Welcome to the Atlas

Following the Reading Growallot scheme, a derelict land area in Florian Gardens, Southcote was transformed into an allotment site. The scheme is part of Food 4 Families which is a community allotment project. One in four residents in Southcote live in flats with no garden to enjoy; local families have therefore transformed the land into a thriving allotment, growing fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables. This means that Southcote GrowAllot gives residents the chance to start growing food together. (Ref. 1, 3)

The multifunctional Southern City Park in Nurnberg was organized in the place of the large car park alongside the railway. Construction of the new green area between Celtisplatz and Tafelfeldstrasse was built in three construction sections. In the western part, the green playground with cableway, slide and climbing rocks was arranged, the Karl-Bröger-Platz was equipped with benches and a fountain, whereas to the east a large green area with 76 newly planted trees was established (1, 4) Perennial plantings were arranged in eastern section of the park, which members of the Bund Naturschutz maintain on a voluntary basis. The park is also a place where social and cultural events are organized. (4)

Southsea Green community garden was developed from a derelict strip of land, to encourage more local growing and spread the message about gardening and volunteering. With time, the garden has transformed into a community green-space (1). Southsea Greenhouse is a collective of gardeners and crafters. The Greenhouse Community Co-operative is transforming wasteland into a community garden and re-investing profits from sales of produce and crafts, back into the local community. Community events and workshops are offered to encourage sharing of local skills and resources, foster a love of the city’s greenspace, and care for wildlife. (3)

The Sowe Valley Project was a community-based project focusing on rivers restoration. It aimed to link the local community with the Sowe River Valley and to improve the valley’s biodiversity and habitats for the benefits of people and wildlife. (Ref. 2, 6, 11-13)

The areas around MarselisborgCenter in Aarhus get a new and better life. The project will contribute to the world's first city park that handles excess rainwater and invites citizens to health-promoting lifestyles. The area around MarselisborgCenter will be converted into a public city park for both MarselisborgCenter's users (people in rehabilitation) and the citizens of Aarhus in general. At the same time, the area will make the city more robust to future heavy rainfall. (Ref. 1)

The purpose of SPARK is to create a new, vibrant urban space in and around the Marselisborg Center, which partly meets the need for outdoor rehabilitation activities for the center's users, and partly the need for a fully-fledged climate adaptation effort in the area. These needs are united by the construction of a new public park, which also has the potential to increase social inclusion by creating meetings between the users of the Marselisborg Center and the many residents in the district. (Ref. 6)

The city of San Salvador was built at the foot of a volcano and down its slopes, it is prone to droughts, floods and landslides. In 2020, Tropical Storms Amanda and Cristobal struck the city with torrential rainfall and gale-force winds triggering landslides and floods, causing damage to homes, infrastructure and roads, and with severe impacts on topsoil depletion affecting the fertility of economically and environmentally central coffee plantations[3].
To meet the economic and environmental challenges caused by such events, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) together with El Salvador’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, local organizations and coffee growers launched an project focusing on the Arenal Monserrat watershed located on the slopes of the volcano [3,4]. Through the integration of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) the initiative aim to address the effects of climate change by restoring coffee plantations and forests and digging infiltration ditches to be used as sponges to reduce flood risks for 115,000 people by 2022 [1,4,5]. The project was launched as part of the multi-city CityAdapt Project of UNEP and GEF, aiming to provide tools to local governments plan for adaptation and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from their cities while conserving their ecosystems.

The redevelopment of the Alcantara square is part of the program A SQUARE IN EACH NEIGHBOURHOOD, implemented by the Municipality of Lisbon in 2017 onward. Besides the road re-organization, the project includes specific elements. The NBS includes the creation of a public garden, cycling path, playground facilities and introduction of new trees (Ref.1). The residents of the neighbourhood were asked to participate. The participation process aimed at obtaining from the citizens an evaluation on different pertinent questions in the experience of the public space, results showed: space for pedestrians, improve green spaces and urban living (Ref.1).

Used by a skip hire company until 2016, this riverside Pocket Park will link other fragmented green spaces and routes. Once the rubble is cleared a level riverside walkway will be created that is accessible to walkers, runners, cyclists and wheelchair users. Invasive plants will be removed and new soil mounds will add shape to the land and act as places where native plants can grow. Self-seeded trees will be thinned out and the best allowed to grow on. Once complete the path through it will form part of the sustainable travel network in the upper Aire valley. (1)

San Giuliano Park, inaugurated in May 2004, was designed by Arch. Antonio Di Mambro of the Comunitas Group. The first two lots have been implemented for a total area of about 74 hectares, including green areas and recreational infrastructure. The creation of this park is one of the biggest re-qualification initiatives in the national territory. With the implementation of the park, the area of Punta San Giuliano, used for years as a landfill of industrial and urban waste, definitively loses its barrier function between Mestre and its lagoon and returns to the natural state of the ancient city (1).

Students and teachers of the Faculty of Biology at St. Kliment Ohridski University created a habitat for birds, invertebrate species, and plants. The project aimed to popularise easy steps for increasing biodiversity in urban green spaces and effective practices for preserving it. The created habitat also aims to develop and solidify the biological and conservation knowledge of pupils, university students, and the citizens of Sofia, and to help restore the vanishing bondage between contemporary society and nature. Activities have included planting grasses and shrubs by volunteers, placing bird houses, and educational events. (Ref. 1). For the purposes of "Starling on the doorstep" volunteers among students and teachers of the Faculty of Biology began to develop some of the green spaces in front of the building by enriching the surrounding vegetation, and with it the diversity of animals. It was important for them that the transformation took place right in the yard of the faculty, where the future biologists are trained - the people called to take competent care of nature conservation. The idea for the initiative was warmly accepted by both the dean's management of the faculty and the ecology expert from the Municipality of Lozenets, on whose territory the school is located. (Ref 3)