Environmental quality

Weaver Square Community Garden started in May 2011 on a derelict site owned by Dublin City Council. The site contains the Community Garden and 28 individual allotments let out by the council. The main focus of the Community Garden is to create a safe and relaxing green space for all to use and enjoy. The organizers hope in the future to have more emphasis on the garden as a learning experience, with open days & workshops and other related talks. Dublin City Council has given notice that Weaver Square Community Garden and 27 family allotments are to close at the end of 2018. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)

As part of a larger project, this project aimed at creating a vertical garden in the Levante Square, in the Deustro neighborhood, the city of Bilbao. The intervention was initiated by the Bilbao's municipality in 2016 and aimed at creating a green area that was a bit unconventional and artistic at the same time. The landscape design incorporates local elements such as the trawlers, the cliffs of the Cantabrian coast and the local architecture, integrating nature and tradition (Ref 1).

Abandoibarra is an area of ​​the town of Bilbao, next to the Bilbao estuary, sizing ​​348,500 square meters. Abandoibarra has been the industrial zone of Bilbao, where shipyards and other companies related to the industrial sector were located. Building upon the 1997 master plan completed by Balmori Associates, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Aguinaga y Asociados, the area has been reinvented as an international cultural district and tourist destination. Two-thirds of the 30-hectare site is dedicated to parks and open spaces, creating a public oasis and grounds for a suite of buildings by master architects (Ref 1,2).

The company running the Zabalgarbi waste disposal site manages a solid waste–to-energy plant and also houses a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant, a composting plant, a landfill and a leachate treatment plant. During construction of the first plant, Zabalgarbi regenerated and recovered the entire Artigas-Arraiz area covering 108 hectares. The area was degraded by shaft mining activity and an opencast quarry. The project aimed at the reforestation and landslide mitigation of this degraded area. Today the area has been reforested, trails were built and space provided for people to enjoy themselves in gardens, picnic areas and along forest tracks. (Ref 1)

Zorrotzaurre is an artificial peninsula located within the Deusto district of Bilbao, Spain. It was formed during the 1950s and the 1960s, when a canal was built to facilitate navigation in the estuary of Bilbao. The Zorrotzaurre project is the latest major urban renewal project to commence in Bilbao. It is an integral and sustainable plan that recuperates a currently derelict site to convert it into a new quarter, and which also includes a flood protection system with water tanks to retain water and a flood protection barrier (Ref 1)

The Urban Forest project represents an increase of urban trees in the city. There will be two phases of this project. In the first, it consists of a transformation of an eye-sore and abandoned space, around previous Canodrome, into a large urban forest (Ref 1, 9). The second one will be located in the land of the velodrome of Es Tirador. This projec has been delaid due to unforeseen costs (Ref 10).

The former Paulsgrove landfill is being developed into the Horsea Island Country Park to address the deficit of public open space for Portsmouth’s residents (3). The council plans to put in place a number of initiatives to make sure the country park is a recreational facility and attracts a diverse range of wildlife. This is being progressed through the PUSH Green Infrastructure Implementation Plan. (1). Veolia, the company that operated the landfill site on Horsea Island has the responsibility for implementing the landscape proposals which include tree planting, grass areas, wildflower meadows, footpaths and cycle routes. (2).

Owing to the city’s participatory budget, the residents created a well-equipped green recreational square in a vacant area of one of Bydgoszcz's neighbourhoods. The initiative involved the creation of an outdoor gym with several exercise equipment stations, as well as planting pollution-resistant trees and bushes - including oaks, maples, pine and spruce. The initiative aims to manage vacant space and increase access to the green space in this city district [1].

The initiative was funded from the participatory budget of the city and resulted in planting new greenery (including 70 trees and a thousand shrubs) by the local city lake 'Balaton' in Bydgoszcz. The justification of the project in its proposal highlights the practical and aesthetic values of green areas [1].

The revitalization of two parks in Bydgoszcz - on 'Dabrowski’ and 'Liberty’ hills was planned in 2016 and successfully implemented in 2019. The project involved greenery planting, building health paths and outlook points, as well as new benches and a playground. It improved the aesthetic qualities of the parks, supported the effective management of rainwater and reduced noise from the surrounding areas [1].