16 June

The first day took place at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. The conference was held in a hybrid format, with more than 100 in-person attendees.

The morning session consisted of Keynote speeches followed by roundtable discussions on Co-Governance of NBS and Nature for Inclusive and Innovative Urban Regeneration.

Special thanks to our keynote speakers Cosimo Palazzo, Secretary General of the FGF, Marie Yeroyanni from the European Commission, Caterina Sarfatti, Director of C40’s Inclusive Climate Action programme, and Tomaso Gorini of the Green Europe Parity for their inspiring and thought provoking presentations.

During the Cities Fair in the afternoon, URBiNAT Frontrunner, Follower and Observer cities shared their experiences with regards to the NBS and Healthy Corridors co-created in their specific intervention area.

Divided into small groups, conference participants were guided through this cities exhibition by following the logic of the different stages of a community driven process, from co-diagnostic, over co-design to co-governance of NBS and Healthy Corridors.

There were lively discussions at the exhibition stands of the participating cities Nantes (France), Porto (Portugal) and Sofia (Bulgaria), Bruxelles (Belgium), Høje-Taastrup (Denmark), Nova Gorica (Slovenia), Siena (Italy), and Khorramabad (Iran).

URBiNAT Frontrunner Cities, Followers Cities and Observers shared on-the-ground experience of co-creating NBS-lined Healthy Corridors.

The face-to-face conversations during the URBiNAT City Fair: A moment of direct exchange and sharing of experience and ideas that was much appreciated by both the audience and the cities.

17 June

The second day was held at IULM university campus. This Scientific Conference Day was dedicated to the discussion of concepts, methodologies and practices. Experts from across the world shared their knowledge and experience from diverse perspectives — ranging from academic to urban planning and design to lived experience on the ground.

The Scientific Conference covered the following 5 main themes:

1: Co-creating NBS for Sustainable Cities
2: Innovating Public Space for Inclusive Cities
3: Transforming Governance for Innovative Cities
4: Engaging Citizens for Healthy Cities
5: Changing Economy for Equitable Cities

To share some figures of this very intense day:

Within 20 thematic sessions, experts from 31 countries (Spain, UK, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Germany, Norway, Cyprus, Brazil, Poland, Turkey, Belgium, Morocco, Hong Kong, Argentina, Bulgaria, South Korea, Netherlands, Taiwan, Switzerland, India, Ecuador, Thailand, France, Romania, Iran, Sweden, Malaysia, Russia, Oman, and Serbia) delivered 83 presentations (in-person and online).

The Scientific Committee monitored the gender responsiveness of the conference. Men and women and broader gender diversity were promoted and welcome. 37 of the session chairs were men and 49 were women – or, if we exclude overlaps, 27 of the session chairs were women and 26 were men.

To learn more about 2 days of inspiring presentations: Download the Book of Abstracts.