Achieved impacts

The Harris Garden is situated on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading. The garden provides an important amenity for all, giving pleasure to an increasing number of visitors, staff and students. It provides facilities for teaching, conservation and recreation. In 2010, with the closure of Plant Sciences, responsibility for the main part of the garden passed to the Facilities Management Directorate of the University and a major revitalisation programme began; with the "new purpose of conservation and recreation for all". (Ref. 1 , 2)

On an office building, one of the largest green walls of Belgium was created (50.000 plants) that improves air quality, reduces heat stress, and improves biodiversity. The green wall also isolates the building, resulting in less energy use (Ref. 1-3). The wall consists of a variety of native plants and is irrigated with water collected on the roof of the building (Ref. 1, 2).

Management of natural lime-dry grasslands on gravel banks in Augsburg is conducted by the Landcape Association of the City of Augsburg (Bavaria, Germany). 300 ha of biotopes within the municipal area is maintained due to sheep grazing, mowing management, scrub clearance and reopening of potential expansion areas as well as further activities to create initial stages of immature soils and recreational purposes (Ref. 1).

The park was reconstructed by the municipality of Sofia in order to improve the local living environment and provide suitable conditions for rest, recreation, and sport. Actions included restoring the lake by reconstructing the bank, restoring flower gardens by adding 80 000 new flowers, and restoring green areas.
(Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)

Instead of expanding the Ring of Antwerp to improve mobility, the municipality of Antwerp decided to use the space to create a Green Ring of 13 kilometers consisting of a wide range of projects (Ref. 3). This large city plan contains green spaces along the Ring, green corridors between those green spaces and with existing parks, a new green park, neighborhood green spaces, restoring the historical city wall and so on (Ref. 3). The plan also contains measures to improve water storing capacity (Ref. 4).

Fobney Island in Reading (which is an area by the River Kennet in Berkshire county) was transformed through a restoration project in order to e.g. attract wildlife (birds; bats; water voles; otters). This partnership project (with work being carried out by the Environment Agency, Reading Borough Council, Thames Water and the Thames Rivers Restoration Trust), includes restoring the river and creating wetlands. (Ref. 1-3)

The creation of a new park in Augsburg within the reconstruction project of the Königsplatz (Konig square). The project combined two main goals: modern mobility in harmony with a new quality of life, accessibility of the natural environment inside the urban inner city. Formerly a traffic area, today it is a car-free habitat and green oasis for humans and nature (Ref. 1).

A roof garden of about 370 square meters was built on the new building of the Diakonissenklinik in the course of the general renovation. The new intensive greening of the roof can be seen from many hospital wards and serves as an additional recreation facility for its patients (Ref. 1).

Thanks to an initiative by the citizens of Sofia, called Green Rails in Sofia, grass was planted by the Municipality on a an area of newly reconstructed tram line in Sofia. The cited benefits were heat reduction, noise reduction, aesthetics, natural water retention and drainage, and lower costs of maintenance in the long term compared to grey alternatives. The grassroots initiative “Green Rails in Sofia” are determined to keep putting pressure on the local authority to continue planting grass on other parts of the tram lines. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)

'Groene Mient' (Green Commons) is a citizen initiative that realized an exceptional social-ecological residential project consisting of three housing buildings of energy neutral homes and a 3,500 m2 communal garden (1,6). Storm water is captured from the roofs of the buildings into bioswales, permeable paving is applied, the shared garden is 'eatable' and houses run on sustainable energy (1). The houses do not have a gas connection and have three different sustainable energy systems: heat pump with heat-cold storage, solar boiler or electric heating (6).