VARCITIES Research Paper presented at SSPCR 2022 in Bolzano – Italy

August 15, 2022

The Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions – SSPCR 2022 took place in Bolzano between 19th to 22nd of July 2022.

During the Conference days, the VARCITIES research findings were presented in the Special Session “Augmented Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for Cities” focusing in particular on the WP3 outcomes, led by Eurac Research, which provides a methodological framework on how to transform Visionary ideas into feasible actions.

The session promoted by the H2020 projects VARCITIES and CLEVER Cities and was divided in two subtopics, (i) technology for green and (ii) technology in green. Focusing mainly on Nature-based solutions and their possible implementation in cities in relationship with the technologies for environmental performance and social inclusivity fostering.

The presentation entitled “A step-by-step guide to support cities in transforming nature-based and digital ideas into feasible visionary solutions” was proposed as part of the thematic concept “Technology for green”, demonstrating how the VS umbrella concept is an excellent representation of how technology transaction can be in support of NBS, making full use of NBS for a digital and socio-cultural perspective.

The purpose of the presentation was to guide local administrations and cities, willing to develop similar solutions for increasing H&WB of citizens, along the path of co-creation, supporting them and presenting the key steps. This process demonstrated how to bridge the gap that usually exists between the original idea and the implementation phase.

The: “A Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis of Visionary Solutions (VSs) planning” presentation was another focus under the “Technology for green” concept. In this case the importance shifted to the investigation of the effects on the general public, who benefits from the Visionary Solutions, by employing multiple stakeholder engagement phases to understand the impact on local communities expressed in monetary value.

In the Q&A phase, the session participants found a lot of interest in the VARCITIES project. The participation of Denia Kolokotsa, as the Special Session Chair, was certainly a wealth, being able to deepen some requests from the public firsthand.

For the full completed article presented at the SSPCR Conference in the special issue, you can find it at the Journal of Urban Forestry and Urban Greening (Impact Factor 5.766 – Cite Score 7.7) by Eurac Teams.

Vasiliu, Elisa Elena and Bisello, Adriano and Torabi Moghadam, Sara and Lombardi, Patrizia, A Social Return on Investment (Sroi) Analysis of Visionary Nature-Based Solutions (vs): An Italian Urban Green Space (Ugs). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4570597 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4570597

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Photo Credit: Daniele Fiorentino