Europe Participatory UrbanNATURGO – for sustainable urban development

NATure-Based Solutions and URban GOvernance

PROJECT SUMMARY

The NATURGO (NATure Based Solutions and URban Water GOvernance) project focuses on integrating nature-based solutions (NBS) into urban water landscapes and infrastructure, necessitating a transformation of governance strategies at the municipal level. This shift will require long-term visions of urban nature that emphasize benefits for all stakeholders within the water sector. The project aims to assess how NBS principles are currently embedded in urban water governance strategies—covering criteria, structures, and practices—and to propose methods for advancing their integration.

Building on expertise in collaborative planning, governance, and water management, the project will engage municipal leaders and stakeholders to co-develop innovative water management strategies that incorporate NBS solutions at selected partner city sites. Using advanced scenario-building tools, NATURGO will evaluate how elements like long-term impacts, targets, costs, and goals are considered during strategy formulation. Beyond specific case studies, the project will identify governance structures and processes that promote the collaborative planning, implementation, and long-term sustainability of NBS in urban water systems.

PHYSI’S ROLE

PHYSI’s role in NATURGO is to drive the project’s core strategic and methodological engine for scenario development by designing and operating the transdisciplinary Transition Arena process in Copenhagen, Florence, Debrecen, Umea and Piran. This process builds on PHYSI’s Urban Nature Explorer and WaterZerv’s InflowGo to build evidence-driven, stakeholder-generated NBS scenarios with calculated impacts. PHYSI also supports baseline development and local research in Debrecen in cooperation with BURST, and the production of higher level governance take-aways. Throughout the project, PHYSI brings a specialized methodological framework and extensive global NBS case-knowledge based on the Urban Nature Explorer, enabling municipalities to explore credible, technically grounded transition pathways for water-related nature-based solutions.

PARTNERSIP

Follow NATURGO on Linkedin for the project’s latest updates. See the press release here.

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EuropeAnalyzing the Multiple Benefits of European Urban Nature

In collaboration with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), PHYSI conducted a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the Urban Nature Atlas (UNA). By examining 1,000 European cases, the project provided data-driven insights into how Nature-based Solutions (NBS) deliver simultaneous advantages for cities.

Project Objectives

The analysis focused on how European NBS initiatives address core societal challenges, specifically identifying synergies between biodiversity, climate adaptation, public health, and economic development. The mission was to define how these “multiple benefits” are realized and identify the governance models that drive success.

Our Impact

PHYSI managed the full analytical framework, from initial scoping to final reporting. Key contributions included:

Statistical Analysis: Created and compared 35 distinct project samples from the UNA to identify implementation patterns and optimal goal combinations.
Driver & Governance Assessment: Analyzed the financial structures, actor networks, and policy drivers (local, national, and EU) behind 1,000 initiatives.
High-Impact Case Identification: Isolated “best practice” cases—projects delivering benefits in all four focus areas—to extract transferable lessons for planners.
Social Impact Integration: Integrated specific metrics for social well-being and justice, ensuring the research captured the human dimension of urban nature.

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