1. General information
Location and description of the intervention
City or FUA
Timişoara
Region
Europe
Native title of the NBS intervention
Ecologizarea canalului Bega
Short description of the intervention
The greening of the Bega channel is a project which dates from 2008 and which aims at cleaning and revitalizing the channel on a distance of 44 km, in order to improve water quality, increase economic activities related with the river, and avoid future floods of the area. Since the channel has not been revitalized from 1945, the 2008 project is seen as an important step in improving not only the life quality of the Timisoara's inhabitants but also a major step in including environmental issues on the official agenda of the municipality. (1)
Address

300030 Timisoara
Romania

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
Residential
Other
Please specify “other type of area” before implementation of the NBS
Blue area (river)
Timeline of intervention
Start date of the intervention (planning process)
2008
Start date of intervention (implementation process)
2009
End date of the intervention
unknown
Present stage of the intervention
Completed
Goals of the intervention
1. Make a continuous walkway for pedestrians and a cycle track along the entire canal.
2. Protect existing green spaces and revitalize and rearrange them. (1)
3. Reintroduction of public transport on the Bega channel.(1)
4. Improve recreation and leisure.(1)
5. Better accessibility to water by creating new ways of access.(2)
6. Create new connections between residential areas and the city center with new pedestrian bridges and alleys.(2)
7. Revitalizing existing infrastructure and unused buildings for socio-cultural, leisure or residential use.(3)
8. Investment development near the Bega Channel. (1, 2)
9. Dredging the channel and distributing the sludge into ecological deposits.(3)
10. Create economic opportunities for the inhabitants of Timisoara but also between Serbia and Romania (3)
Quantitative targets
1. Deep the channel with 40 to 150 centimeters (2), 2. Ensure a green corridor of at least 15 m along the bank of the Bega Canal (1), 3. Create pedestrian and bicycle paths at least 2.50 m on both sides of the Bega Canal (2)

Monitoring indicators defined
Physicochemical parameters acceptable for the water to be pumped into the channel will be established - it is the water to be treated by two mobile treatment plants. (R.1, R.3)
Sustainability challenge(s) addressed
Water management (SDG 6)
Flood protection
Improvements to water quality
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Green space creation and/or management
Health and well-being (SDG 3)
Enabling opportunities for physical activity
Improving physical health
Creation of opportunities for recreation
Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
Economic development: service sectors
Tourism support
Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure
Implementation activities
1. At the beginning of July 2009, the decolonization works began to resume, after being suspended for several weeks due to lack of funds. As such, 10,000 cubic meters of sludge have been removed from the Bega Canal out of a total of 300,000 laid down in the Bega's decolouration plan between Timisoara and Sanmyhai. (1)
2. The sludge resulted from the dredging operations will be deposited in six ecological warehouses, two of them in Timisoara, and another is planned to be located at Sânmihaiu Român. (1,2)
Type of NBS project
Improved governance of green or blue areas
Management and improved protection of rivers and other blue areas
NBS domain and interventions
Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented
Blue infrastructure
Rivers/streams/canals/estuaries
Vegetation Type
Other
Amenities offered by the NBS
Sports areas and equipment
Swimming areas
Services
Expected ecosystem services delivered
Regulating services
Local climate regulation (temperature reduction)
Coastal protection
Flood regulation
Water purification / filtration
Cultural services
Tourism
Inspiration for culture, art and design
Recreation
Mental and physical health and wellbeing
Scale
Spatial scale
Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Beneficiaries
Primary Beneficiaries
Local government/Municipality
Citizens or community groups
Young people and children
Governance
Governance arrangements
Government-led
Non-government actors
Unknown
Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative
This is a joint intervention between the Romanian local authorities of the city of Timisoara and the Council of Europe Development Bank. The municipality auctioned the project (like it is done in various cases) and "SC Apascosa & SC Socot SA & SC Deltacons" SA won the case (1).
Key actors - initiating organization
EU body
Local government/municipality
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)
EU body
National government
Local government/municipality
Transnational network
Land owners
Public space owned by the city
Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used
Unknown
Policy drivers
NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy
Unknown
NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan
Yes
Please specify the national regulations/strategy/plan
The intervention mention Law no. 350/2001, regarding Territorial and Urban Planning, and the
Governmental Decision no. 525/1996, republished in 2002 regarding the General Regulation of Urban Planning (7)
NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan
Yes
Please specify the "local regulation/strategy/plan"
The intervention mentions Timisoara's Municipality Decision: no.94/1998, Rehabilitation of the Bega Channel (8)
Mandatory or voluntary intervention
Mandatory (based on policy)
Intervention is mandatory
Environmental regulation
Enablers
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS vision/strategy/plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Unknown
Presence of specific city-level GI/NBS section/part in a more general plan - mentioned in connection to the project
Yes
Please specify the general plan with GI/NBS section
Primaria Timisoara, "Starea economica, sociala si de mediu a municipiului Timisoara", 2012, municicpality's report on environmental issues which discusses the developments on the working procedures at the Bega channel. (4)
If there is a relevant strategy or plan, please specify the theme / type of the plan.
Municipal / city level environmental plan or programme
General municipal plan
Please specify other vegetation type
Unknown
Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project
Yes
Please specify
When the intervention was implemented it was taken into consideration a regional partnership since Bega is a river that crosses Romania and Serbia. The idea behind this partnership was that an innovation like this, it will be beneficial for both countries, in terms of commerce, tourism and environment (5)
Presence of GI / NBS research project - mentioned in connection to the project
Yes
Please specify
There was a research of the area, dating from 2002, done by the municipality with the support of the Dutch government. The study was directed in finding solutions for opening the traffic on the Bega and to boost the economy and tourism for both Serbians and Romanians. (5)
Subsidies/investment for GI / NBS in the city - mentioned in connection to the project
Yes
Please specify
17 mil. Euros as a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. (5)
Co-finance for NBS
Yes
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
More than €4,000,000
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)
17 mil. Euro
Source(s) of funding
EU funds
Public national budget
Public local authority budget
Type of fund(s) used
Earmarked public budget
Loan
Non-financial contribution
Unknown
Business models
Risk reduction model
Urban offsetting model (biodiversity or water)
Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?
Public actor (e.g. municipality)
Type of innovation
Social
Economic innovation
Cultural innovation
Please specify social innovation
Both from an economic and cultural point of views, this innovation was new mostly because the channel hasn't been cleaned from 1945. For the city, since the intervention included the Serbian part as well, it meant creating an economic influx towards both countries but also it pushed the city to include itself into a cultural route since one of the goals of the intervention was to create the possibility of having boat cruises. (5)
Novelty level of the innovation
Unknown
Please specify novelty level of the innovation
Unknown
Replicability/Transferability
Unknown
Please specify Replicability/Transferability
Unknown
Impacts, benefits
Environmental impacts
Water management and blue areas
Improved water quality
Green space and habitat
Increased green space area
Description of environmental benefits
The municipality of Timisoara did not issue any final reports for this NBS, however, the authorities expected that by implementing this action the following environmental benefits will happen:
-access to cleaner water for the city's inhabitants;
-regeneration of the green areas surrounding the channel, therefore, increasing the green space areas (1,5).
Economic impacts
Attraction of business and investment
Description of economic benefits
Even though there weren't any reports on the economic benefits, it is important to mention that the main reason for the cleaning of the channel was a financial one. The authorities of Timisoara claimed that the action was expected to increase of a volume of freight traffic of about 600,000 tons / year, mainly from the interested companies (Sugar Factory, CET, Dermatina, Spumotim) (1,5)
Social and cultural impacts
Unknown
Description of social and cultural benefits
Unknown
Type of reported impacts
Expected impacts
Indicators
Unknown
Environmental, social and economic impacts
Water management (SDG 6)
Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
Environmental quality
Regeneration, land-use and urban development
Health and well-being (SDG 3)
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 August 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
Plan Urbanistic Zonal. Malurile Canalului Bega, P.U.Z
Timisoara Ecologica
Starea economica, sociala si de mediu a municipiului Timisoara
ERDF
The Government of Romania, decision 1996
Documents relevant to the intervention
Attachment Size
This is a document that asses the revitalization of the channel (298.95 KB) 298.95 KB
List of references
1. Primaria Municipiului Timisoara (2009), Plan Urbanistic Zonal. Malurile Canalului Bega, P.U.Z, Available at https://www.primariatm.ro/uploads/domino/atasamente_hcl/9078106D4F52D64BC22576AF00473E4F/Anexa_1.pdf (Accessed 29-6-2020)
2. Beilicci E, Beilicci R. (2012), Current problems and solutions to revitalize the Bega Channel, in AGRIS, Available at http://aerapa.conference.ubbcluj.ro/2012/pdf/11%20beilicci.pdf (Accessed 29-6-2020)
3. Primaria Municipiului Timisoara (2008), Timisoara Ecologica, Available at http://www.primariatm.ro/uploads/domino/atasamente_hcl/18DC59AA40A827E6C225742100252ABA/Anexa.pdf (Accessed 29-6-2020)
4. Primaria Municipiului Timisoara (2012), Starea economica, sociala si de mediu a municipiului Timisoara, Available at http://www.primariatm.ro/uploads/files/PID/Starea_economica_2012.pdf (Accessed 29-6-2020)
5. Casa Poporului (2008), "Canalul Bega", (Website not available in 2020)
6. European Regional Development Fund (no date), General presentation, Available at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/ (Accessed 29-6-2020)
7. Guvernul Romaniei (1996), Hotararea nr. 525, 27 Iunie 1996, Available at http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/9499 (Accessed 29-6-2020)
8. Primaria Municipiului Timisoara (no date), Decizia de Reabilitare a Canalului Bega (no. 94/1998) Available at http://www.primariatm.ro/index.php?meniuId=2&viewCat=191 (Accessed 29-6-2020)
Interview comments
Since I had no luck on the internet in finding monitoring reports, I wrote an e-mail to the municipality of Timisoara.
Comments and notes
Comments
4/enablers/research projects:Unfortunately, I could not find that study, but many measures and goals that appear in the 2008 project are retrieved from the 2002 one, according to its authors.
Additional insights
Update August 2020: In 2019, with funds from the UE, the municipality of Timisoara started a new project (derived from the one in 2009), this time focused on the repair of the navigation infrastructure of the channel. In this way it will allow tourists from Serbia and Romania to visit the countries more easily. More information can be found on the bellow link:
https://adevarul.ro/locale/timisoara/cea-mai-asteptata-lucrare-infrastructura-banat-2019-repararea-ecluzei-reluarea-navigatiei-bega-timisoara-serbia-1_5c37a92fdf52022f757663d7/index.html
Pictures of the NBS
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