World Cities Day is celebrated on October 31, a date promoted since 2014 by the United Nations (UN) to reflect on how urbanization can be a driver of change for sustainable development. This year, with the slogan “People-Centered Smart Cities“, the focus is on how technology, data and artificial intelligence can transform urban life, keeping people at the center of smart city initiatives and recovery from current crises.
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this figure is projected to increase to 70% by 2050. This urban growth poses critical challenges, but it also offers unprecedented opportunities to implement creative solutions that improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. Cities, by concentrating a large part of global economic activity, generate 65% of the world’s energy demand and are responsible for 75% of carbon dioxide emissions, which makes them key points in addressing the climate crisis.
PROMOTION OF URBAN RENATURATION
Until now, urban development has been carried out with its back to nature. Added to this has been an accelerated process of expansion, overpopulation and loss of biodiversity. Distancing nature from the city is entailing significant economic, health and quality of life costs for its inhabitants.
To reverse this situation, it is necessary to promote a change of course in the management of urban environments and mobilise resources to direct them to promoting a real rapprochement between city and nature, promoting the recovery, growth and connection of green infrastructures based on Nature-based Solutions (NBS). Thus, urban renaturation can contribute to responding to the challenges faced by cities, such as pollution or the obvious effects of climate change, which have a direct impact on people’s well-being and health.
In this context, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) reaffirms its commitment to the ecological transition of urban environments, through three calls for aid financed by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP) and one co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In total, it promotes 85 projects that place nature at the centre of urban planning, promoting more sustainable, resilient and healthy cities.
One of the projects financed by the RTRP is Sant Boi Respira+Verd, an innovative initiative based on the connectivity of green and blue infrastructure consisting of the balanced and equitable implementation of actions throughout the municipality of Sant Boi del Llobregat and the peri-urban area.
Also noteworthy is Cinca Revive, in Fraga (Huesca), promoted by the Fraga City Council. With a similar investment, the project acts on the restoration of the river ecosystem of the Cinca River and the reduction of flood risk with innovative techniques, which allow the increase of drainage capacity, habitat diversification, garbage removal and, in general, forest hydrological restoration, through the project to restore the river ecosystem of the Cinca River and the reduction of flood risk in the urban environment.
Within the framework of the ERDF, the Biodiversity Foundation promotes new urban renaturation actions in 12 cities. One of them is the Castellón Naturaleza en Red project, coordinated by the Castellón de la Plana City Council with almost 3.5 million euros, which will promote the connection of green spaces, the creation of climate shelters and the renaturalization of educational centers and urban areas.
On the other hand, the Generation of Islands of Freshness project in San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria), led by the same City Council, with almost three million euros, will transform school and urban spaces into green areas that favour biodiversity and climate comfort.
