PROJECTS

Today, cities face a new generation of challenges from climate change, biodiversity loss, water management, resource inefficiency and waste to socio-economic inequalities and environmental injustices, which demand a paradigm shift in the way urban spaces are envisioned, planned and governed. The integration of green and blue infrastructure together with circular economy principles and nature-based solutions (NbS) can help tackle these challenges, enhancing biodiversity and building resilience against climate change risks and environmental stressors. REROAD aims to enable the transformation of urban streets into multifunctional public spaces. Focusing on street archetypes, the project will provide a resource-efficient approach to street transformation that incorporates social and ecological functions along with transportation needs. The project will employ spatial analysis to prioritize high-usage streets with potential for multifunctional transformation. Environmental and ecological mapping, modelling and monitoring will integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services’ assessment into the design of NbS for streets transformations. Circular urban business models will be proposed to assist cities in leveraging existing investments in street maintenance plans to integrate NbS, prioritize material reuse, and recycle green waste. Urban Living Labs (ULLs) will be set up in three cities with diverse socio-cultural and urban settings - Bolzano in Italy, Coimbra in Portugal and Granada in Spain. In the ULLs, local stakeholders and communities will be engaged through a structured participatory process to envision and co-select the transformation pathways that best balance mobility, accessibility, equity and ecosystem needs. The final output of REROAD will be a masterplan for change to help cities rethink street design and functionalities from a systemic perspective. The masterplan will advance a biocentric, just and circular approach for planned and future street transformation projects, advocating for a paradigmatic shift in the reshaping of cities.

This project has been funded by MUR, Formas, AEI, FCT, LMT under the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership, which has been co-funded by the European Commission.