Health and well-being (SDG 3)

In 2013, architecture firm BIG's design was chosen for a proposed Museum of the Human Body in Montpellier (Ref. 1). The plan was "An ambitious scenographic project resulting from a simple and clear spatial design. The alliance of its architectural, environmental, and functional qualities". "The gentle slopes of its roofs transform into a landscape intertwining vegetable and mineral terraces that provide direct access to pedestrians on the urban sidewalk and the park" (Ref. 2). It would have involved a "park of eight hectares" (Ref. 12, page 4). The project has not yet become a reality (as of August 2, 2020).

The 53 square meters large green wall can be found in an office building in the center of Budapest. (Reference 9) It helps to balance the humidity indoors, cleans the air and provides a comfortable work environment. The project includes rainwater collection for the irrigation of the green wall. (Reference 6) The building itself was the first one in Central-Eastern Europe to gain the double environmental certification of BREEAM Very Good and LEED Gold. (Reference 9) The focus of the NBS are the indoor green walls, but the building itself also features vegetation on multiple terraces and sun collectors. (Reference 10)

With its parking areas, ponds, the Lutter stream, playground facilities, walking and jogging paths, the green corridor of Bielefeld, called Luttergrünzug offers recreation opportunity to around 36, 000 people, living in the surrounding areas. As a link between the eastern city center and the district of Heepen, it also enables walking and cycling routes for commuting and shopping away from the busy streets of the city (7). However, the green corridor has been showing some structural and functional defects such as the silting up of the ponds, conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists and the increasing overgrowth of the green belt (8). In order to solve these problems, the renovation and redesign of the Green Corridor was proposed. The regeneration project addresses different needs and requirements of the municipality, namely providing the comfortable infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, and the increase of attractiveness of the neighbouring residential areas. In the planning process, special attention was paid to the improvement of the draining system and the reservoirs of the area that will protect the Belt from flooding. (8)

Two regeneration plans were developed with citizens' involvement and presented to the political committee. In 2017, the implementation of the "smaller" variant was voted for, which was already presented in the first citizens' workshop (1, 4).

The first stage of the investment: Building an urban park in the city area where there is a lack of green recreational spaces for the citizens. The park is to be built on the undeveloped ground. The initiative involves cleaning the area, planting greenery, purification and regulation of the watercourse Warszowiec and building stone stream edges, building the bike and running paths, 2 playgrounds for various age groups, open-air gym, and a multifunctional field for basketball, volleyball, tennis and table tennis (planned). The project is supplemented with the so-called small architecture including benches, rubbish bins, bicycle racks, tables and bowers [1,2]. The second stage: executing the planned multifunctional sports field and building a so-called physical activity square with a wooden platform, wooden pergola by the stream. A fence around the playground is built and new lighting and monitoring systems introduced. The second stage assumes management and maintenance of the green areas too [5,6].

Revitalization of the Brodowski Pond and its surroundings that include: revitalization of the pond itself, modernization of the viewpoints, building alleys, new lighting system, senior corner, playground, gym, greenery, recreational areas and a dog run. The justification for the project emphasizes revitalization of the area, improving its functionality and usefulness as well as aesthetics while preserving the terrain and raising the importance of the pond as a public space of a city of particular aesthetic values. (1)(2)

The Svoradova small park is an NBS site of the Bratislava zelenaj project. The newly renovated park (once part of the historical Pálffy Garden) on Svoradova Street in Old Town was previously abandoned and neglected. (14) It is part of the citywide Bratislava zelenaj project aimed at protecting and promoting the welfare of the city’s vulnerable citizens from the effects of climate change, (1) providing a safe recreational space for children (with a small playground for playing and swings). The park also has new lighting, and the whole space is home to new flowers, bridges and trees. (10, 12, 18)

The BiodiverCity-project aimed to develop products, services and processes which support and enhance the city’s biodiversity and thus contribute to a vision of a green, attractive and healthy city (ref. 1). The project had been divided in three steps, step 1 involving preliminary studies and step 2 was practical work for two years. During step 2 different cases were identified to test new ways to e.g. increase the city's biodiversity. Step 3 included spreading to other sectors through seminars, education and exhibition activities. It also included the commercialization of green solutions (ref. 2).

The landscape in the Bielefeld agglomeration is exposed to stress from high settlement pressure and expansion of the infrastructure as well as in parts of intensive agricultural use (2). Since 2003, the Senne and neighbouring areas of the Teutoburg Forest which is protected under the Europe-wide protected area system, Natura 2000, become part of the funding program of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and become one of Agency's Large-scale nature conservation projects (NGP) (2, 5,13).
The project area lies in the transition area between two major German landscapes: the Senne as part of the north-west German lowlands and the Teutoburg Forest as part of the Central European low mountain range. The juxtaposition and close interlocking of numerous habitats such as species-rich beech forests, remains of acidic deciduous mixed forests, dry and humid heathland or natural sandy streams form the basis for diverse flora and fauna. Many of the numerous rare plant and animal species are rarely found in North Rhine-Westphalia outside of the NGP area (13).

The natural area complex Senne and Teutoburg Forest was declared by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) to be one of the 30 hotspots of biological diversity in Germany due to its nationwide uniqueness ( overview map ). These “Treasure Chests of Nature” (BfN 2015) distinguish regions in Germany that have a particularly high density and diversity of characteristic habitats, species and populations.(13)
The NGP was funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia with contribution of participating municipalities and the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation (13). The Teutoburg Forest / Eggegebirge Nature Park is also sponsoring the project (12).

Agora Budapest is a large scale urban redevelopment project initiated by private investors. Besides implementing five high-quality office buildings, the investors aim at creating green public spaces the size of 7000 square metres in order to provide a healthy and vivid working environment. The green surface involves green roofs, parks and tree lines, all which will be irrigated using collected rainwater. The solar panels on the roofs of the buildings are also part of the sustainability plans of the investors. (Ref 1. and Ref 4.)

The Rákos-patak Green Corridor is a large-scale development project aimed at revitalizing the environment of the Rákos Stream on a 23 kilometre long path from it's areas in the outskirts of Budapest to the city center. The most important element of the development project is the planned bicycle lane, which would connect the already existing bicycle lanes along the stream into a full 23 kilometre one. In some areas of the planned corridor, other developments will happen with the goal of preserving and restoring habitats which originally existed in the area before it was first regulated. Near the outer areas of the stream, afforestation will also take place. (Reference 9) The area of the stream is currently underdeveloped. According to the plans, the new green corridor could help decrease urban stress.