Participatory design: city, environment & climate change experiences, challenges & potentials – conference

Participatory design: city, environment & climate change experiences, challenges & potentials – conference

19 November 2021

ProGIreg hosted a stream titled ‘The public participation through proGIreg project ‘productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration’ at the Participatory Design hybrid conference on 19 November 2021 organised by Participatory Lab in Athens, Greece and online.

The event commenced with a presentation about proGIreg’s co-creation approach and methodologies for replication, then delving into the plans for our Greek city Piraeus.

Piraeus has plans to implement proGIreg nature-based solutions for pollinator biodiversity, green corridors and community based urban farms and gardens on 1km stretch of abandoned railroad on the Marias Kiouri Road. Piraeus which has been following and learning from the work done in proGIreg Living Labs, has attended a study visit in Turin to learn about their pollinator monitoring, and sought inspiration from similar urban regeneration ventures across the globe, e.g. such as the highline in New York.

Image: Challenges encountered at the abandoned Maria Kiouri road

To kick-start the process, the local partners have decided to involve local schools in the co-creation process. They have commissioned surveys for both students and teachers in schools to identify the existing knowledge on biodiversity and nature-based solutions, which were familiar to most, yet more technical terms such as green- and blue infrastructure were not. Further questionnaires entailed aspects of the perception and use of green spaces in the city to help assess needs and demands. Students were engaged in a visualisation activity – asking them to draw the transformation they would hope to see for the planned urban regeneration area. To lay the groundwork a ‘nature game’ was distributed to schools in the area that covers the topic of nature in cities.

Image: Public participation in Piraeus schools through proGIreg presentation, Laura Guaita, Julia Tzortzi, Athina
Ambatzidi, Stavros Milionis, Maria Marioli, Smaragda Kolia

Top Image: Conference Visual, by Participatory Lab

 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation action programme under grant agreement no. 776528. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the proGIreg project and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.