This week the City Council organized a work session in Espaitec to establish the challenges of a project whose mission explore innovative urban solutions at European level to define the roadmap towards a sustainable city.
Castellón addresses this week how to face the challenge of climate change and define a roadmap to move towards a sustainable city with the horizon 2050. The Castellón City Council, through the Office of Planning and Economic Projection, has organized three work days framed within the European program UNaLab made up of 29 cities from 10 European countries with the aim of "exploring innovative nature-based urban solutions based on experiences in demonstration areas of living lab that are being implemented in the three main cities of UNaLab, such as Tampere, Eindhoven and Genova”, highlighted the mayor of Castellón, Amparo Marco.
The first of these days, which was held at the City Hall itself, brought together technicians from the areas of Urban Planning, Public Services and Environmental Sustainability and councilors Rafa Simó and Sara Usó with the aim of defining the city's challenges (Ambition City) in co-creation work sessions led by doctors Elke den Ouden and Rianne Valkenburg, from Eindhoven University of Technology, and responsible for the process of creating shared visions and roadmaps within the project UNaLab.
As Marco explained, “this European project, in which Castellón participates as a supporting city, will allow us to develop a vision and roadmap to respond to the challenge of climate change in a sustainable way with the aim of improving the quality of life. in cities with solutions based on nature.” The work program included a work session in Espaitec in which they participated FACSA-UJI Chair, Ceramic Technology Institute, representatives of the R&D departments of Facsa y Becsa, City Council of Castellón and Espaitec.
The results of these work sessions will be used to develop future scenarios for nature-based solutions and climate resilience in the city, and subsequently develop roadmaps to achieve the city's objectives. “UNaLab partners work to develop smarter, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable local societies through nature-based innovation created jointly with and for stakeholders and citizens,” said Councilor Rafa Simó.
The partnership of UNaLab It is made up of 29 partners from 10 European cities with some non-European partners, including city councils, research centers, companies and industries. The Urban Nature Labs project in which the Castellón City Council participates as Follower City is financed by the European Commission. It will develop, through co-creation with stakeholders and the implementation of living lab demonstration areas, a strong evidence base and a European framework of innovative, replicable and locally adapted nature-based solutions to improve climate resilience and to the water of the cities.
UNaLab focuses on urban ecological water management, accompanied by ecological measures and innovative and inclusive urban design. UNaLab's three main cities – Tampere, Eindhoven and Genova – have a track record in smart, citizen-oriented solutions for sustainable development. They support 7 follower cities: Stavanger, Prague, Castellón, Cannes, Basaksehir, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, in addition to sharing experiences with observers such as City of Guangzhou and the Brazilian network of Smart Cities.
All project information in: unalab.eu
