Soil and land generation

Provide short introduction here

General introduction to approach

This cluster is about improving the quality of non-build on areas of the city, which can be either green spaces or Brownfields. The various approaches deal with different aspects of these areas, including scientific aspects of soil quality, biodiversity, food production, to how spaces can be incorporated into wider NBS projects for urban corridors and help improve local economy, to how ignored brownfield sites or post-industrial areas can become the focus of social and economic problems. After decades of neglect, the soil in post-industrial areas is often of poor quality, unfit for any use. Importing fertile soil from elsewhere is costly, both environmentally as well as economically. ProGIreg (Green Cities for Climate and Water Resilience, Sustainable Economic Growth, Healthy Citizens and Environments) is exploring the use of Carbon-neutral methods to restore soil fertility involve combining the poor quality soil with compost from organic waste and biotic compounds. At the heart of the HOMBRE (Holistic Management of Brownfield Regeneration) project was the ambition to create a paradigm shift to ‘Zero Brownfields’ where Brownfields become areas of opportunity that deliver useful services for society, instead of derelict areas that are considered useless. HOMBRE looked at how synergies between different types of services might leverage change where none were possible before, the projects “Zero Brownfields” perspective was an elaboration of a circular land management framework developed by an earlier EU project; CircUse (Managing land use for the benefit of all). This promotes sustainable urban development by limiting the use of new green spaces and by reusing previously used or underused land. The territorial cooperation involved in this project meant that different regions, in different countries, could pilot different aspects of sustainable land use, using an approach based on the motto: “avoid – recycle – compensate”.

Shapes, sizes and applications

ProGIreg is active since 2018 in urban areas that lack quality green spaces and suffer from social and economic disadvantages, inequality and related crime and security problems. It is implementing 8 types of nature-based solutions (NBS) using Living Labs developed with and by local communities in four front-runner cities. Their “New regenerated soil” approach is being tested in 2 cities; Turin In Italy and Ningbo In China. Local authorities in Turin have identified the need for additional arable soil for new green spaces and have decided to use the Sangone Park for producing and testing regenerated soil. This soil is ideal for urban forestry and the aim is to make the regenerated soil available for use in public green spaces throughout the city. In Ningbo sediments from the urban lake are being used as fertilizer for the regeneration of soil for an area of 20 hectares. HOMBRE was active between 2010 and 2014, it developed the framework and strategy for circular land management into the HOMBRE Zero Brownfield Framework. This assessed various Brownfield case studies of varying scales located in different parts of Europe. From their analysis guidelines were developed and a technical tool created to assist stakeholders and cities: The brownfield navigator (BFN), an “interactive tool with alternatives and out-of-the-box solutions for regeneration sites is available to anybody working on regeneration plans”. The Brownfield case studies assessed, based on type, location and size included:

• Gelsenkirchen, Germany: former coal mining area (22ha)
• Genoa, Italy: industrial and urban area (22 ha)
• Halle/Saale, Germany: urban area (3ha)
• Markham Vale, UK: mining and urban area (220 ha)
• Solec Kujawski, Poland: urban and post-industrial area (80 ha)
• Turceni /Jiu, Romania: mining and rural area (250 ha)
• Terni, Italy: industrial area (10 ha)

Narrative of change

The problem this cluster deals with is to understand what are the factors giving rise to unused areas of the city, including brownfield sites and post-industrial areas, to examine means of limiting un-use occurrence in the future and how to bring new uses to these areas that assist the city positively (social, health, economic).

The approaches responses are multifold. ProGIreg responds with local communities in post-industrial areas using a series of interconnected NBS strategies including Soil regeneration to create “Green Cities for Climate and Water Resilience, Sustainable Economic Growth, Healthy Citizens and Environments”. HOMBRE focuses on strategies, technologies and solutions for brownfield (BF) management, that emphasize the positive value of available resources and potential social, economic and environmental benefits, based around their Circular land management framework, which included the development of an interactive tool to assist stakeholders working on urban regeneration plans.