EuropeUrban Nature AtlasUrban Nature ExplorerCircular Water Catalyst – turning urban rainwater into a local resource

Community-led Circular Rainwater Retention for Resilient Urban Neighbourhoods

PROJECT SUMMARY

Circular Water Catalyst (CWC) helps Zugló and Szombathely shift from rapid urban rainwater drainage towards community-led, decentralised retention. Working around the Rákos-patak corridor in Zugló and the Gyöngyös-Perint water system in Szombathely, it addresses flooding, sewer overload, drought-stressed green areas, polluted runoff and weakened creek habitats by treating rainwater as a valuable local ecological and social resource.

The project combines hydro-social hotspot mapping and municipal approval baselines with digital decision support, inclusive Learning Communities and technical design. Residents, schools, municipal teams and experts will identify priority sites, compare nature-based solution portfolios in the Urban Nature Explorer, and turn selected scenarios into approval-ready pilots such as rain gardens, bioswales, infiltration beds, tree-based retention and riparian planting.

CWC will establish two Learning Communities and two localised Urban Nature Explorer environments, develop 12 digital scenarios and two community-backed action plans, and implement four pilot site clusters. It aims to create at least 1,000 m² of blue-green retention surfaces, redirect runoff from at least 3,500 m² of contributing area and deliver at least 250 m³ of design retention or infiltration capacity. A replication toolkit, peer learning and municipal continuation roadmaps will support transfer across Hungary and the wider Middle Danube region.

PHYSI’S ROLE

PHYSI leads Work Package 2 on baselines, hotspot mapping and localisation. It will develop the Atlas-based assessment protocol and hotspot-screening logic, use the Urban Nature Atlas to identify context-relevant nature-based solution options, and configure and calibrate two city-specific Urban Nature Explorer instances. These 2D/3D digital scenario environments will combine local spatial data, community knowledge and tailored indicators for rainwater retention, urban heat, biodiversity and local well-being, which will be inputs for technical and landscape planning, as well as physical implementation across four sites.

PHYSI also leads the UNE-supported co-design and action-planning task to engage local communities. It will help the two Learning Communities compare alternative portfolios, indicative costs and modelled impacts, document trade-offs and turn selected scenarios into locally backed action plans. PHYSI also contributes to technical diagnostics, quality assurance, technical monitoring support, as well as knowledge products for large-scale dissemination and transfer of the Atlas-to-Explorer workflow to follower municipalities in the Middle Danube region and beyond.

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EuropeUrban Nature AtlasUrban Nature ExplorerLIFE INSSURE – integrated nature-based solutions for resilient urban catchments

Integrated Nature-based Solutions for Stormwater management, Urban heat Resilience, and biodivErsity

PROJECT SUMMARY

LIFE INSSURE addresses three interconnected urban challenges: water pollution and water management linked to stormwater and combined sewer overflows, the urban heat island effect, and biodiversity loss. Working in the South-Pest Wastewater Treatment Plant catchment in Budapest and the Kakach collector catchment in Sofia, the project will plan and implement multi-benefit nature-based solutions that retain stormwater, reduce heat exposure and strengthen urban biodiversity and ecological connectivity.

The project combines catchment-scale data collection, runoff and sewer modelling, urban heat and green-infrastructure mapping, biodiversity and social-vulnerability analysis, and participatory planning. These inputs will support hotspot identification, context-specific NBS portfolios, impact and cost-benefit assessment, innovative financing strategies and four locally grounded Action Plans – three for Budapest Districts XIX, XX and XXIII, and one for Sofia.

LIFE INSSURE will then pilot citizen- and business-oriented cooperation programmes that mobilise private land, finance and local capacity for NBS delivery. Training, peer-to-peer replication and policy work will help transfer the integrated approach to municipalities across Central and Eastern Europe and the wider European Union, supporting the implementation of the European Green Deal, EU Biodiversity Strategy, Climate Adaptation Strategy, and New European Bauhaus objectives.

PHYSI’S ROLE

PHYSI leads Work Package 4 on Local Action Plan development and contributes across the full planning cycle. Early in the project, PHYSI will use the Urban Nature Atlas to develop context-specific portfolios of feasible NBS and will configure and calibrate the Urban Nature Explorer for selected hotspots in Budapest and Sofia. These hotspot-specific digital scenario environments will combine baseline and priority-area information with constraints and impact indicators, forming a core tool for the Urban NbS Labs, scenario comparison and subsequent assessment with various key stakeholder groups, including citizens, local businesses, and expert audiences with targeted activities, campaigns, and small-scale pilots.

PHYSI also supports the overall participatory process design with WWF and leads preparatory capacity building for local facilitators. Within the Action Plan work, PHYSI contributes to impact and cost-benefit assessment and validation through the UNE, and leads the exploration of innovative financing mechanisms and business planning for the pilots, and supervises the finalisation of the four Local Action Plans in Budapest and Sofia. Later, PHYSI will coordinate national training series for Hungarian and Bulgarian local authorities and co-lead capacity building activities for cities across Europe with Climate Alliance.

Overall, PHYSI plays a key role in connecting scientific evidence, spatial planning, and participatory governance, ensuring that NBS generate measurable environmental benefits while remaining feasible and attractive for cities, citizens, and private investors.

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Case studyEuropeUrban Nature AtlasUrban Nature ExplorerUNSEAL – creating renewed urban spaces

UNderstanding and enabling the transition towards reverting soil SEALing for improving urban biodiversity and nature-based solutions

PROJECT SUMMARY

UNSEAL investigates how cities can reverse soil sealing and reclaim paved, built or underused urban land for biodiversity and green infrastructure. It treats unsealing as a circular approach to urban land use: removing buildings or other impervious surfaces and repurposing the space to support nature-positive urban development.

Across five case-study areas – Leiden, Chalandri in Athens, Bucharest, Zürich and Győr – the project follows unsealing initiatives at different stages, from early exploration and visioning to implementation. It identifies local “brightspots” and the actors and drivers behind them; reviews and quantifies biodiversity and ecosystem-service benefits; examines planning instruments and governance approaches; and tests inclusive participatory methods and digital tools for co-creating new unsealing pathways.

By combining local action research with European-scale geospatial analysis, UNSEAL will deliver transferable methods, practical guidance and evidence to help cities identify opportunities, address equity and implementation challenges, and scale soil unsealing as part of nature-positive urban regeneration.

PHYSI’S ROLE

PHYSI leads Work Package 4, the project’s transdisciplinary participatory action-research and scenario-development work. It designs the inclusive research protocol, prepares local teams and coordinates multi-step co-creation processes across the project’s case-study areas. These processes help municipalities, communities and experts identify unsealing opportunities, explore alternative futures and translate them into actionable priorities, responsibilities and next steps.

PHYSI will tailor and apply the Urban Nature Explorer as a digital twin in all five cities for scenario and co-creation processes, alongside digital engagement and decision making tools from Crowdpolicy. Evidence from the project’s mapping, benefits assessment and planning research will be translated into local scenario environments where stakeholders can identify opportunities, compare indicative costs and impacts, refine pathways and support collaborative action planning. PHYSI also contributes to documenting unsealing brightspots in the Urban Nature Atlas, the creation of a European unsealing conceptual framework, the co-design and potential integration of impact indicators for soil unsealing, and the local citizen-led implementation and engagement activities in the city of Győr, with the support of Reflex Environmental Association.

PARTNERSHIP

Project website: www.unseal.eu

Funding programme Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Partnership
Call topic CUE topic 2: Circular models for regenerating, repurposing, protecting and conserving urban space for biodiversity
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