1. General information
Location and description of the intervention
City or FUA
Sofia
Region
Europe
Native title of the NBS intervention
Зелени релси на градския трамвай
Short description of the intervention
Thanks to an initiative by the citizens of Sofia, called Green Rails in Sofia, grass was planted by the Municipality on a an area of newly reconstructed tram line in Sofia. The cited benefits were heat reduction, noise reduction, aesthetics, natural water retention and drainage, and lower costs of maintenance in the long term compared to grey alternatives. The grassroots initiative “Green Rails in Sofia” are determined to keep putting pressure on the local authority to continue planting grass on other parts of the tram lines. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)
Address

Russian Monument Square
Sofia Center
1606 Sofia
Bulgaria

Location
The NBS is a city-wide initiative, the GIS point marks the centre of the city
Type of area before implementation of the NBS
Other
Please specify “other type of area” before implementation of the NBS
Tram lines (Ref 1, 2, 3)
Website of the intervention
https://www.facebook.com/pg/zelenirelsi/about/?ref=page_internal
Timeline of intervention
Start date of the intervention (planning process)
2014
Start date of intervention (implementation process)
2015
End date of the intervention
2015
Present stage of the intervention
Completed
Goals of the intervention
- Heat reduction
- Noise reduction
- Improved aesthetics
- Provide natural water retention and drainage
- Absorption of harmful gases from the air
- Reduce the costs for maintenance of the rails in the long term compared to grey alternatives
- Encourage the municipality to keep creating more green rails
(Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)
Quantitative targets
unknown
Monitoring indicators defined
unknown
Sustainability challenge(s) addressed
Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
Climate change adaptation
Water management (SDG 6)
Stormwater and rainfall management and storage
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Green space creation and/or management
Environmental quality
Air quality improvement
Noise reduction
Regeneration, land-use and urban development
Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
Effective management
Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
Economic development: service sectors
Climate change adaptation: What were the goals of the NBS?
Reduce the impacts of climate risks events on urban places and communities
Please specify other climate change adaptation goal
- Heat reduction
( Ref. 2; Ref. 3)
Climate change adaptation: What activities are implemented to realize the conservation goals and targets?
Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature
Create or improve outdoor spaces to help people escape from urban heat
Please specify "other Climate change mitigation activity"

Implementation activities
- grass was planted along tram lines (Ref. 1)
Type of NBS project
Creation of new green areas
NBS domain and interventions
Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented
Grey infrastructure featuring greens
Railroad bank and track greens
Vegetation Type
Grass
Amenities offered by the NBS
Unknown
Services
Expected ecosystem services delivered
Regulating services
Local climate regulation (temperature reduction)
Air quality regulation
Noise reduction
Carbon storage/sequestration
Flood regulation
Mediation of smell / noise / visual impacts
Cultural services
Aesthetic appreciation
Scale
Spatial scale
Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Beneficiaries
Primary Beneficiaries
Citizens or community groups
Governance
Governance arrangements
Co-governance with government and non-government actors
Non-government actors
Citizens or community groups
Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative
The coordinator of the citizen group Green Rails in Sofia knew that green rails were widespread in a number of other cities in Europe. As a result, when he heard that the tram line would be reconstructed around the Russian Monument Square, he created the Green Rails in Sofia initiative to pressure the local authority to implement the project. The pressure was successful and the municipality implemented the intervention (Ref. 1; Ref. 4).
Key actors - initiating organization
Citizens or community group
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)
Local government/municipality
Citizens or community group
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used
Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
Dissemination of information and education
Policy drivers
NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy
No
NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan
No
NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan
No
Mandatory or voluntary intervention
Voluntary (spontaneous)
Please specify other type of voluntary intervention
The Green Rails in Sofia initiative was created to pressure the local authority to implement the project. (Ref 1 and 4)
Enablers
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project
No
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project
No
Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project
No
Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project
No
Co-finance for NBS
Unknown
Co-financing governance arrangements
Unknown
Was this co-governance arrangement already in place, or was it set up specifically for this NBS?
Unknown
Financing
Total cost
Unknown
What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?
Unknown
What are the total amount of expected annual maintenance costs?
Unknown
What is the expected annual maintenance costs of the NBS or GI elements?
Unknown
Please specify cost savings
Unknown
Please specify total cost (EUR)
Unknown
Source(s) of funding
Public local authority budget
Type of fund(s) used
Unknown
Non-financial contribution
Unknown
Business models
Risk reduction model
Green densification model
Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?
Public actor (e.g. municipality)
Citizens / local communities
Type of innovation
Technological
Infrastructural innovation
Social
Governance innovation
Please specify technological innovation
This is the first green rail intervention in Sofia. The innovation is infrastructural because it involves using an innovative way to build the transport infrastructure.
(Ref. 2)
Please specify social innovation
The organizers of the Green Rails in Sofia initiative commended the municipality for trusting the public opinion and responding accordingly (Ref. 2)
Novelty level of the innovation
Unknown
Please specify novelty level of the innovation
Unknown
Replicability/Transferability
The innovation is not referred to as being transferred to new initiative(s)
Please specify Replicability/Transferability
There are plans to keep pushing for extension of the green rail line in Sofia, but nothing has been planned yet. (Ref. 2; Ref. 4)
Impacts, benefits
Environmental impacts
Environmental quality
Reduced noise exposure
Improved soil quality
Water management and blue areas
Improved stormwater management
Green space and habitat
Increased green space area
Description of environmental benefits
- Heat reduction
- Noise reduction
- Improved aesthetics
- Provided natural water retention and drainage
- Absorption of harmful gases from the air
- Reduce the costs for maintenance of the rails in the long term compared to grey alternatives
- Encouraged the municipality to keep creating more green rails
(Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)
Economic impacts
Unknown
Please specify other socio-cultural impact
The organizers of the Green Rails in Sofia initiative commended the municipality for trusting the public opinion and responding accordingly (Ref. 2)
Description of economic benefits
Unknown
Social and cultural impacts
Unknown
Other
Description of social and cultural benefits
The organizers of the Green Rails in Sofia initiative commended the municipality for trusting the public opinion and responding accordingly (Ref. 2)
Type of reported impacts
Achieved impacts
Indicators
The cited benefits were heat reduction, noise reduction, aesthetics, natural water retention and drainage, and lower costs of maintenance in the long term compared to grey alternatives. (Ref 1-3) In relation to the intervention, the organizers of the Green Rails in Sofia initiative commended the municipality for trusting the public opinion and responding accordingly (Ref. 2)
Environmental, social and economic impacts
Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
Water management (SDG 6)
Environmental quality
Regeneration, land-use and urban development
Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
Analysis of specific impact categories
Job creation: The NBS created ...
No information available
Negative impacts: Did the project cause any problems or concerns?
No information was found regarding negative impacts of the project
COVID-19 pandemic
Unknown as of 4 September 2020.
Methods of impact monitoring
Process of recording NBS impacts
No evidence in public records
Methods used to evaluate the impacts of NBS
Unknown
Evidence for use of assessment
Presence of an assessment, evaluation and/or monitoring process
Unknown
Presence of indicators used in reporting
No evidence in public records
Presence of monitoring/evaluation reports
No evidence in public records
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No evidence in public records
Impact assessment mechanism
Name of any specific impact assessment tools
unknown
Use of GIS in mapping impacts
No evidence in public records
Citizen involvement
Citizens involvement in assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation
Unknown
Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment
Unknown
References
Web links relevant to the intervention
Official page of the initiative
List of references
Ref. 1. Facebook (2017). Зелени релси в София. [online] available at: https://www.facebook.com/zelenirelsi/ [Accessed on 4 September 2020].
Ref. 2. Димитрова, Д. (2015). Първи ”зелени” релси в София (снимки). [online] available at: http://dnes.dir.bg/news/sofia-relsi-zeleni-19803143 [Accessed on 4 September 2020].
Ref. 3. Клуб 8 ООД (2015). Първите „зелени“ релси в София. [online] available at: https://spisanie8.bg/%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8/%D1%81%D1%8A%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F/3644-%D0%BF%D1%8A%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5-%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8-%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%81%D0%B8-%D0%B2-%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%8F.html [Accessed on 4 September 2020].
Ref. 4. БНТ София (2014). Зелени релси в София. [online] available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBxy42lGbYc&t=11s [Accessed on 4 September 2020].
Comments and notes
Comments
2017 comment:
The initiative Green Rails in Sofia was contacted via their Facebook page asking for missing details about the NBS. They responded that they would provide the information as soon as possible.

2020 comment:
no information is provided in the questionnaire regarding this reply.
Pictures of the NBS
/sites/default/files/nbs/images/green_rails_in_sofia.jpg
/sites/default/files/nbs/images/planting_grass_around_the_rails.jpg
Public Images
Sofia Green Rails
https://dnes.dir.bg/gallery/sofia-relsi-zeleni-19803143?i=2
Sofia Green Rails
https://dnes.dir.bg/gallery/sofia-relsi-zeleni-19803143?i=2