The second day of the #Transforming Cities18, dedicated to the “ Robust assessment of NBS impacts: creating the evidence base to inform urban policy-making”, aims to co-produce an impact assessment framework to monitor the performance of NBS, so that incremental knowledge is guaranteed, and feedback used to improve future interventions. Discussing on how the latest developments on monitoring, evaluating and data gathering can contribute to the evidence on the comparative advantage of these interventions stronger.

Thursday 17th will start with the keynotes of two relevant speakers from the Connecting Nature project: David Maddox, The Nature of Cities, USA and Gillian Dick, City of Glasgow, Scotland. They will refer to the “challenges and opportunities towards a reference framework for nature-based solutions”.

The second plenary session will approach the evidence base for assessing the multiple impacts of nature-based solutions. This panel will be composed by Andreas Littkopf (Environment Agency Austria), Jennifer Senick, (Rutgers Center for Green Building, USA), Kate Reilly (IUCN-International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Adina Dumitru (University of A Coruña), who will present the Connecting Nature’s approach for a robust NBS impact assessment.

After two Cities Summits session, the Thursday afternoon will continue with the plenary keynote by Julie Delcroix, from the DG Research & innovation at the European Commission.

Check the program for the 16th May on http://www.people-environment-udc.org/transforming-cities-enhancing-wellbeing

Más de 180 expertos internacionales en soluciones basadas en la naturaleza se reúnen en A Coruña los días 16, 17 y 18 de mayo para participar en el Simposio Internacional “Transformar ciudades, mejorar el bienestar: innovar con soluciones basadas en la naturaleza”organizado por el Grupo de Investigación Persona-Ambiente de la UDC 

• El Rector de la UDC, Julio Abalde, la Conselleira de Medio Ambiente Beatriz Mato y el Alcalde de A Coruña, Xulio Ferreiro, inauguraron el simposio, junto con los organizadores, Adina Dumitru y Ricardo García Mira. 
• Entre los ponentes figuran representantes de la Comisión Europa, el Fondo Europeo de Inversiones, la Agencia Ambiental Europea o expertos como Jeniffer Senick (USA), David Maddox (USA) o Nick Pearce (UK)
• Más de 20 ciudades presentarán sus experiencias para la mejora de la calidad de vida de la ciudadanía a través de la puesta en marcha de infraestructuras verdes y soluciones basadas en la Naturaleza. Representantes de Paris, Londres, Copenhaguen o Bolonia compartirán experiencias con A Coruña o Santiago de Compostela.  
• Las sesiones plenarias de las mañanas del 16, 17 y 18 de mayo están abiertas gratuitamente al público y contarán con traducción simultánea Inglés-Galego.

The first day of the #Transforming Cities18 dedicated to “Sustainable Urbanization in Cities and Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems” will critically review the lessons learned from the practical implementation of nature-based solutions in cities and distilling what is the best practice in achieving more liveable and resilient cities through nature-based solutions. Cities and SMEs experts will present their experiences, projects and successful NBS initiatives and will defining barriers (scientific, technical, policy, legal, organizational, social and economic) for nature-based solutions.

Plenary keynotes will be given by Adina Dumitru, from UDC, who will introduce “The European dialogue on nature-based solutions”, followed by the Josefina Enfedaque (European Commission), Ariana Nastaseanu (EASME) and Giovanni Fini (EU Urban Agenda Partnership), who present the “European research agenda for nature-based solutions”. Prof. Marcus Collier, Trinity College Dublin, will moderate this first session.

Wednesday afternoon sessions will focus on the global dialogue on nature-based solutions, with one plenary session on the “EU-Brazil sector dialogue on NBS”, moderated by Nikolaos Nikolaidis (Technical University of Crete), followed by the clustering session titled “paving the way for sharing the European nature-based solutions experience with the world”, organized by Alice Reil (ICLEI Europe).

Prof. Nick Pearce (University of Bath), Ricardo García Mira (University of A Coruña) and Denia Kolokotsa (Technical University of Crete) will closure the journey with a wrapping up session which discusses the main results of the day.

Check the program for the 16th May on http://www.people-environment-udc.org/transforming-cities-enhancing-wellbeing

More than 180 International experts on nature-based solutions will gather in A Coruña on May to participate in the Horizon 2020 European Dialogue and Clustering Action “Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with nature-based solutions”

• The Rector of the UDC, Julio Abalde and the Mayor of A Coruña, Xulio Ferreiro, opened the symposium, together with the organizers, Adina Dumitru and Ricardo García Mira.
• Keynotes include representatives from the European Commission, the European Investment Fund, the European Environment Agency or experts such as Jeniffer Senick (USA), David Maddox (USA) or Nick Pearce (UK).
• More than 20 cities will present their experiences to improve the quality of life of citizens through the implementation of green infrastructures and solutions based on nature. Representatives from Paris, London, Copenhagen or Bologna will share experiences with A Coruña or Santiago de Compostela.
• The plenary sessions on the mornings of May 16, 17 and 18 are open to the public (free of charge) and will have English-Galician translation.
• See de Agenda planning here. 

The Horizon 2020 European Dialogue and Clustering Action “Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with nature-based solutions” will take place in the City of A Coruña (Spain), next May 16-18, 2018. This is a joint initiative of two large-scale European projects Connecting Nature and the support platform Think Nature. Transforming Cities 18Fundación Barrié and the Research Institute Xoan Vicente Viqueira.

#Transforming Cities18 is an exciting three days event which combines inspirational keynotes, City Summits and plenary panel discussions among high-level experts in the field of nature-based solutions. The event adopts the highly dynamic and interactive format of a pressure cooker, with guiding questions and specific outcomes prepared for each day aimed at learning and exchange among participants.

Cities Summits are 90-minute sessions in which a combination of cities and city-planners, researchers and enterprise representatives with long experience in nature-based solutions present their innovative experience in implementing and measuring the impact of green infrastructures and discuss how to create robust an innovative forms for NBS assessment.

#Transforming Cities18 focus on 3 main themes:

• Sustainable Urbanization in Cities and Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems. Critically reviewing the lessons from the practical implementation of nature-based solutions in cities and distilling what is best practice in achieving more liveable and resilient cities through nature-based solutions.
• Robust assessment of NBS impacts: creating the evidence base to inform urban policy-making. How the latest developments monitoring, evaluating and data gathering can contribute to the evidence on the comparative advantage of these interventions stronger.
• Enhancing innovation potential through new governance and funding models for NBS. Focusing more on the management side of nature-based solutions, and the role these new approaches may play in upscaling the multiple benefits of this type of interventions.

EIGHT EU FUNDED PROJECTS WILL PRESENT DIFFERENT APPROACHES ON NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS IMPACT ASSESSMENT

The event will bring together representatives from the European Commission and other international institutions dealing with the funding, monitoring and evaluation of nature-based solutions, such as the United Nations Environment Programme, the European Investment Bank or the European Environmental Agency, EU-Brazil – Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication, the European Dredging Association – EuDA, the European Platform of Construction Technology (ECTP), the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, WWF.

Eight European-wide research projects, CONNECTING NATURE, THINK NATURE, Urban GreenUP, GROWGREEN, UNALAB, PHUSICOS, ISOCARP and NAIAD will showcase their demonstration actions of large-scale design, implementation and evaluation of NBS.

Among the relevant keynotes and speakers, #Transforming Cities18 counts with the representative of the European Commission, Josefina Enfedaque, Ariana Nastaseanu, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), Giovanni Fini, Bologna City Council, Adina Dumitru, University of A Coruña,Ricardo García-Mira, University of A Coruña, Nikolaos Nikolaidis,Technical University of Crete, Denia Kolokotsa, Technical University of Crete, Nick Pearce, University of Bath, Marcus Collier, Trinity College Dublin, David Maddox, The Nature of Cities, Gillian Dick, Glasgow City Council, Andreas Littkopf, Austria Environmental Agency, Jennifer Senick, Rutgers Center for Green Building, Kate Reilly, IUCN-International Union for Conservation of Nature, Siobhan McQuaid, Trinity College Dublin, Jean-Marc Tacnet, IRSTEA, Niki Frantzeskaki, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Alice Reil, ICLEI-Europe, Katrien van de Sijpe, Genk city council, Marino Cavallo,University of Bologna, José Juan Díaz Trillo, Spanish Parliament, Jose Manuel Silva Rodríguez, Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, María García Gómez, A Coruña City Council, among others. Consult in the bio of the keynotes and speakers who are presenting their experience in the event HERE.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The main conclusions from the Horizon 2020European Dialogue and Clustering Action Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with NBS will be elaborated to take the form of a “Roadmap for Research and Action on establishing a reference framework for NBS in addressing social challenges”. This will be made publicly available and will mark a milestone in the streamlining of efforts from both cities, policymakers, academics for accelerating transitions to more vibrant cities and sustainable cities in Europe and beyond.

Also, and based on the main discussions regarding the NBS impact evaluation, a white paper will be produced offering an overview of the current developments in the NBS field, identifying new tools and opportunities for monitoring of NBS and showing the added value of it, all illustrated with examples and aimed at informing the EU urban planning & sustainability policies.

The “Horizon 2020 European Dialogue and Clustering Action: Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with nature-based solutions” will take place since 16th of May and the venue will be the main building of the Barrie Foundation in St. Cantón Grande, 9, A Coruña. 

Transforming cities 18′s AGENDA

Download the transforming cities 18 PROGRAMME in pdf version

The complete agenda of the event can be consulted in the following links:

• PROGRAMME- Wednesday 16th
• PROGRAMME- Thursday 17th May
• PROGRAMME- Friday 18th May

o 15 de maio de 2018, o Campus da Sustentabilidade da Coruña inicia un ciclo de conferencias coa participación de especialistas internacionais en diferentes áreas de coñecemento que teñen relación coa sustentabilidade.

Estas expertas e expertos coordinan centros de investigación e transferencia especializados e proxectos ou programas de investigación de grande envergadura e altamente interdisciplinares, que teñen testado modelos e produtos de transferencia de alto valor engadido para diferentes sectores sociais e empresariais.

Adina Dumitru e Ricardo García Mira, investigadores do grupo Persona-Ambiente da Universidade da Coruña, xunto coa Concelleira de Medio Ambiente da Coruña, María García, participaron o pasado sábado 5 de maio no programa especial da emisora Cuac FM adicado á ciencia como ferramenta para mellorar a calidade de vida das persoas e dos ecosistemas. Este programa enmarcase nas actividades de celebración do Día da Ciencia na Rúa 2018, que acolleu a case 15.000 visitantes o pasado sábado 5 de maio de 2018.

“A tecnoloxía nunca é neutral ou apolitica e as súas consecuencias son o resultado do momento socioeconómico no que emerxe” .

Está é unha das conclusións do debate científico mantido polos investigadores do Grupo de Investigación Persona-Ambiente da UDC, celebrado o pasado 5 de maio no Laboratorio de Psicoloxía Social da Facultade de Ciencias das Educación.

ADDRESSING SOCIETAL CHALLENGES THROUGH NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

The “Horizon 2020 European Dialogue and Clustering Action Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with nature-based solutions”,  will gather in A Coruña more than 160 experts, cities and SMES to discuss the implementation and impact assessment of the nature-based solutions.

The event will take place in the City of A Coruña (Spain), next May 16-18, 2018 (Venue: Fundación Barrié). This is a joint initiative of two European projects Connecting Nature and the support platform Think Nature and is co-organized by the University of A Coruna (Spain).

The event will focus on 3 main themes:

• Sustainable Urbanization in Cities and Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems. Critically reviewing the lessons from the practical implementation of nature-based solutions in cities and distilling what is best practice in achieving more liveable and resilient cities through nature-based solutions.
• Robust assessment of NBS impacts: creating the evidence base to inform urban policy-making. How the latest developments monitoring, evaluating and data gathering can contribute to the evidence on the comparative advantage of these interventions stronger.
• Enhancing innovation potential through new governance and funding models for NBS. Focusing more on the management side of nature-based solutions, and the role these new approaches may play in upscaling the multiple benefits of this type of interventions.

El foro Tecendo Litoral analizará en Palexco las posibilidades urbanas del puerto.

Adina Dumitru, investigadora sénior del People Environment Research Group participa esta semana no “Foro Tecendo Litoral” , en un el debate sobre “A transformación dos peiraos como oportunidade”, en el que también intervendrán el edil de urbanismo Xiao Varela, el arquitecto Jorge Arévalo y el ingeniero Carlos Nárdiz.

TECENDO LITORAL es el proceso que lanza el Ayuntamiento de A Coruña para dar respuesta a las interrogantes que se abren sobre el futuro de los muelles y de la ciudad, apoyado en la participación de los agentes clave en este tema y la voz ciudadana.

El Grupo de Investigación Persoa-Ambiente de la Universidad de A Coruña, celebrará los próximos días organizará los días 16, 17 y 18 de mayo de 2018 el Simposio Europeo “Horizon 2020 European Dialogue and Clustering Action Transforming cities, enhancing wellbeing: innovating with nature-based solutions”. Este simposio está co-organizado por el consorcio Connecting Nature y la plataforma Think Nature y financiado por el programa.

El simposio, que reunirá a 150 participantes expertos en el campo de la planificación sostenible y el diseño de infraestructuras verdes y soluciones basadas en la naturaleza de los principales centros de investigación de innovación de Europa y Estados Unidos, empresas pequeñas, medianas y grandes, y una selección de ciudades y regiones europeas y asiáticas pioneras en la implementación de soluciones basadas en la naturaleza.

El profesor Ricardo García Mira, miembro del Grupo de Investigación Persona-Ambiente de la Universidade da Coruña,  ha sido distinguido, por elección, como Miembro Fellow de la sociedad científica International Association of Applied Psychology –IAAP (www.iaapsy.org).

Fundada en 1920, IAAP es la asociación internacional de psicología más antigua del mundo y cuenta actualmente con más de1500 miembros, procedentes de más de 80 países. El nombramiento ha sido acogido con satisfacción en su entorno de la Universidad, por la visibilidad internacional que proporciona para su Grupo de Investigación, que utiliza enfoques de psicología aplicada para el abordaje de problemas de sostenibilidad, innnovación social y cambio climático.

Editorial address, by Ricardo García Mira

Here we are again with a new issue of the bulletin of IAPS, with an eye on our next IAPS Conference in Rome. Organized by Giuseppe Carrus and his team of collaborators, the conference will address as a main theme the “Transitions to sustainability, lifestyles changes and human wellbeing: cultural, environmental and political challenges”. We are eager to revisit “the eternal city” to debate, strengthen our research ties, and make new proposals that contribute to a greater or lesser extent to build a more just, safer and more livable world.

Professor Robert Gifford, University of Victoria, Canada, who has investigated a range of topics within environmental psychology, from climate change and sustainability to architecture and place attachment, has recently edited the publication  “Environmental Psychology – Enhancing Our World”. The People-Environment research Group was acknowledged by Robert Gifford as one of the most prominent groups in environmental psychology studies. The publication lists a number of experts in Environmental Psychology from around the world.