Fellows Create Green Infrastructure Cities Network

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May 17, 2016
by Patrick Wilson
Fellows Create Green Infrastructure Cities Network

Fellows from the Parks for the Planet Forum have taken up the Salzburg Challenge by creating a dedicated network to share and strengthen their future work

Maria Schewenius at Session 557 | Nature, Health and a New Urban GenerationAt the closing of the inaugural Parks for the Planet Forum, Fellows proposed the formation of a network to help share best practice and keep conversations continuing after everyone had left Schloss Leopoldskron. In the days after the session, a dedicated “task force” was established and a Facebook group launched.Several months on, the network – now known as “GI Cities” (Green Infrastructure Cities) – is an informal umbrella platform for sharing experiences, insights, and inspirational examples of how green infrastructure can strengthen urban sustainability and resilience, and human health. The network serves as a means to connect and support the individual projects that came out of the Forum, and inspire new actions. Through GI Cities, members aim to further the innovative thinking and ideas that were initiated at the Forum, and encourage action in cities around the world.Maria Schewenius, project manager at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, took on the role of network coordinator for GI Cities immediately at the closing of the session. She believes this network is a necessary step in continuing the important work started in Salzburg.“After the Forum, I saw the need to set up a form of co-ordinating platform for all the initiatives that emerged,” Schewenius explains. “Together with Salzburg Global Seminar and dedicated participants from the Forum, I aim to find ways for these projects to grow stronger over time by setting up the platform, ‘GI Cities.’”One of the main foundations of the GI Cities network is the connection between human health and green infrastructures in cities. Working with the vision of 2050, when peak global urbanization is expected, GI Cities would use the network to consider and discuss what kind of sustainable and green cities we would like to live in, and what we can and must do today to get there.GI Cities colleagues plan to meet in July in Bonn, Germany at the ICLEI conference on Resilient Cities, and an Americas-focused meeting is planned to be held in Santa Marta, Colombia. The network's plans, strategies and individual projects will then be presented at various events during the latter half of 2016, starting with the Urban Transitions Global Summit in Shanghai, China and the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, USA in early September.“We hope to see more and new concrete green infrastructure-based solutions in cities around the world, starting in North and Latin America,” says Schewenius. “Concrete projects that aim to support natural elements in cities that find novel approaches to urban development and that build on the inclusion of different groups in society communicating with each other. We hope this network can promote more inclusive, resource efficient cities that are supportive of ecosystems and human health.”Along with Salzburg Global and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2015 session partners Conservation International and IUCN are involved in the network, as well as individuals interested in engaging in specific areas like sustainable fashion and architectural endeavors.GI Cities has several pillars that will help focus initiatives formed from the group:• Novel green infrastructure solutions: Building on the collaboration between engineers, designers, architects, as well as other collaboration groups that are usually not included in green infrastructure planning.• Lifestyles: Focusing on improving people’s lifestyles in collaboration with nature such as bringing people into green areas and looking sustainable textiles and fashion.• Governance and management: Providing greater understanding of decision-making structures and building bridges between organizations and decision makers.• Modelling and visualization: Bridging knowledge with technology to work with maps, 3D models and VR technologies and how these technologies can be utilized to present ideas and engage people in different project ideas in new and innovative ways.Schewenius believes the network’s independence will be one of its greatest strengths. “What is special about us, is that the network is truly collaborative between people representing different groups and levels in society, and not owned by anyone,” she explains. “It is a knowledge exchange hub where we invite people to come and share their experiences and their best practices, and get inspired to further the thinking and practice around innovative green infrastructure solutions in their cities. Amongst other things we are in the process of setting up a case study database, which will be available on our online platform as well as through our local hubs. In this way we can take the information from our central platform to local decision making and practice in an effective and streamlined manner.”