Conduct a baseline survey before and after NBS implementation

The Kersentuin (Cherry Garden), an environmentally, socially and economically friendly community in Leidsche Rijn, an urbanization-from-scratch area in the west part of Utrecht, has been founded and developed by the residents themselves. The area is very popular and is seen as an interesting best practice in ideal green neighbourhood developments (ref. 4). It is a sustainable neighbourhood which integrates technical and social sustainability by building sustainable houses and creating public green spaces that promote biodiversity and social cohesion. The main characteristic of the Cherry Garden is the self-management of the green spaces which is achieved by gardening days. The project was innovative at the time of implementation and inspired many other projects (ref. 1).

In 2016 the Municipality of Lisbon started the renovation of the Botanical Garden of Lisbon, declared in 2010 as a national heritage monument. The botanical garden is both a vital urban open space and a significant cultural landscape of the city. This Botanical Garden is home to an important collection of plants with economic value, reflecting the strong links to the Portuguese expansion and the routes of the navigators that spread them across the various continents. The intervention is expected to provide improvements in the irrigation and water circulation systems, in the rainwater harvesting system, in the reorganization and improvement of garden green spaces, and in the restoration of paths. With the objective of requalifying the space, bringing significant improvements in terms of sustainability of resources, visitors safety, new cultural and recreational opportunity spaces (Ref. 3, 4, 8).

This area of Keighley is drained by a combined sewer system operated by Yorkshire Water. The natural drainage system is poorly defined.
During extreme rainfall, water from the park and adjacent housing flows down the hill and into the surrounding area and causes flooding. Storage in the form of SuDS was provided in Devonshire Park using a series of “trench trough” structures. These take the form of depressions (swales) with gently sloping sides (ref. 1). Extensive flooding in 2008 and 2012, the local resilience group has been working tirelessly to reduce flooding in Devonshire Park areas (ref 4). Up to £170m of this has been brought forward to accelerate work on ‘shovel-ready’ flood defence schemes to begin construction in 2020 or 2021. The Keighley and Ilkley constituency are one of the beneficiaries, with improvements set to be made to Natural Flood Management aspect of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, providing an immediate boost to jobs supporting the local economy (ref 4).

The Seven Lochs Wetland Park is an urban park that is due to be created in Scotland. It will comprise nearly 20 km² of land and water between Glasgow and Coatbridge. The park will combine many existing features, including four local nature reserves; Bishop Loch, Cardowan Moss, Commonhead Moss (a raised bog) and Hogganfield Park; Drumpellier Country Park which includes Woodend Loch SSSI and Lochend Loch; Frankfield Loch; Johnston Loch; Garnqueen Loch; Provan Hall a 15th-century category A listed building. It will be Scotland's largest urban heritage and nature park. The vision for the Seven Lochs Wetland Park is of a new park of national significance, sustaining and enhancing a high quality, innovative wetland environment that will (a) protect and enhance biodiversity and heritage (b) promote health and well-being (c) contribute to environmental, economic and social regeneration (Ref 1).

The Leeds Parks and Green Space Strategy is a park protection, improvement, and creation program in Leeds under their Cultural Strategy. Main priorities are set out to achieve a vision where good quality and accessible parks and green spaces are at the heart of the community and meet the needs of everyone who lives, works, visits or invests in Leeds, now and for the future (Ref 5). The Parks and Green Space Strategy looks at the contribution made to priorities nationally and locally, and how it fits within the Leeds Cultural Strategy to develop parks and green spaces (Ref 3). Consultation is being undertaken to develop a vision for the future of Leeds City Council owned and managed public parks and green spaces beyond 2020, and a strategy for how to deliver that vision over the next 10 years. The new strategy will replace the previous strategy which runs to 2020 (Ref 9).

The oasis is one of the favourite destinations especially by naturalist photographers of the region, thanks to the presence of numerous animal and plant species. The oasis covers an area of about 20 hectares, is part of a SIC and ZPS area of 40 hectares and its management has been entrusted to the Noale WWF Cave Oasis Committee. It used to be a clay extraction area that got abandoned for several years. It was restored to create a new wild habitat that the local government declared a protected area (1, 2 and 4).

Situated in park Spilberk, the garden features a building with a green roof and a garden with various plots. The building is designed to be carbon neutral and reuses rainwater for toilet flushing and for watering the garden plots. The garden is used for horticultural purposes and environmental education, as well as animal and beekeeping. The complex improves the local micro-climate through cooling and humidification and promotes biodiversity. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 5; Ref. 6)

This project worked to revitalize the area along the river Old Ponávka. This involves the creation of walking paths, bike paths, and public playgrounds. (Ref. 1). Stará Ponávka and the adjoining Svitavy drive were built in the 13th century in the original riverbeds of Ponávka and Svitava before their regulation. By revitalizing this watercourse, the city returned water back to the city, made it accessible to people and improved the natural state of the site (Ref. 14).

The Bio Washing Machine is a combination of an Aquifer Thermal Heat Storage (ATES) system and biological natural attenuation of groundwater and is thereby mainly focused on groundwater decontamination and energy storage. The ATES system accelerates the biological degradation of groundwater contamination and provides sustainable energy because cold water is pumped through buildings during the summer to cool the buildings and hot water during winter for heating. The groundwater decontamination measurements are aimed at protecting water in order to provide safe drinking water (ref. 1, 2, 3)

The Bradford Beck project is a pilot project looking at new ways of managing and improving rivers. The Bradford Beck is a small river system of around 11km that flows through the City of Bradford. The beck used to be known as the filthiest river in England. In this project, activities are aimed at bringing the becks back to life and full health, for long term restoration of the Beck. It will provide a new focus of water-based socio-economic regeneration in Bradford (reference 1). The project established that a large proportion of the Bradford Beck catchment could be monitored with observations at just 12 strategic points along the course of the Beck, so observations would be made at all 12 points on different days of the week and at different times of the day (ref 6). A record of the status of the Beck at each point would be taken. This would include the level of the water, the colour of the water, smell, turbidity and a photograph of each site (ref 6).