Achieved impacts

The drought-tolerant garden was established by Portsmouth Water at its Head Office entrance in 2007. The plants in the garden, all of which require little or no watering, were chosen to be visually stimulating whilst contributing colour, scent and variation in leaf texture and shape (1). This garden has been designed to be drought-tolerant, easily maintained and can take some wear and tear. The planting reflects the changing seasons with something of interest all year. None of the plants is difficult to grow and is easily obtainable (2).

Intercultural Garden Nuremberg Langwasser e.V. is a community garden project aimed at sustainable urban development and tolerance between different social and cultural groups. People of different origins work together on their own plots (about 25 m² each), without a fences between neighbouring plots and consciously in interaction through horticulture and other activities. All the grounds are used as vegetable and flower gardens. Environmentally friendly production is desired and promoted (1). Other opportunities offered in the garden are intercultural activities and self-designed educational work. (10) The association actively promotes integration through social activities, which, as stated by the association “can include things like providing German lessons, organizing small festivals and even settling of a dispute happened once”. (7)

The city garden was a 2000 square meter large communal garden in Nuremberg Eberhardshof district that invites all citizens to take part in gardening and co-operating activities without any costs attached. The project was aimed at promoting sustainability for Nuremberg and the Bavarian region (1). The gardeners try to rely on a variety of different plants, even in their last season, they planted 35 tomatoes, 14 chili, ten potato, and twelve bean varieties alone. In 2013, a bee colony was also established. (7) The project had its last season in 2018, after which it had to be closed because of plans to create a district park in its area. (5) The city garden has established itself as an important leisure facility in Eberhardshof by offering, for example, cooking courses and training courses on tree pruning as well as numerous other topics. (6)

The Salitre Garden was a public park inaugurated in 1994 and built around the area of the former gunpowder factory. For this reason, it is also known as the Garden of Gunpowder (Ref 2). It is a green space planned in the urban centre, that has gone through different rehabilitation and remodelling stages. The first one was in 1987 when the land was bought by the municipality and made into the park (Ref 2 and 3). The second one was in 2012 by covering a green space around the powder factory (Ref 5). Another one was the inclusion of a new green labyrinth was installed in 2017 (Ref 4). The last one was in 2020 when a new botanical garden will be created on the island, with an open-air gym and a children's area (Ref 8).

There have been different activities throughout the time to recover and improve the Malecon Botanical Garden. In 2012, the main activity was to recover the Malecon Botanical Garden by introducing a collection of Mediterranean species and of other ethnobotanicals plants and delivering some other environmental services to the location (Ref 1). In 2019, there were different works to rehabilitate the Garden for the September Fair, and also some other plans to create a cultural and artistic space within the Garden (Ref 10 and 11).
The project has completed its first stage, but there is an ongoing number of initiatives to rehabilitate and improve the garden (Ref 9 and 10).
Regarding the status of the project, the first stage has been completed, but an ongoing initiative to rehabilitate and improve the garden is taking place (Ref 9 and 10).

Wetlands provide a varying degree of treatment of discharged water and are ideally suited for the containment and treatment of polluted water runoff, being a holistic example of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). The Dublin Local Authority installed an Integrated Constructed Wetland to treat polluted water discharged from the urban area, with the aim of cleaning urban runoff and drainage water. It was meant to purify water that discharges into a pond, and later on into the Tolka river. The project has been very successful in treating polluted water effectively, according to studies. (Ref. 1; Ref. 3)

The project aims to completely redevelop ‘Rozemaai’, a neighborhood in Antwerp, focusing on climate change adaptation, green spaces, and recreation. This includes a sustainable drainage system in which storm water flows via swales into a water stream with nature-friendly river banks, trees and bushes in the neighborhood, green parking lots, allotments and recreational facilities such as picnic tables (Ref. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Since 2019, the district has had a new, accessible park in which the Donkse brook plays a leading role (Ref. 7).

From 1850 to 1956 the area Eskesberg was a limestone mine, after that up until 1972 it served as a landfill. When taken over by the city of Wuppertal, groundwater contamination and outgassing required a large remediation to remove toxic substances and recover the area according to nature conservation guidelines. (Ref. 8) Since 2005, it has been turned into a nature conservation area covering 8.5 ha where several rare plants and animals have resettled and thus the area also serves as an important recreational space for residents (Ref. 1, 2, and 3). The project was initiated by the local government, who also collaborate with different partners for maintaining the nature conservation area, such as the biological station, which organizes excursions, performs monitoring on the terrain and sets up bee hives. Also, residents apart from visiting the area can actively participate in its maintenance as volunteers, guided by the city of Wuppertal and the NGO Biologische Station Mittlere Wupper. Furthermore, the nature conservation association of Wuppertal and scientists from the university of Cologne are involved in the intervention by conducting research on the terrain (Ref. 1, 2, 3 and 6).

On 'De Roma', an old cinema that has been renovated into a theatre, a green roof of 650m2 was created which improves biodiversity and contributes to Antwerp's climate change adaptation (Ref. 1, 4). A bee house was also later installed on the roof (Ref. 2). The green roof is created by volunteers of De Roma and Kopspel, which is an organization that provides learning-working places for student of 'Deeltijds beroepssecundair onderwijs (Part-time Secondary Professional Education) and temporary employment for people that want to turn back to the labour market (Ref. 1).

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) ran a project to turn Belfast into the first-ever “Swift City”. The Belfast Swift City project aimed to bring nature back to the city and protect the swifts (ref 1). The aim was to find out where the birds are nesting, so work can begin to protect them. Additionally, there was said to be potential for the creation of community gardens in the area of residential buildings undergoing regeneration to aid this project. (Ref 2). As thousands of swifts migrate from Africa and nest in crevices in buildings, nesting boxes were put in a few locations like the parliament building to attract more swifts. (Ref 4)