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(re)Planning Nature-Based Solutions and Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Transformations

REPLAN logo

Project leader: Ulla Mörtberg, SEED, KTH

Participants: Berit Balfors, Johan Högström, Sigvard Bast, Lina Suleiman and Xi-Lillian Pang, KTH; and Blal Adem Esmail, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany

Collaboration: Christian Albert, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany; Chiara Cortinovis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Jarumi Kato Huerta and Davide Geneletti, University of Trento, Italy

Project period: 2021-2025

Funding: FORMAS

Key words: Green areas for sustainable cities, Nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, Planning with nature in cities

Project description

The aim of the project is to understand and facilitate the interplay of processes, actors, and tools across planning tiers to support Swedish spatial planning in integrating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and Green Infrastructure (GI) to achieve human wellbeing while conserving life-supporting ecosystems in urban regions. Fundamental components of the sustainability transition, NBS and GI are yet to be effectively integrated in reallife planning in Sweden. This requires good coordination across planning levels, smart use of digital NBS-GI tools, and processes of knowledge co-creation and co-production. The overall aim of the REPLAN project is to coproduce new and essential knowledge of how local and regional planning practices can contribute to the protection of urban green areas and their ecosystem services by exploring new trajectories for spatial planning processes.

We analyse related digital tools and test them in spatial scenarios addressing urgent challenges formulated by stakeholders. We organise Capacity Tracks for integration of NBS-GI in planning as well as of digital NBS-GI tools, laying the foundation for a Capacity Platform for co-learning and co-creation of solutions. Thus, REPLAN will create credible and salient solutions to how local and regional planning processes can be organized and designed to effectively make use of NBS and GI to shape thriving residential and public environments and to combat biodiversity challenges by ensuring sustainable land and water use.

Activities

  Upcoming activities
Wednesday 5 February 2025 at 9-11 Joining forces with the EU project SELINA, we invite you to a webinar and workshop on ecosystem service mapping and assessment in planning, with participants from Sweden, Norway and Slovenia. More information will be sent out early January ( link to registration )
Friday 7 February 2025 at 9-10 Online seminarium om Spatial tools used in green infrastructure planning for biodiversity: insights from a systematic literature review”, with Etsuko Nonaka (https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69797761308)
Publications
Adem Esmail, B., Cortinovis, C., Bast, S., Anderson, C. C., Suleiman, L., Arciniegas, G., Geneletti, D., Mörtberg, U., & Albert, C. (accepted). Planning for transformative change with nature-based solutions: a geodesign application in Stockholm. Landscape and Urban Planning (accepted).
Adem Esmail, B., Anderson, C.C., Cortinovis, C., Bast, S., Suleiman, L., Kato Huerta, J., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Arciniegas, G., Geneletti, D., Mörtberg, U., Albert, C., 2024. Advancing boundary work to support urban planning: Geodesign with nature-based solutions in Stockholm . Ambio.
Bast, S., Mörtberg, U., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Suleiman, L., Cortinovis, C., Adem Esmail, B., Kato Huerta, J., Pang, X.-L., Geneletti, D., Albert, C., 2022. (Re)Planning of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for sustainable urban transition . IALE 2022 European Landscape Ecology Congress: Making the future, learning from the past, Warsaw, Poland, and digital. Book of abstracts, p. 338.

Adem Esmail, B., Cortinovis, C., Suleiman, L., Albert, C., Geneletti, D., Mörtberg, U., 2022. Greening cities through urban planning: A literature review on the uptake of concepts and methods in Stockholm . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 72: 127584.
Conference contributions
Co-organized session: U. Mörtberg & R. Remme et al. "Tools and approaches for integrating ecosystem services and nature-based solutions in landscape and urban planning and policy", 5th ESP Europe Conference, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 18-22 November 2024.
Adem Esmail, B., Bast, S., Cortinovis, C., Anderson, C.C., Suleiman, L., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Kato Huerta, J., Arciniegas, G., Geneletti, D., Mörtberg, U., Albert, C., (2024). Planning for transformative change with nature-based solutions: A geodesign application in Stokholm. 5th ESP Europe Conference, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 18-22 November 2024.
Adem Esmail, B., Bast, S., Cortinovis, C., Anderson, C.C., Suleiman, L., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Kato Huerta, J., Arciniegas, G., Geneletti, D., Mörtberg, U., Albert, C., (2023). Geodesign to support local planning towards sustainable urban transformation with nature-based solutions in metropolitan regions. 11th IALE World Congress, Nairobi, Kenya, 10–15 July 2023.
Bast, S., Mörtberg, U., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Suleiman, L., Cortinovis, C., Adem Esmail, B., Kato Huerta, J., Geneletti, D., Albert, C., (2023). Re-planning of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for sustainable urban transitions. IALE 2022 European Landscape Ecology Congress, Warsaw, Poland, 11-15 July 2022.
Adem Esmail, B., Albert, C., Cortinovis, C., Geneletti, D., Wang, J., 2022. Applying Geodesign to support local planning towards sustainable urban transformation with nature-based solutions (NBS) in the Skarpnäck district, Stockholm. 4th ESP Europe Conference, Heraklion, Greece, 10-14 October 2022.

Bast, S., Mörtberg, U., Högström, J., Balfors, B., Suleiman, L., Cortinovis, C., Adem Esmail, B., Kato Huerta, J., Pang, X.-L., Geneletti, D., Albert, C., 2022. (Re)Planning of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for sustainable urban transition. IALE 2022 European Landscape Ecology Congress, Warsaw, Poland, 11-15 July 2022.