Resumen
H2020 Cross-cutting activity
The frontrunner cities of Manchester (UK), Valencia (Spain), Wroclaw (Poland) and Wuhan (China) and the follower
cities Brest(France), Zadar (Croatia) and Modena (Italy) are currently inhabited by 12.7 million people and sit at the
heart of wider metropolitan areas which are home to 17.8 million people. All cities already experience flooding and
heat stress, with projections for these issues to increase due to climate change and ongoing development. Working
in complex, resource-constrained urban environments, the municipalities for each city have committed to delivering
joined-up, cost-effective, smart solutions to address these and other urban challenges. They recognise that the cities of
the future will need to achieve more with less resources and deliver genuine sustainable development that realises a
broad range of social, economic and environmental objectives. Each city believes that nature-based solutions (NBS)
are a critical part of this approach.
GROW GREEN brings the partner cities together on the basis of these similarities but also their differences. Across
the 6 European and 1 Chinese City they represent the range of different cities that are found across the world, and
the different climate risks that they face. The cities will demonstrate a replicable approach for the development and
implementation of city NBS strategies.
The outcome will be more than simply demonstrating a methodology that works in the partner cities. GROW
GREEN will provide the platform for a step change in the way that NBS are embedded in the long-term planning,
development, operation and management of cities around the world. The project outputs will be promoted directly to
4-5 follower+ cities in Latin America, Africa and India to encourage them to develop and implement NBS strategies
and to 146 Chinese ‘Sponge Cities’. These channels have been designed to create global demand for NBS and to
promote European NBS products and services to meet this demand.
