Inclusive governance

The Alicante City Council will receive 11 million euros from the European FEDER sustainable growth program 2014-2020 to carry out this project, the Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy of Alicante DUSI Las Cigarreras. This funding will allow the integral transformation of an area that extends between The Castles of Santa Bárbara and San Fernando.” (Ref. 1). The specific transformation includes the recovery and dynamization of an important urban area that includes four historical neighbourhoods and two of the most emblematic mountains of the city, surrounded by two castles and with extensive green areas and rehabilitation of the existing city from the social and environmental sustainability, facing new urban development (Ref. 2)

2017 Green and Grand City is part of Göteborg's 400th anniversary (in 2021), and plans are developed up to the anniversary on a yearly basis. In 2017, the focus was on a greener and grander Göteborg. The vision for 2021 includes three themes, water, building bridges (reduces divides between people) and open spaces. The anniversary efforts build on three elements of sustainability; social, ecological and economic. (Ref. 1)

Recreation and Educational orchards were created as part of the Miraflores Park interventions and rehabilitation. These orchards were available for public use and had educational programs where the children would learn and cultivate the land. The Orchards were formed of four separate programs: Huertos Escolares (School Orchards), Huertos de Ocio (Leisure Orchards), Educational Itineraries, and Youth Greenhouse. (Ref 4)

'Grey to Green' is one of the most invested projects in Sheffield, to transform the Riverside Business District. In Phase -1 this project will transform a 1.2 km unused road to attractive new public space, which will include innovative perennial flower meadows, an interlinked sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS), rain gardens, public art and high quality paved footways (ref 2). The whole project and landscape have been designed by the City Council, partnership with the University of Sheffield Landscape School, Amey and Robert Bray Associates. The SUD was designed by leading national experts on landscaping, and it is believed that SUD will help in flood relief in this part of the city by soaking up run off to the river within the ‘flood zone’ (ref 2). In Phase-2, the scheme will link Castlegate to the under-used Victoria Quays area and transform the almost redundant former inner ring road with sustainable drainage, floral meadows, segregated cycle lanes and public art. (ref7)

The conservation of agricultural activities allows for the preservation of the landscape for all, with the possibility to offer to Milaners a place of leisure, tranquility, nature and tradition within the city, where to taste - also while tasting the products of the earth - what is the the Milanese agricultural world. It is located in the South West of Milan, within the Parco Agricolo Sud, in an area between the two Navigli, the Grande and the Pavese (1).

Bundek Park is one of the urban planning projects aimed to create a recreational and sports area for the citizens and tourists to support a healthy lifestyle (Ref 3). The lake is surrounded by Bundek Park which stretches for 2,000 meters in length with an area of 35 hectares. The lake is about 5 hectares. the lake was initially used for fishing, walking and swimming. With the increased and carefree use of the lake, the lake and the environment became a waste disposal site. In 2005, by the decision of the Mayor, Mr. Milan Bandić, the renovation of Bundek began. The project included cleaning of the informal waste disposal site and shrubs blocking access to the lakes, renovation of the access to the lakes, planting flowers and introduction of the benches and water also to allow citizens to use the lake for recreation and enjoy the nature (Ref 2).

The Air Pollution Garden (APG) in the UK has been established at Sheffield Botanical Gardens through a collaboration between the three White Rose universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield. Typically an (APG) size is 6x8m and contains plants that are particularly sensitive to damage by pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) present in the air. The project owners hope to raise public awareness of air pollution effects in a tangible manner and change people’s behaviours (ref1).
In 2017, the city council hosted AirFest to push this initiative further (ref 8), a ‘Phyto-sensor’ toolkit was created by the Citizen Sense research group at the University of London to help identify the best locations for Air Quality Gardens (ref 6) and published the Air Quality Annual Status report (ref 7). In 2020 the project is considered as completed, although there are several different other projects in planning.

This intervention is part of an action plan by the Junta de Andalucia to develop an intervention model for disadvantaged zones to facilitate the social inclusion of persons at risk or socially excluded, and the socioeconomic growth of the area. (Ref 1) The project is a pilot to transform one of Sevilla's poorest neighborhoods, Los Pajaritos, into an eco-neighborhood. (Ref 14)

The Huerto del Rey Moro is an urban community orchard/ garden beside the historic house Casa del Rey Moro. It is one of the only open green spaces in the downtown area of Sevilla where activities of environmental education, leisure and socializing are performed. (Ref 2) The Rey Moro orchard is cited as keeping true to the historic and cultural use of the area since it has been used as an orchard on and off over the past 500 years. (ref 2) Thanks to citizens themselves, as citizens acted to keep it a public and open space against a proposed legislation that would destroy it. (Ref 5)

The neighbours of the Fuensanta in Cordoba recovered an abandoned public plot of the old Fuensanta’s cinema transforming it into a social and ecological vegetable garden (Ref 1), occasionally used to play soccer and used as a dog park previously (Ref. 3). "All the activities were free of charge, coordinated by volunteers and consisted of: a walk around the neighbourhood, a building recycled furniture workshop, an urban vegetable gardens workshop and urbanism for children workshop. All of them took place in the plot and the creation of a vegetable garden was the most popular activity." (Ref 1)