Milestone 4 marks the completion of a key component in the co-planning and co-creation of the  Healthy Corridor concept in URBiNAT three Frontrunner Cities, Porto, Nantes and Sofia. It also highlights the tangible actions taken by each city to integrate this sustainable urban strategy, showcasing the adaptability and collaborative spirit inherent in the URBiNAT project. This milestone relates closely the publication of Healthy Corridor Concepts by each Frontrunner City as presented below (and as compiled in a single report, Deliverable 4.2).

It is the result of collaborative efforts by frontrunner cities working in close coordination with local partners to embed the Healthy Corridor concept into their plans for the transformation of URBiNAT intervention areas. Central to this initiative is the co-creation process, a participatory approach engaging citizens, researchers, entrepreneurs, social scientists, urban environmental experts, technical staff, and elected officials to tailor each city’s urban planning and participation culture to the project’s goals.

Healthy Corridors are more than just the traditional green corridors that cross our cities, aiming instead to contribute to the overall health of the surrounding community.

The Healthy Corridor, as defined by URBiNAT, is a public space in the form of a pathway that connects and links neighbourhoods, integrating not only nature-based solutions but also human-centred ones, having an effect on the environment as well as on people’s health and wellbeing.

In this sense, the Healthy Corridor is a cluster of NBS that can occupy urban voids or common ground that is not being used or needs regeneration, becoming a link between different areas of the city, contributing to avoidance of the segregation effect and to the promotion of social and urban cohesion.

These NBS are organized in the four typologies Technical, Territorial, Participatory and Social & Solidarity Economy Nature-Based Solutions. More about the URBiNAT NBS Catalogue HERE

Each stage of the co-creation circular process model proposes a set of actions to be adapted by each city, according to their local participatory culture and to the local social and political context.

Co-creation is the process aiming to ensure inclusive urban regeneration “by and with the people” in order to involve and empower citizens and local actors in the several different stages of dialogue, interaction and decision making.

URBiNAT considers participation as both a means and an end. The URBiNAT co-creation circular process is a model based on a four-stage approach:

Structured in four parts, D4.2 introduces the Healthy Corridor concepts and methodologies and provides an analysis of the outcomes achieved in each city. Parts 2, 3 and 4 offer case studies specific to Porto, Nantes, and Sofia, showcasing the stages in the co-planning and construction of the Healthy Corridor.

The document incorporates insights from mid-term reviews conducted by members of the URBiNAT scientific commission and internal reviewers, enriching the framework with questions, recommendations, and a call for a comparative analysis to underscore the unique achievements and impacts of green infrastructure on urban planning.

The location of the specific interventions related to the co-implementation of the NBSs is in about 20 vacant lots provisioned by the plans as part of the green infrastructure and public spaces in the four residential estates, namely Lev Tolstoy, Nadezhda 2 and 4 and Svoboda. The 2,5 km long axis of the Healthy corridor provides connection between Severen park and park Nadezhda and integrates important available territorial resources related to the major themes of the URBiNAT project – mobility, energy, water and nature.

The URBiNAT study area is 2,57 km2, while the intervention area has an overall surface of 1,43 km2 of which 5,6 ha is the area of the vacant municipal plots that obtained the highest scores when subjected to multicriteria evaluation. The indicative buffer area of the primary and secondary axes of the corridor is 138,1 ha. The area is mainly occupied by multifamily apartment housing constructed during the period of Centralized planning and predominantly built between the 1950-80s. The pedestrian paths and open spaces vary in terms of actual and planned significance and use. Most often there are narrow streets and informal unpaved paths as well as inter-block vacant and partially underutilized lots.

Among the main constraints are the poor pedestrian connectivity and contested spaces due to high motorization rate and density of occupation as well as many abandoned, marginalized and unattended plots.

The main opportunity is the implementation of major improvements in the large green open public space such as public works, playgrounds and social spaces that can help the area to overcome its long restructuring both in environmental and social-economic terms.

Furthermore, stimulation of participatory culture and solidarity networks can have a synergistic effect when combined with the physical improvements based on the self-confidence of the inhabitants and their attachment with the place.