Park Jose Antonio Labordeta

1. General information

Location and description of the intervention

City or FUA

Zaragoza

Region

Europe

Native title of the NBS intervention

Parque Grande Jose Antonio Labordeta

Short description of the intervention

The Park Jose Antonio Labordeta is the most extensive park in all of Zaragoza, consisting of municipal nurseries, botanical gardens, and areas for leisure and recreation. (Ref. 4) From 2006 to 2007 a process of citizen participation was started to collect ideas for the improvement of the park on its 75th anniversary. (Ref. 1) In 2010, the City Council of Zaragoza developed a Master Plan to document these ideas and to guide future management of the park. (Ref. 1) The interventions in the Master Plan include landscape improvement, park management, agronomic improvements, among others. (Ref. 1)

Address

Paseo Isabel la Católica
50006 Zaragoza
Spain

Location

The NBS is situated in an area, with clear delineation of boundaries and a specific shape (polygon). The NBS project can also have more than one area location (more than one polygon, situated close by).

Area boundary

POINT (-0.894622 41.637884)

POINT (-0.898956 41.636441)

POINT (-0.89857 41.631437)

POINT (-0.900437 41.63001)

POINT (-0.89769 41.62847)

POINT (-0.89151 41.631132)

NBS area image

Source of NBS area image

Ref. 1

Type of area before implementation of the NBS

Public Greenspace Area

Website of the intervention

http://vivirlosparques.blob.core.windows.net/vlp-parques-parquegrande/index.html

Timeline of intervention

Start date of the intervention (planning process)

2006

Start date of intervention (implementation process)

2007

End date of the intervention

2024

Present stage of the intervention

Ongoing

2. Objectives of the intervention

Goals of the intervention

- Be a calm park with high-quality landscapes and gardens that allows users to be in contact with nature and perceive the different landscapes it contains: sonorous, chromatic, seasonal.
- Maintain and enhance the esteem that the citizens feel for it as a setting for collective experiences and personal ones.
- Recover the park grounds for pedestrians and those with alternative mobility, eliminating the circulation of private vehicles in the interior and limiting the parking zones inside the park.
- Improve the original ideas that formed the park while keeping its historic integrity.
- maintain and improve accessibility from its surroundings, including reducing speed or other measures reducing acoustic pollution
- conserve and promote the natural fauna that currently resides in it.
- Renew the vegetal base of the park given the antiquity of the same, planning it gradually by means of agronomic actions and proper selection of native species. (Ref. 1,2)

Quantitative targets

- Make the watering of the park 100% from the canal water (at time of intervention it was done 98% from the canal's water and 2% from the local water supply).
- Rehabilitate five green areas within the park (Paseo San Sebastian, jardin de Invierno, Jardin Botanico, La Rosaleda, El Cupresal)
(Ref. 1,2)

Monitoring indicators defined

% of watering from canal water and % of watering from local water supply (Ref 1,2)

Sustainability challenge(s) addressed

Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)

Green space creation and/or management

Environmental quality

Noise reduction

Regeneration, land-use and urban development

Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development

Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)

Inclusive governance

Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)

Social justice and equity

Social interaction

Health and well-being (SDG 3)

Enabling opportunities for physical activity

Creation of opportunities for recreation

Cultural heritage and cultural diversity

Preservation of natural heritage

Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure

Implementation activities

Each of the zones mentioned in the plan (Paseo San Sebastian, jardin de Invierno, Jardin Botanico, La Rosaleda, El Cupresal) underwent processes of accessibility improvement, improvement to their gardens, and some changes to the water management/ system of watering. (Ref 1)
The proposed time frame for all of the interventions that the project includes is from 2010 to 2024. (Ref. 1, p.91)

Type of NBS project

Maintenance and management of urban nature

Improved governance of green or blue areas

3. NBS domains, ES and scale

NBS domain and interventions

Ecological domain(s) where the NBS intervention(s) is/are implemented

Parks and urban forests

Large urban parks or forests

Botanical gardens

Green areas for water management

Sustainable urban drainage systems

What is the level of innovation / development of the NBS related to water management?

Medium / High: sustainable urban drainage systems which include water storage and diverts water flooding

Vegetation Type

Please specify how many trees were planted

Unknown

Please specify other amenities offered by the NBS

terraces, bicycle rentals, skating rinks (Ref. 4)

Amenities offered by the NBS

Playgrounds

Complementing infrastructure (bathrooms, café)

Other

Services

Expected ecosystem services delivered

Regulating services

Noise reduction

Pollination

Mediation of smell / noise / visual impacts

Habitat and supporting services

Habitats for species

Cultural services

Aesthetic appreciation

Recreation

Physical and experiential interactions with plants and animals

Social and community interactions

Scale

Spatial scale

Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level

Beneficiaries

Primary Beneficiaries

Local government/Municipality

Citizens or community groups

Marginalized groups

People with functional diversities

Please specify other local relevant strategy

Sustainable development plan (Ref. 1)

4. Governance and financing

Governance

Governance arrangements

Government-led

Please specify the roles of the specific government and non-government actor groups involved in the initiative

Ayuntamiento (City Council of Zaragoza) put forth the proposal and the initial funds for the intervention. (Ref1)
Materia Verde (Company) conducted study on ideas feasibility and this was reviewed by the Environment Agency, members of the Biodiversity Study Commission of the Local Agenda 21, and the Government of Zaragoza (Ref. 1)
Citizen participation in ideas to improve park (Ref. 1)

Key actors - initiating organization

Local government/municipality

Land owners

No information found

Please specify other Key actors - Other stakeholders involved

Biodiversity Study Commission of the Local Agenda 21 (Ref. 1)

Key actors - Other stakeholders involved (besides initiating actors)

Regional government

Local government/municipality

Private sector/corporate actor/company

Citizens or community group

Other

Land owners

No information found

Participatory methods/forms of community involvement used

Taskforce groups

Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)

Citizen oversight (e.g. boards, advisory)

Policy drivers

NBS intervention implemented in response to an Regional Directive/Strategy

Unknown

NBS intervention implemented in response to a national regulations/strategy/plan

Unknown

NBS intervention implemented in response to a local regulation/strategy/plan

Yes

Please specify the "local regulation/strategy/plan"

Local Agenda 21 Plan (ref 1)

Mandatory or voluntary intervention

Mandatory (based on policy)

Intervention is mandatory

Spatial planning guidance

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

Agenda 21 (ref 1)

If there is a relevant strategy or plan, please specify the theme / type of the plan.

Other

Please specify other vegetation type

historical gardens, plant base with native species, (Ref. 1)
areas of pine forests, roses of different scents and colors, magnolias, elm, hackberry, oleander (Ref. 4)

Presence of city network or regional partnerships focused on NBS - mentioned in connection to the project

Unknown

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

Unknown

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

More than €4,000,000

What is/was the Cost/Budget (EUR) of the NBS or green infrastructure elements?

6 962 000 (Ref 1)

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)

Total cost: 6 962 000 euro (ref1)
The presented budget is a proposed one. One source (El Periodico de Aragon) confirms the city had earmarked 200 000 euro for six initial works. (Ref3)

Source(s) of funding

Public local authority budget

Type of fund(s) used

Earmarked public budget

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Business models

Green densification model

Which of the involved actors was motivated by this model?

Public actor (e.g. municipality)

5. Innovation

Type of innovation

Technological

Infrastructural innovation

Please specify technological innovation

The park is presented as a unique landscape feature of the urban center of Zaragoza as it has developed with different additions and alterations during the modern urban history of the city. (ref.1)

Novelty level of the innovation

The innovation is completely new without connections to previous initiative(s)

Please specify novelty level of the innovation

The plan has been designed specifically for the park (ref.1)

Replicability/Transferability

Unknown

Please specify Replicability/Transferability

Unknown

6. Evaluation and learning

Impacts, benefits

Environmental impacts

Environmental quality

Reduced noise exposure

Water management and blue areas

Improved stormwater management

Green space and habitat

Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems

Description of environmental benefits

Achieved Impacts:
Each of the zones mentioned in the plan (Paseo San Sebastian, jardin de Invierno, Jardin Botanico, La Rosaleda, El Cupresal) underwent processes of improvement to their gardens, and some changes to the water management/ system of watering. (Ref 1)

Expected Impacts:
Make the watering of the park 100% from the canal water (Ref. 1)
Renewing vegetal base of park (Ref. 1)

Economic impacts

Unknown

Description of economic benefits

Unknown

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Achieved impacts

Indicators

% of park greenery watered with the water from the canal system. (ref2)

Environmental, social and economic impacts

Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)

Water management (SDG 6)

Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)

Regeneration, land-use and urban development

Health and well-being (SDG 3)

Cultural heritage and cultural diversity

Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)

Analysis of specific impact categories

Job creation: The NBS created ...

No information available

Environmental justice: The implementation of the NBS project resulted in ...

Improved access to green and/or blue spaces

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 2 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

Yes

Mode(s) of citizen involvement in evaluation/assessment

Questionnaire

Focus Group

Citizens involvement in the analysis of the assessment/evaluation

Unknown

Follow-up to the evaluation / assessment

Unknown

7. Sources

References

Web links relevant to the intervention

Ref.1. PLAN DIRECTOR DEL PARQUE GRANDE JOSÉ ANTONIO LABORDETA

Ref.2. Plan Director del Parque Grande Jose Antonio Labordeta >> Objetivos

Ref.3. El Parque Grande recibirá 200.000 euros de inversión

Ref. 4. Parque Grande Jose Antonio Labordeta

List of references

1. Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza. (2010). Plan Director del Parque Grande Jose Antonio Labordeta. [Document provided].

2. Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza. (2017). Biodiversidad y Naturaleza: Parque Grande Jose Antonio Labordeta. [Not available in 2020].

3. Periodico de Aragon. (2014). El Parque Grande recibirá 200.000 euros de inversión. Available at: http://www.elperiodicodearagon.com/noticias/aragon/parque-grande-recibira-200-000-euros-inversion_984589.html. [Accessed: 2 September 2020].

4. ASOCIACIÓN ESPAÑOLA DE PARQUES Y JARDINES PÚBLICOS. (n.d.). Parque Grande, José Antonio Labordeta
Zaragoza. Available at: http://vivirlosparques.blob.core.windows.net/vlp-parques-parquegrande/index.html [Accessed 2 September 2020].

Comments and notes

Comments

2020 comments:
Ref. 2 is no longer available, but some of the information supported by Ref. 2 can also be supported by Ref. 1, so I’ve added Ref. 1 as an addition to Ref. 2 for the in-text (in-questionnaire) references

Pictures of the NBS

/sites/default/files/nbs/images/parque-jose-antonio-labordeta.jpg

Public Images

Source: Ref. 1

Source: Ref. 1

Source: Ref. 4

Source: Ref. 4

Source: Ref. 4