The Interreg North Sea project BEGIN has launched its policy brief, which sets out four recommendations for local governments that aim to construct Blue and Green Infrastructure (BGI) in their cities. The policy brief supports local governments with the creation of more climate-proof and liveable cities. Dr. Jannes Willems and Prof. dr. Arwin van Buuren at Erasmus University Rotterdam was the lead partner in the creation of this policy brief.
The four recommendations in the BEGIN policy brief ‘Social innovations for delivering Blue and Green Infrastructure. Connecting multiple benefits, multiple stakeholders, and multiple disciplines’ are the outcome of three workshops with the BEGIN consortium (in Bergen, May 2018; Bradford, September 2018; and online, March 2020).
The workshops were facilitated by EUR.
The main lessons derived from these workshops are summarised into four recommendations:
- Identify the beneficiaries and their interests when making the case for BGI. Because of the integrative character of BGI projects, BGI requires bespoke business cases tailored for each of the many stakeholders and beneficiaries involved. Local governments should brand the broader benefits of BGI and understand what drives other stakeholders in order to attract them.
- Link the BGI to communities by demonstrating the value to them. BGI is typically built on the surface (rather than underground in pipes) and therefore much more visible to citizens. By relating the BGI to citizens' daily life, the BGI can contribute to public health and wellbeing, recreation opportunities, and environmental stewardship.
- Stimulate multi-departmental and multi-stakeholder collaborations for BGI delivery. Relying on technical engineering expertise does not suffice anymore for constructing BGI. Rather, working across organisational and departmental boundaries is required. This entails the appointment of internal champions that cross these boundaries and the creation of dedicated experimentation spaces (such as living labs) in which stakeholders can come together.
- Develop asset management principles and processes for BGI. Most BGI does not fit with the typical asset management frameworks that have been developed for grey infrastructures. More experience with lifecycle performance is required through better monitoring and evaluation systems. These experiences can feed into new asset management principles for BGI.
What Is Blue and Green Infrastructure?
Blue and Green Infrastructure (BGI) are multi-functional blue and green spaces in cities that are strategically planned and managed to provide not only water management benefits, but also a variety of ecological, social, and economic benefits. Examples are green roofs, urban parks and rain gardens. BGI is appealing because the multi-functionality of BGI facilitates the integration of multiple societal goals, in which not only urban drainage is improved, but also public health, biodiversity and urban regeneration are supported.
About Interreg North Sea project BEGIN
The BEGIN project is an European project where 10 cities and 6 research institutes combine forces to come towards BGI solutions and gather learning experiences. The 10 involved cities are developing BGI projects and whiles the cities are developing the projects they will be engaged in a transnational exchange and city learning networks to share experiences and best practices.
The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.
Dr. Jannes Willems and Prof. dr. Arwin van Buuren (Department of Public Administration and Sociology) are participating in this project.
- More information
Marjolein Kooistra, communications ESSB, kooistra@essb.eur.nl, 06 83676038