The Urban Nature Atlas is a collection of more than 1000 inspiring nature-based solutions from European cities and beyond. 

Use the Quick Filter by selecting an icon or the Advanced Filter to identify specific nature-based solution projects of your interests. The map will be updated to show the results of your search, and a list of all relevant projects will be displayed below. Click on the title of the nature-based solutions to see further information. If you would like to remove a selected quick filter, click on it to reset.

 

Key challenges

Nature-based solution

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The floating vegetable gardens of Bangladesh

Gopalganj, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a country prone to floods and waterlogging, which results in two-thirds of this nation's land being transformed into wetlands each year. As such, much land becomes unavailable and the restricted access to it causes food insecurity as well as severe environmental pressure on the flora, fauna and ecosystems. The impact is even more serious as agriculture is one of the most important contributors to Bangladesh's GDP (1).
To respond to most of the climate challenges and food insecurities, in 2007 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the humanitarian agency Care International, alongside other partners (including the Bangladeshi government), launched floating gardening (artificial islands, that simply rise and fall with the swelling waters) pilot project in the peri-urban area of the Gopalganj and other close by districts (1,2).
Floating gardens known locally as Baira are an old practice of crop cultivation in the wetlands of Bangladesh, the previous agricultural land, which got destroyed by the floods. The practice consists of piling together a number of dense layers of aquatic weeds like water hyacinth, duckweed, or paddy stubs and letting them decay. Afterwards, they're combined with silt and cow dung and inserted with plant/vegetable seeds left to flourish. On these beds, farmers cultivate fruits and vegetables like turmeric and ginger as well as okra, bitter gourd, snake gourd, spinach, and brinjal. In addition to veggies, rice seedlings can occasionally be raised. As a result, floating gardens are available to everyone, affordable, dependable, and completely in harmony with nature. (2,3) Furthermore, this aquatic farming practice has been shown to be highly effective in tackling the consequences of climatic variability and climate change like prolonged water-logging (3). The intervention has benefited approx. 2,000 families in the district of Gopalganj and it has opened the route for further projects that supported the practice of floating gardens (4).
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The Gar'den: community garden at the railway station

Aix-en-Provence, France

The Gar'den is a Provencal garden and a vegetable garden of permaculture, both a relaxing space and a participatory garden. Indeed, everyone will be invited to participate in the life of this Gar'den, common good to protect. Young and older will be able to discover the Provencal vegetable treasures and relax in a space devoted to the sharing of goods and knowledge. (Ref. 11)
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The Garden Factory

Utrecht, Netherlands

The Garden Factory ('Tuinfabriek') is an exceptional urban agriculture project on a roof of the central station that aims at becoming the largest food-producing roof of the Netherlands. The project is a self-sustaining vegetable garden located on the roof of a busy mall in the centre of Utrecht (ref. 5). On the roof, citizens, students, company employees and schools work together to grow vegetables and keep bees and chicken. The Garden Factory reflects an ecological 'self-sustaining factory' as the chickens, worms and bees 'work' in the garden as being part of the decomposing system and pollination and a system is built for rainwater retention that allows for irrigation (ref. 1). Eating, composting, sowing, growing, harvesting, cooking form the production process of this Garden Factory (ref. 4).
The main elements of the roof garden are in place, such as the crop bins, the chicken coop and the decomposing machine are completed. However, it is an ongoing developing project as some elements are still in development stage such as some elements of the Soup Kitchen and the aim is to integrate the Garden Factory more with the central station shopping mall in multiple ways (ref. 1).
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The glaciers project

Huaraz, Peru

Peru has seen a sharp increase in major flooding, prolonged droughts and water scarcity of supplies in the dry season, negatively impacting agriculture, migration, conflict and economic growth in recent years. As 71% of the world's tropical glaciers are found in Peru these climatic changes affected the country profoundly leading to a decrease in the glacial surface and creating unstable lagoons also causing natural disasters such as alluvium landslides and deadly flash foods. Glacial melt is also disrupting water flow and quality, posing a threat to the flora and fauna that rely on freshwater environments. Unsustainable management of fragile glacier ecosystems is causing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. To counteract many of these challenges and to safeguard the communities that are in peril, in 2011, the Government of Peru together with a number of stakeholders, initiated an intervention to sustainably manage more than 200 new lakes that affect directly populations in different cities in the Ancash, Cusco and Lima regions, Huaraz being one of the cities targeted. The project benefitted downstream communities and protected fragile high-altitude freshwater ecosystems. (1,2)
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The Great Lines Heritage Park

Medway, United Kingdom

In 2011, the Great Lines Heritage Park was formed by connecting the Great Lines, Lower Lines, Inner Lines, Forst Amherst and Medway Park together. To do so, a former military area was transformed. The intervention connects the heritage towns of Chatham and Gillingham and the Chatham Waterfront. By connecting the heritage of the town and the waterfront, the project aimed to emphasize both these aspects of the area, but also to improve visitors' access and be a habitat for a number of species (Ref 2). The area has been created from a site that is of international heritage significance. The park is located within the Thames Gateway priority housing area, Europe’s largest regeneration project (ref. 3).
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The Greater Iqbal Park

Lahore, Pakistan

The Greater Iqbal Park is one of Lahore's largest and most beautiful parks and is located in the suburbs of the Walled City of Lahore. The park was built in 1971 and is named after the national poet of Pakistan, Allama Iqbal (7). The redevelopment of Greater Iqbal Park was approved in 2015 by the Government of Punjab. The project was developed under the supervision of the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA). The landscape plan was designed by the joint collaboration of national (NESPAK) and international (Sites International) consultants. The on-ground earthwork and construction were carried out by Habib Construction Services, a Pakistan-based engineering construction company (1, 5, 4, 11). The design idea of the project focused on revamping the area to create a welcoming environment in the environs of the city’s densely populated areas (6).

The project aimed to renovate and preserve Minar-i-Pakistan Monument and expand the area of the park to 125 acres. It features elaborate walkways and manicured gardens with state-of-the-art landscaping to boost tourism opportunities The project envisioned enhancing the cultural heritage by creating green spaces with various species of plants and trees along the park to ensure efficient facilities for the users. The 125-acre green oasis is surrounded almost entirely by the old city of Lahore (1, 3, 4, 11, 12).

The park was inaugurated in December 2016 with state-of-the-art facilities for users, whereas the overall project including the development of the National Museum was completed in 2018. The park has been designed in a manner that its aerial view resembles the national symbol of the star and the crescent. (3,11)
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The Green and Blue Urban Network Project

Montpellier, France

The Green and Blue Network in France is a national policy which "aims to restore ecological continuity in order to promote the migration of species and the resilience of ecosystems to face habitat threats and climate change. It also aims to strengthen the place of nature in the city and public awareness." In Montpellier, implementation of "this project has improved knowledge of the city's natural heritage and enhanced ecological continuity, as well as protecting, and sustainably managing high-potential sites and integrating the social dimension, raising public awareness, the observation of nature"(Ref. 2).
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The Green Axis

Bergen, Norway

The Green Axis is a belt of green areas and parks that stretches all the way from the Public Library of Bergen to The National Stage. It entails several parks, including Byparken, Ole Bulls Place, Logebakken, The Theatre Park and King Olav the 5th's Place. The Green Axis holds several culturally important buildings, statues, and landmarks. This green oasis in the heart of the city provides habitat for species and increases well-being for the citizens of Bergen. (Ref. 1, 2) The area is continuously upgraded with high maintenance standards. (Ref. 5)
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The Green Belt of Algiers

Algiers , Algeria

The city of Algiers initiated in 2010 a project in order to establish a green belt around its areas and some northern municipalities. The project aims to create agro parks, allotment gardens as well as parks as a strategy for reintegrating the concept of the green belt into the Algerian territory. Through this intervention, the municipality aims to put into practice environmental values ​​linked to improved quality of life and social well-being, for the benefit of the local community. The intervention plans to introduce different species of trees and include for the first time in Africa agro parks as spaces which are designed to reconcile urban and agricultural functions in a win-win strategy. The action was thought to respond to the impacts of climate change in the country, which faces rain events that are less frequent but more intense, and droughts that are more common and longer. (1,2,3,4)
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