Last Tuesday, NAIDER went to the public university of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) to hold a talk-workshop with third-year Environmental Science students. The session entitled Management of sustainable cities and naturalization design workshop allowed the students to be introduced to the main global challenges in terms of urbanism and the environment. Specifically, they learned how to manage a city so that it can become sustainable.
They learned about the main pillars of urban sustainability and were able to learn about the tool that we have developed to position municipalities environmentally. The Green Local Index allows, through qualitative and quantitative indicators, to position cities and municipalities with respect to an optimum for each sustainable city indicator.
Once we had seen the example of a specific city, we focused our attention on the urban natural environment and on the possibilities of naturalization of cities. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) were exposed as necessary elements for the fight against Climate Change and as the backbone to improve the quality of life of citizens.
With what was explained and the knowledge acquired in the degree, the students began to work in groups on some proposed areas of study. With a list of possible naturalization measures on the one hand and a map of neighborhoods and industrial areas on the other, they ventured to redraw the cities. Ecological corridors that connect the parks with pedestrian avenues; vegetated roofs on public and commercial buildings; Solar energy on the roofs of residential and industrial buildings and collection of rainwater were the most mentioned proposals.
In short, we live an enriching experience of co-learning and meeting between academia and the business world. The students showed their interest and desire to learn more about the management of cities and NAIDER was able to share with the environmental technicians of the future what are the necessary elements to transform our cities.