Nathalie Nunes

The present deliverable D1.5 is the first report aimed at compiling and analysing human rights and gender issues in the scope of URBiNAT's planning, implementation and evalutation of activities, covering the first year of the project, from June 2018 to May 2019.

Second report aimed at compiling and analysing human rights and gender issues in the scope of URBINAT’s planning, implementation, and evaluation of activities, for the second and third years of the project, from June 2019 to May 2021. As cross-cutting dimensions, human rights and gender cover many aspects of the project and constitute lenses to be taken into consideration from the analysis applied in the research and innovation contents, to the completion of all stages of activities.

Author(s): Nathalie Nunes, Emma Björner, Knud Erik Hilding-Hamann
Published in: Sustainability, Issue 13(23), 2021, ISSN 2071-1050
Publisher: MDPI Open Access Publishing
DOI: 10.3390/su132313378

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ABSTRACT: Participation and citizen engagement are fundamental elements in urban regeneration and in the deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) to advance sustainable urban development. Various limitations inherent to participatory processes concerning NBS for inclusive urban regeneration have been addressed, and lessons have been learnt. This paper investigates participation and urban regeneration and focuses on the development of guidelines for citizen engagement and the co-creation of NBS in the H2020 URBiNAT project. The methodology first involves the collection of scientific and practical input on citizen engagement from a variety of stakeholders, such as researchers and practitioners, to constitute a corpus of qualitative data. This input is then systematized into guideline categories and serves as the basis for a deeper analysis with researchers, experts, and practitioners, both inside and outside URBiNAT, and in dialogue with other cases of participatory NBS implementation. The results highlight an ‘ecology of knowledges’ based on a ‘living’ framework, which aims to address the specific needs of various segments of citizens and to match citizen engagement to the participatory cultures of cities. Implications and further research are also discussed, with a special focus on the implementation of NBS. The conclusions broaden the research context to include the refinement of the NBS approach, with participation being seen as both a means and an end.

This policy brief explores the challenges and innovative opportunities for institutionalising participatory processes within municipal contexts. Specifically, we report on the creation of municipal committees, a proposal framed within the EU-funded project URBiNAT aimed at co-creating healthy corridors made up of a combination of nature-based solutions (NBS). The proposed committees aim to consolidate citizens’ engagement in the process of co-creating NBS, by offering opportunities for: cooperation and co-production between citizens, public authorities
and stakeholders; building consensus through possibilities to influence, negotiate and deliberate on decisions; handling emerging conflicts, dissensus and disagreement.

Author(s): Gonçalo Canto Moniz, Ingrid Andersson, Knud Erik Hilding-Hamann, Américo Mateus, Nathalie Nunes
Published in: Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Urban Planning. Contemporary Urban Design Thinking, 2022, Page(s) 105-146, ISBN 978-3-030-89524-2
Publisher: Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89525-9_5

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In recent decades, many city authorities have been implementing strategies for the development of urban regeneration in their central areas. Most of these processes aim to improve the use of public space, and are often to be found in historic areas and waterfronts. The aim of this text is to put forward an alternative urban regeneration plan which focuses on the peripheral areas of cities, areas which were often built as neighbourhoods of social housing, and which now face environmental challenges as well as social and economic ones. To this end, the URBiNAT H2020 project is promoting inclusive urban regeneration that engages citizens and stakeholders in all the stages of the co-creation process. The overall objective is to implement a cluster of human-centred, nature-based solutions (NBS) in order to create Healthy Corridors that bring together both material and immaterial solutions that will impact the environment and the wellbeing of the community. The activation of Living Labs in the seven URBiNAT cities is building a Community of Practice so that knowledge can be shared with project partners, within the cities themselves, and with the public in the wider world. The intermediate results achieved in the pilot case studies validate the overall methodology and are helping us to identify lessons to be learnt and recommendations for the future.

Moniz, G.C., Andersson, I., Hilding-Hamann, K.E., Mateus, A., Nunes, N. (2022). Inclusive Urban Regeneration with Citizens and Stakeholders: From Living Labs to the URBiNAT CoP. In: Mahmoud, I.H., Morello, E., Lemes de Oliveira, F., Geneletti, D. (eds) Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Urban Planning. Contemporary Urban Design Thinking. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89525-9_5

Deliverable 3.2 (D3.2) is the second deliverable of work package 3 (WP3) on citizens’ engagement. D3.1, submitted in month 12 of the project, reported on the strategic design, use of participatory solutions and relevant digital tools in support of the uptake of n ature-based solutions ( NBS). D3.2 reports on the advancements of the URBiNAT project in tailoring participatory methods and tools to city cultures for the co-design and co-implementation of NBS processes.

This deliverable identifies the actors involved in participation and the conditions needed for active, positive and ethically sound participation. In doing so, the deliverable takes stock of the existing methods and tools for participation being used and likely to be used in the future. Furthermore, it gathers insights for strategic design and usage of participatory solutions and relevant digital tools in support of NBS uptake. This stocktaking activity provides URBiNAT with insight as to the state-of-art regarding the use of relevant participatory solutions, including digital technologies and tools, applied by stakeholders in the frontrunner and follower cities; their ease of use; services provided; usage levels and drawbacks associated with them. The objective is to have a picture of the existing participatory culture in the frontrunner and follower cities. In addition, the deliverable will begin to shed some light on actual and potential collaboration among stakeholders to enhance citizen participation in local communities in frontrunner and follower cities. This will be based on a generic model for the assessment of existing participatory culture, as well as engaging part of URBiNAT's portfolio of participatory solutions for application in the cities.

The purpose of this document is to provide an initial version of URBiNAT’s Data Management Plan (DMP). This is a living document which will be updated during project development when the need arises in order to improve the internal processes. The DMP derives from Task 1.3 “Innovation, IPR and data management” of Work Package 1 “Management of consortium and project’s general implementation”. It constitutes the Deliverable D1.3.

Open meetings facilitated and organized in small groups in which participants are invited to debate a specific thematic. This method allows to explore and develop bottom-up and grassroots community development skills for people within their own communities. Participants can identify their most pressing social determinants, with positive and negative aspects of their environment, bringing social justice and environmental sustainability. The method also assists people to gain a clearer understanding of the principles of community development and community capacity building, increasing awareness and understanding of the main themes, terms and definitions.

Methodological tool in participatory planning and community development, it makes visible the ways that local cultural assets, stories, practices, relationships, memories, and rituals constitute places as meaningful locations.
Process of collecting, recording, analyzing and synthesizing information to describe the cultural resources, networks, links and patterns of usage of a given community or group, also strategically used to bring stakeholders into conversation.
Flexible according to the objectives, purpose and what one wants to map. E.g. facilities, organizations, stories of places, historical sites, for the past (memories and landmarks) or for the future (aspirational mapping), for the community or for outsiders.
It can be combined with approaches such as footprint of women (gender), forbidden cities (safety), asset-based community development (community assets), arts.

Empowerment evaluation is the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self- determination.
Program participants conduct their own evaluations, with the support of an outside evaluator and an additional facilitator, in workshops to complete the following steps: a) developing a mission; b) taking stock where the program stands; c) planning for the future.
Participants determine the type of evidence required to document and monitor progress. Subsequent evaluations, such as interviews and surveys, test whether strategies are working to allow mid-course corrections. Another formal assessment of activities allows comparison with the previous ratings of key activities. All results are recorded in accessible documents to be used as references, baseline and data point for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the co-creation process.

Tool for participatory decision-making improvement. It promotes an organized way of collecting ongoing or recurring information by residents, to be used by local governments and civil society, for planning, budgeting, and implementing local development programs, as well as for monitoring and evaluating their performance. Its activities cover community mapping, mobilization, capacity building, and information dissemination. Its benefits include:
- identification of problems and solutions in areas with fragmentation of needs and different vulnerable groups, which make it difficult to provide standardized solutions
- collective elaboration of simple and intuitive indicators
- contrast to lack of transparency and clientelism
- creation of relations of mutual trust between citizens and public officials
- awareness about policy-making helping citizens to understand the constraints of public action.