Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green EconomySurge

GREEN SURGE will identify, develop and test ways of connecting green spaces, biodiversity, people and the green economy, in order to meet the major urban challenges related to land use conflicts, climate change adaptation, demographic changes, and human health and wellbeing. It will provide a sound evidence base for green infrastructure planning and implementation, exploring the innovation potential, and linking environmental, social and economic services with local communities. Working from the local to the city-regional level, the project aims to: 1) Develop urban green infrastructure as a planning concept for both integration and promotion of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and adapt it to local contexts; 2) apply an innovative biocultural diversity perspective to develop successful governance arrangements facilitating socio-ecological integration and local engagement in planning of urban green spaces; and 3) explore how valuation and real market integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services can facilitate choices in favour of the development of multifunctional green spaces in urban areas. Approaches and tools under these three interlinked objectives will be developed and implemented through an integrative, iterative and transdisciplinary process. GREEN SURGE will embrace a three-tiered approach of comparative European cases, synthesis of good practices, and establishment of five Urban Learning Labs strategically selected to represent different urban situations in Europe. GREEN SURGE will work within cooperative Learning Alliances, a specific type of multi-stakeholder involvement designed to enhance a process of shared learning and understanding in situations with a high degree of complexity and un-predictability. Two-loop learning applied combines a project-wide science-driven approach based on a common framework methodology with a bottom-up knowledge or experience-based approach at the local level.