Dissemination of information and education

The Polder Roof is a green roof originally installed on the top of the Old School Amsterdam, Gaasterlandstraat, Amsterdam with innovative controllable water storage and drainage system on which crops are grown, solar panels are installed and that provides space for recreation. (1,2) Thereby, it combines multiple benefits including the reduction of heat stress, noise reduction, sustainable energy provision, biodiversity, food production and climate change adaptation (2,7). The Polder Roof was a pilot project that won an innovation award and is viewed as an example for urban climate change adaptation solutions. (2).

In 2019, due to the renovation of the former Old School building, it was necessary to relocate the Polder roof to a different place. The Polder Roof is a completely de-mountable system, made up of crates with a sedum layer on top, thus it could be removed quite easily from the Old School roof and put somewhere else. In the name of circularity, the sustainable drainage system was moved to the roof of the South Food Bank building. (10,11,12) With the relocation of the Polder Roof system, however, the size of the green roof has decreased to 1200 sqm from 2010 sqm (2).

Due to the challenges caused by climate change, Hamburg decided to become greener and developed a comprehensive, pioneering green roof strategy. The strategy aims at creating 100 hectares of new green walls by 2019 by providing grants for building owners for greening roofs and offering them rain water fee reduction owing to the rain water retention of the green roofs. (Reference 1) The financial support offered until the end of 2019 is 3 million EUR. (Reference 2) The services offered by the city in this plan consist of four pillars: promotion (financial incentive), dialogue, regulation, and scientific support. (Reference 7)

The city of Salford has experienced several floods and is at risk of flooding once every 100 years (Ref1). The majority of properties in the city that lie in a high-risk flood zone are in the floodplain of the Irwell. The UK's Environment Agency and the council, designed a flood prevention scheme which included temporary water storage areas which will store floodwater on the existing Castle Irwell playing fields and public open space, and double as sports area otherwise (Ref 5). It aimed to have its own wetland and wildlife habitat, and will help protect hundreds of homes and businesses (Ref 4).

Coal mining in the Dearne Valley damaged the Dearne Valley landscape. To address these problems the Dearne Valley Green Heart partnership was formed in 2006, but the intervention discussed here is specifically related to the developments between 2012 and 2015, when it was founded as a Nature Improvement Area. It is part of the South Yorkshire Delivery Programme and part of the Doncaster Council as also being part of the Doncaster Green Infrastructure Strategy (Ref 1, 2).

The Carbon Landscape is a pioneering project in landscape restoration in Wigan, Warrington and Salford. Led by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, it will revitalize a landscape left devastated by decades of coal-mining and peat extraction (Ref 5). It works to restore key habitats and reconnect local people with their unique natural heritage, preserving it for future generations. The restoration of the peat base to lowland raised bog provided an opportunity for carbon sequestration and storage (Ref 1). There is a strong vision to reconnect local people with their rich natural heritage, creating opportunities and a sense of pride in the local area (Ref 4).

Within the national park of Alta Murgia, a project was implemented since 2006 from a company which produces ecological products ("Fattoria della Mandorla"). They aimed at creating an ecovillage with allotment gardens by practising biological agriculture and promoting biodiversity for cultivated plants. In addition, the project aims at improving the contact of visitors with nature and give further value to the natural park. Moreover, the project wants to stimulate sustainable production and consumption of cultivated products. (Ref.1.)

The catchment includes the River Avon (a major resource for recreational activities and public water supply) and its various tributaries. Coventry is the largest urban area in the catchment, and the catchment has a high value for wildlife. (Ref. 1)
Main priorities include engaging communities to take ownership of their local water environment, reducing urban and rural pollution; delivering enhancement projects in the 3 Priority Areas (e.g. Coventry Brooks) and Returning water corridors to a near-natural state. (Ref. 2). The Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) is a Government policy framework that empowers local action to improve the water environment through community partnerships. A renewed focus on the catchment-based approach has led to Catchment Partnerships (i.e. The Warwickshire Avon Catchment Partnership) being set up to drive local delivery of these projects. (Ref. 3)

The Garden Factory ('Tuinfabriek') is an exceptional urban agriculture project on a roof of the central station that aims at becoming the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands. The project is a self-sustaining vegetable garden located on the roof of a busy mall in the centre of Utrecht (ref. 5). On the roof, citizens, students, company employees and schools work together to grow vegetables and keep bees and chicken. The Garden Factory reflects an ecological 'self-sustaining factory' as the chickens, worms and bees 'work' in the garden as being part of the decomposing system and pollination and a system is built for rainwater retention that allows for irrigation (ref. 1). Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory (ref. 4).
The main elements of the roof garden are in place, such as the crop bins, the chicken coop and the decomposing machine are completed. However, it is an ongoing developing project as some elements are still in development stage such as some elements of the Soup Kitchen and the aim is to integrate the Garden Factory more with the central station shopping mall in multiple ways (ref. 1).

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has completed an urban river restoration on the Guphill Brook that aims to restore the brook's natural features and enhance the surrounding habitat. "The project [is expected to] bring multiple benefits to diminishing wildlife and deprived local communities but also importantly to flood risk reduction, which is becoming ever more important with the increased negative effects of climate change." (Ref. 1)

The hurricane Kyrill devastated up to one-third of the tree stock in the city of Münster and thereby changed the green cityscape in 2007. Therefore, the civic society movement "Foundation Citizens for Münster" initiated the project "Bürgerbäume" (literal translation: citizen trees) to foster reforestation of the promenade of the city castle and other affected spots in 2008. In collaboration with the city department for urban green, motivated citizens and citizen groups took over tree sponsorships with up to € 1,000 per tree to help restore the urban green within three months after the event (ref. 1, 4).