Bologna, Italy
City population: 380027
Duration: 2012 – 2013
Implementation status: Completed
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Residential, Public Greenspace Area, Central Business District / City Centre
Last updated: October 2021

The project aimed to tackle two environmental problems through an integrated policy: climate change (both the mitigation and adaptation effects of urban forestation) and air quality. The project foresaw the dissemination of public-private partnership tools, developed within the framework of corporate social responsibility experiences, and the distribution of specific guidelines. Specifically, the project planned to develop a public-private partnership model for urban forestation through the adoption of the ‘green areas inner-city agreement’ (GAIA). This was expected to include three specific protocols for green urban areas covering management, monitoring and mapping resulting in 3000 trees planted across Bologna (1).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
  • Green playgrounds and school grounds
  • Institutional green space
  • Green parking lots
  • Blue infrastructure
  • Riverbank/Lakeside greens
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Climate change mitigation
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Environmental quality
  • Air quality improvement
  • Noise reduction
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Regulation of built environment
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Enabling opportunities for physical activity
  • Improving physical health
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation
  • Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure

Focus

Creation of new green areas

Project objectives

The three protocols aimed to: - Develop a model of environmental governance that merges the mitigation and adaptation effects of climate change (and show how they impact on air quality); - Demonstrate the feasibility of local policies tackling climate change through the development partnerships between private and public bodies for the management of green urban areas; - Initiate a process for assisting public administrations in promoting co-responsibility by introducing an innovative management tool that fosters tree planting in urban areas to compensate for the construction of infrastructure; - Define a common and replicable methodology for calculating the greenhouse gases and air pollutants sequestration; - Offer an instrument that local businesses can apply to offset their carbon footprint (1).

Implementation activities

The GAIA project has developed an instrument by which local enterprises and firms can decrease their carbon footprint and, at the same time, generate environmental and social benefits for the community. Even though it was difficult to engage the private sector in these kind of initiatives, mainly due to the economic crisis, the project succeeded in persuading 18 private companies to participate and the planting of 1.000 new trees. It also succeeded in drawing up the foreseen protocols: a technical protocol for evaluating trees in terms of CO2 sequestration and air pollutant removal as well as an analysis of eco-physiological threats of 20 tree species; and a management protocol for identifying juridical characteristics of the private-public agreement. Moreover, the project designed a carbon toolkit for calculating environmental targets in terms of CO2. Finally, it carried out a survey of the best national and international practices in the field of public-private partnership (3).

Climate-focused activities

Climate change adaptation:

  • Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature

Climate change mitigation:

  • Increase green urban nature for carbon storage (wetlands, tree cover)
  • Improve carbon sequestration through selection of more adaptable species
  • Raise public awareness of behaviours, lifestyle and cultural changes with mitigation potential

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
  • Non-government organisation/Civil Society
  • Private sector/Corporate/Company
  • Researchers/University
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Marginalized groups: Elderly people, Socio-economically disadvantaged populations (e.g. low-income households, unemployed)

Governance

Management set-up

  • Government-led

Type of initiating organisation

  • EU body
  • Local government/municipality

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Other

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

IBIMET-CNR, Italy Cittalia-Fondazione Anci Ricerche, Italy Impronta Etica, Italy Unindustria Bologna, Italy. Generally companies' roles involved in the realization of new green areas in order to offset their carbon emissions, while building better ties with local communities and the surrounding environment (1).

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Yes (It was a result of the principles and targets set by the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1). )
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

€500,000 - €2,000,000

Source(s) of funding

  • EU funds
  • Corporate investment

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

No

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Enhanced carbon sequestration
  • Environmental quality
  • Improved air quality
  • Reduced noise exposure
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Increase in protected green space areas

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved social cohesion
  • Fair distribution of social, environmental and economic benefits of the NBS project
  • Improved liveability
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Increased opportunities for social interaction
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
  • Increased awareness of NBS and their benefits

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

Yes

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

Yes

References

1. European Commission (no date), GAIA - Green Areas Inner-city Agreement "GAIA", Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

2. Comune di Bologna (2013), Project Brochure, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

3. Source link (no date), Gaia una bella impresa, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

4. Comune di Bologna et all (2013), After Life Communication Plan: Gaia Project, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

5. Leyman’s Report (no date), Gaia a wonderful enterprise, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

6. Comune di Bologna et all (no date), Gaia in pillole (project’s presentation), Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

7. Comune di Bologna et all (no date), GAIA -Green Area Inner city Agreement, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

8. European Environment Agency (2017), Report: Financing urban adaptation to climate change, Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

9. European Climate Change Adaptation (no date), Case study:
GAIA - Green Area Inner-city Agreement to finance tree planting in Bologna (2016), Available at Source link (Accessed 19-6-2020)

10. Piattforma delle Conoscenze (2017), Gaia - Green Areas Inner-city Agreement "GAIA”, Available at Source link, (Accessed 10-7-2020)