revitalization of the pond itself, modernization of the viewpoints, building alleys, new lighting system, senior corner, playground, gym, greenery, recreational areas and a dog run. The justification for the project emphasizes revitalization of the area, improving its functionality and usefulness as well as aesthetics while preserving the terrain and raising the importance of the pond as a public space of a city of particular aesthetic values. (1)(2)

Agora Budapest is a large scale urban redevelopment project initiated by private investors. Besides implementing five high-quality office buildings, the investors aim at creating green public spaces the size of 7000 square metres in order to provide a healthy and vivid working environment. The green surface involves green roofs, parks and tree lines, all which will be irrigated using collected rainwater. The solar panels on the roofs of the buildings are also part of the sustainability plans of the investors. (Ref 1. and Ref 4.)

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.

In 2014, the Bielefeld Botanical Garden was expanded with a 2,700 land, previously owned by the local municipality. The extension area and the “old” part of the Botanical Garden were visually and functionally separated by the dense, sometimes gloomy woody vegetation of the "new" area where the watercourse and the small reservoirs were barely noticeable. The aim of the redevelopment is to integrate the entire extension area into the old botanical garden using pathways between the old and the new areas of the botanical garden, the improvements of water body and vegetation areas. The redevelopment also includes the renovation of buildings in the "old" area of the botanical garden, the installation of new recreation facilities and the building of a pharmacy garden. The planning and implementation process is lead by the Friends of the Botanical Garden Bielefeld Association (Verein Freunde DesBotanischen Gartens Bielefeld e.V) in close cooperation with the Environmental Agency of the local municipality (1,2, 7,10,11)

"Flowers in the city' is a small project in the northern district of Szczecin to plant multi-species flowers in the green belt between two big city roads. The preparation of the meadow consists of removing the layer of turf and planting the corresponding species of flowers in different colours in different periods of the year so that the flower carpet flourishes for most of the vegetation season. The justification for the project highlights its esthetical effects, its role in serving as a food area for pollinators as well as a cost reduction for the lawn care units due to less annual mowing [1].

Located in the neighborhood of Pla del Bon Repòs com, Carolines Altes, Carolines Baixes and Campoamor, the community orchard of Carolines is an initiative to transform an abandoned lot into a sustainable garden and a community orchard (Ref. 2). "The place where this orchard is located was an abandoned space for 20 years where a large amount of garbage accumulated. The neighbors decided to clean the area by giving it a use with an orchard area, meeting area, gardening. The people responsible for it are the assembly of neighbors. It is also an action to combat the physical and psychological degradation of the neighborhood, being the community garden an excuse for this, but also a fundamental pillar where these ideas are based." (Ref. 2)

Together with citizens, municipality, NGOs and urban green space developers and managers, GREEN SURGE contributed to the improvement of Ljubljana’s urban green spaces in the LivadaLAB initiative. This project combined research insights with the expertise of the youth NGO Zavod Bob, University of Ljubljana, the Institute for Sustainable Development, construction company LAVCO, urban management company TISA, and a number of local businesses. Together, they implemented a project which successfully integrates youth and environmental policy goals for the City of Ljubljana. It engaged over 30 young citizens in developing a multifunctional open public green space with the aim to further promote, support and foster the active role of citizens, especially marginalized groups, in improving the quality of urban green spaces in Ljubljana. This project is one of the initiatives under the overarching Uran Learning Labs (ULLs) project by Green Surge, which was applied to 20 European cities. (1, 4 and 5)

"After the intervention, the 530 square metres of the block of land have been turned into a new public square with a metal structure over fifteen metres high which is the support of a hanging garden. The structure is attached to the two flank walls facing on to the square in such a way that it completely conceals them. Beneath the ground level of the square, there is a basement housing the new offices of the neighbourhood association, which is responsible for the environmental management of the garden and its use as an educational space." (Ref. 2)