Authors: Alméstar, M., Mestre, N., & Romero, S. (2024).
Published by: UPM Press
Introduction
Naturation and urban regeneration are at a time of growing political attention and citizen demand.
In the last decade, both legislators, politicians, environmentalists and citizen groups in Europe have called for a more naturalized and walkable city. This growing interest has given light to political regulations such as the Green Infrastructure Strategy or the EU Biodiversity Strategy [1] by the European Commission with the aim of promoting the use and development of Nature-based solutions –NBS–. The term is an academic concept referring to solutions which are seemingly ‘inspired by, supported or copied from nature’ (3) to address environmental, economic and social challenges to cope with climate change adaptation.
The increasing frequency of weather extremes are putting NBS in the spotlight of scholars, citizens and decision-makers for climate change mitigation and adaptation, validating NBS direct benefits such as CO2 compensation, microclimate regulation; as well as indirect benefits such as contributing to health, well-being, and job creation, among others. In addition, recent projects have demonstrated that NBSs have the capacity to strengthen social cohesion and community commitment to environmental consciousness and behavioral change when they are designed through collaborative and co-creative processes . Even if collaborative multi-stakeholder engagement does not ensure the success of ecological performance, a desired level of citizen engagement will maximize long-term sustainability of impacts, such as social learning, environmental stewardship, and inclusiveness. When co-creation implies the direct cooperation among art and science, the results might also procure novel and creative relations between humans, urban ecosystems, and natural processes.
This book explores the various threads, challenges and chances which both art and science might encounter in co-creating NBS, pointing to recover, recreate or reinvent nature in more humanized urban landscapes. The purpose of this compilation is thus to give consistency to a novel state of practice, depicting the increasing benefits and diverse approaches of collective intelligence and co-creation for NBS and provide a detailed analysis of methodologies in the relationship between diverse social agents.
(...) NBS should thus represent more efficient and cost-effective resilient and accountable solutions than traditional approaches. Co-creation also allows local communities to verify impacts during co-implementation, maximize co-monitoring and promote long-term sustainability of results. The main materials and findings of the following chapters are taken from recent EU funded projects in the field of co-creation, such as EIT Climate-KIC Act on NBS (2019-2021) or LIFE PACT People-Driven Adaptive Cities for NBS, and EIT Climate-KIC Madrid Deep Demonstration, in which Madrid City together with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through the Innovation in Technology for Human Development Centre –itdUPM– have developed various demonstrative pilots. Looking for local adaptation strategies against the effects of climate change, Madrid City has developed a vision of innovation and urban regeneration through NBS.(...)
The actions collected in this book will cover a wide range of interventions such as the metropolitan-scale of Madrid Metropolitan Forest, the neighborhood-scale of primary schools in San Cristobal de los Ángeles, to the building-scale of the Cyborg Garden in Matadero Madrid.
Chapter 1 discusses the entanglement of art-science in co-creation, appealing for novel and attractive NBS aesthetics and generating new domains for collective creativity. In the Matadero Cyborg Garden, art mediation is presented as a core principle in the process.
Chapter 2 shifts the focus towards a neighborhood scale, placing co-creation with children as final users of space in the forefront.
Chapter 3 explores possibilities of co–creation within an institutional structure at the Metropolitan Forest, highlighting the hybridization process of bureaucratic and informal management rules.
Chapter 4 contains a conceptual discussion of NBS from a critical perspective, including a brief description of current alternatives and opportunities. Climate change is a scientific fact, but the related narratives and social agendas are still under deep discussion.
As stated by Emilio Santiago, climate change and environmentalist discourses are often perceived as a dead-end fait accompli, which seem to provide little room for action. We live in a key moment to lead a social transformation of enormous significance and responsibility. We need to create the space for more decentralized, simpler, locally-based responses to climate change.
The book is thus an aim to explore the benefits of collective imagination to stimulate new discussions on climate change, reach out new audiences and envision novel adaptation skills.
Index:
Chapter 1. NBS ART-SCIENCE: PRODUCTION OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE FOR INNOVATIVE PROTOTYPES
Chapter 2. RE-NATURING SAN CRISTOBAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS: CO-CREATING NBS WITH CHILDREN
Chapter 3. METROPOLITAN FOREST: OPENING SPACES FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN A PUBLIC TENDER
Chapter 4. RETHINKING NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS IN THE GREENWASHING AGE