On 15 October, representatives of IRIDRA and SVI.MED, partners in the URWAN project, met with Cascais Ambiente and the Municipality of Cascais to explore the city’s integrated approach to urban nature management. In synergy with MEDCities, this first interview launches a series of exchanges with cities beyond the URWAN partnership. Through these discussions, URWAN seeks to identify and share best practices for integrating smart Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into urban planning, while addressing the barriers and opportunities that arise along the way.
Cascais provides an inspiring example of how a cohesive vision can transform urban nature management into an integrated and forward-looking strategy. By balancing green infrastructure with citizen engagement and innovative financing, Cascais fosters resilience to climate change and improves community well-being. The insights from this and future interviews will guide URWAN’s joint mission to help cities implement sustainable and adaptive NbS as part of smart urban planning. The interviews (the next one is scheduled for November in Barcelona) will be reported to partners and stakeholders, mainly involved in the Living Labs, to co-design a common way to overcome the barriers and promote NbS in the urban planning process, with a focus on water-related challenges. The journey begins in Ptuj, Slovenia, with the first Living Lab on 6 December.
Stay tuned as URWAN shares more about these exchanges and the practical steps cities are taking to integrate NbS solutions in different urban landscapes.
