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Can nature make your city climate-resilient?

Among the headlines of summer 2017: disastrous floods in the South of England, Istanbul and Berlin, extreme water scarcity in Rome, wild fires damaging homes on the Croatian coast, the Côte d'Azur and elsewhere… The magnitude and frequency of these and other events indicate that climate change is already a reality, and the impacts will be even bigger in the future. Yes, we need to reduce greenhouse gases to limit climate change, but equally urgent: we need to adapt to the remaining impacts. All cities, depending on their geographical position, are likely to experience prolonged and more intensive heatwaves or droughts, more frequent wild fires, coastal flooding, or an increase in the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall with the associated threat of urban flooding, river flooding or landslides. How can cities cope with these huge predicted impacts of climate change in the future, even when they are faced with tight budgets? Can nature be a solution?

Malmö enjoys its green infrastructure solutions

Emerging retail and consumer trends that challenge small cities and their centres

Mireia Sanabria, URBACT III RetaiLink network Lead Expert

What follows is a summary of the presentation delivered at the URBACT III City Centre Doctor network transnational meeting held in San Donà di Piave (It), 29-31 May 2017. It introduces the key challenges that small and medium-sized European cities experience with regards to retailing in their city centres as a result of consumer and sector trends. It also points at some methods and policy guidelines for mediumsized cities to approach the topic with an aim of minimising the impact that the new consumption and business models have in their cities.

The growing role of food in fixing our cities

El pasado 7 de enero de 2019 se lanzó oficialmente la nueva convocatoria las URBACT Action Planning Networks, que estará abierta hasta el 17 de abril. Puedes conocer todos los detalles aquí

Green Public Procurement & Socially Responsible Public Procurement

Green Public Procurement (GPP) and Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP) bring environmental, societal and economic benefits at the local level, and can help drive the market towards sustainability. By taking smart decisions when purchasing products and services, public authorities achieve real value for the public purse. 

Stay Tuned: Keeping the door of opportunity open

No próximo dia 13 de fevereiro, o Ponto URBACT Nacional, em parceria com a Câmara Municipal de Aveiro, promove o URBACT Infoday 2019 no Pequeno Auditório do Centro de Congressos de Aveiro.

Bologna innovates to help its most fragile communities

Three of the cities selected in the first call of Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) are working, or have worked, within URBACT on topics similar to their UIA bids: Turin, Bologna and Rotterdam.

We investigated what made these cities successful at being involved in the two European programmes, and asked whether there is – for these cities – something like a trajectory between URBACT and UIA.

This article is the third and last of our series of articles on this topic.

It is based on an interview with Manuela Marsano, from the Economic development and city promotion Department, and Inti Bertocchi, from the social inclusion unit at the City of Bologna.

Learning with other European Cities to help the most fragile population