Bocconi to Evaluate Nature Based Solutions to Climate Change Risks in Cities

The mitigation of climate change risks in cities can pass through re-naturing initiatives that use nature-based solutions, such as tree planting or the exploitation of soil to drain the rain. URBAN GreenUP, a research project which aims to develop financially sustainable and transferable new solutions, kicked off this morning in Valladolid (Spain). Bocconi University is one of the 25 partners of the project, coordinated by Fundación Cartif and funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

The solutions will be planned and carried out in three demonstrator cities: Valladolid, Liverpool (UK) and Izmir (Turkey). The five follower cities Mantova (Italy), Ludwigsburg (Germany), Medellin (Colombia), Chengdu (China) and Binh Dinh-Quy Nhon (Vietnam) will directly learn from these experiences and set up their own re-naturing urban plans. On a third level, cities from Europe and beyond are invited to exchange experiences and learn directly from the URBAN GreenUP findings and results by joining the URBAN GreenUP cities network.

"Bocconi University has a leading role in one of the work packages, Exploitation and Market Deployment, aimed to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by the solutions", says Edoardo Croci, Head of the Bocconi team. "We will standardize the solutions and measure their value in different environments, in order to assess their transferability. In the long run, we hope to develop an international marketplace for public and private players capable to design and develop nature-based solutions".