Sustainable City

Placing biodiversity at the heart of urban development in Dublin

Szilvia Szabó — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:57:54 +0000

Placing biodiversity at the heart of urban development in Dublin

Tags

Biodiversity

Urban Planning

Sustainable City

Topic

Biodiversity

The latest `Urban Adaptation in Europe` report published by the European Environment Agency warns that the average temperatures across Europe are rising faster than the global average, and cities are feeling the impacts of climate change more regularly and more severely.

The report stresses that the need for adaptation coupled with raising public awareness has never been more urgent and identifies nature as a formidable ally on both fronts.

Dublin is no exception to most European capitals that must fight the climate crisis on multiple levels.

Dublin City Council (DCC) has been developing a project in the past year that aims to embrace a holistic approach to creating more liveable public spaces, protecting cultural heritage, and enhancing urban green areas.

"We are working on bringing a Biodiversity Education Centre to life at the Liffey Vale on a two hectares site that involves reconstructing a Georgian townhouse and connected lands situated on the banks of the Liffey River close to Chapelizod Road,” shares Donncha Ó Dúlaing, Senior Executive Officer at DCC.

Uncared for over twenty years, the damaged house and overgrown land are not exactly attractive in their current state, but with a well-planned design, the site will be turned into a multi-purpose space to revive wildlife and provide a place for locals and visitors to experience nature.

Donncha Ó Dúlaing, Senior Executive Officer at Dublin City Council.

“It is a very special location where you would find a range of habitats from forestry to wetlands and the remains of an old orchard, so we have a great potential to restore it into a rich biodiverse green space nestled in an urban environment. It even inspired to add Cois Abhann when naming the Biodiversity Centre, which means close to the river."

The decision to transform this land into a Biodiversity Centre is based on thorough preparation that included surveys, considerations of proposals, and discussions with local communities and wider stakeholders, says Donncha.

The original site to be transformed into Cois Abhann Biodiversity Education Centre at Liffey Vale in Dublin. Image: Dublin City Council

To lead by example, the site's reconstruction and development will also promote sustainable practices by using reclaimed building materials and implementing water management systems and renewable energy sources.

The building will retain traces of historic features so the house will be positioned to tell stories as well as provide the setting for stories to be told with additional spaces for interactive sessions and classrooms, a small cafe and public restrooms.

Educational activities will focus on bringing nature closer to visitors besides making sustainability and climate action more tangible as they can be more abstract and hard to grasp.

The outdoor areas will be designed to facilitate experiential learning through rewilding the area and rehabilitating some of the original orchards while enhancing the overall level of biodiversity with species that are typically found on sites like this.

Donncha shares what makes this a unique opportunity to enhance the quality of life in the city besides enriching biodiversity:

“Here, you will have that sense of being in the city but you can find yourself in a completely different world, surrounded by nature, tuning in to the trickling sound of water with birdsong, getting some countryside vibes.”

Plans for the Cois Abhann Biodiversity Education Centre at Liffey Vale in Dublin. Image: Dublin City Council

Careful planning and implementation will be carried out over the years with ongoing monitoring so we can demonstrate woodlands and wetlands with native birds, pollinators, and others.”

Parts of the site will be left untouched so the rewilding process can also be studied.

Donncha explains:

“We don`t want to overdevelop or over-cultivate the site. Instead, we aim to embrace its characteristics and transform it into the best version of itself while giving space for nature to recover.”

He adds that they also plan to carry out science-driven recultivation to eliminate invasive species, such as Japanese knotweed. Clearing out the site will probably take years, but learnings can be shared and adopted by others to address similar situations effectively.

The centre will strive to build strong relationships with schools and communities in this part of the city, including colleges and provide space and activities for practical lessons on sustainability, natural science and other related areas.

“Our intention is to link in with these communities as much as we can and also to attract people living nearby and visitors to Phoenix Park.”

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

June 2024

Collaborative content with

Profit with Purpose Magazine

How is Dublin utilising parks to make the city greener and more resilient?

Bronagh Loughlin — Fri, 17 May 2024 08:16:34 +0000

How is Dublin utilising parks to make the city greener and more resilient?

Tags

Topic

As cities grow, access to open green spaces within the city is at a premium, and research has shown that we need nature for our well-being.

Green cities have become a buzzword in the last few years, and this has shifted the approach to designing and managing projects within the Parks Services at Dublin City Council.

These types of cities prioritise environmental sustainability by integrating green spaces and developing sustainable infrastructure in our urban environment besides implementing sustainable water management practices, permeable paving and green infrastructure that mitigate flooding and conserve water resources.

On top of the environmental benefits, cities should champion green spaces, which have been linked to improved mental health and reduced stress levels.

Deirdre Prince, Landscape Architect and Parks Officer for the Central Parks District in Dublin City Council (DCC), works on park projects in the Central District area and highlights that any available green space with the built environment has to work very hard to deliver for all stakeholders.

“The challenge is to incorporate as many environmental uses as efficiently while still creating beautiful spaces for people to enjoy, whether it is creating areas for pollinators, implementing Suds (Sustainable Urban Draining Systems), growing trees to absorb particulate matter or creating amenity space for the public,”

she explains.

Green spaces in cities are essential to mitigate climate risks and improve people`s well-being. Image: Canva

Dublin City Council Parks Services are already protecting the natural environment and driving biodiversity in various ways.

They are increasing the urban tree canopy, creating green or wildlife corridors within the city, incorporating green infrastructure into urban planning projects, and eliminating the use of pesticides to protect pollinators and other beneficial insects.

“One area I feel we should pay attention to is the identification of locations within our city that could have potential for habitat restoration, such as wetlands, canals, and riparian zones along rivers and streams. In the current climate, landscape architects need to consider a range of factors to create resilient and sustainable landscapes,” Deirdre shares.

She stresses the importance of designing landscapes that are resilient to the impacts of climate change, such as increased temperatures, extreme weather events, drought and flooding.

“We need to select planting which is drought-tolerant or dry-loving to withstand periods of low or no rain,” Deirdre adds, noting that it also involves incorporating more green infrastructure to manage storm-water run-off and designing adaptable spaces that can withstand changing environmental conditions.

John Stack, Senior Executive Engineer at the Protection of Water Bodies office in Dublin City Council, shares that under the Water Framework Directive, EU member states are required to develop River Basin Management Plans, and each project involves measures and actions to improve water quality.

He also works on several projects that involve nature-based solutions, all of which are at different stages.

One of these is the Santry River Restoration and Greenway Project, a legislative initiative that envisions the future of the Santry River as an attractive river park flowing through North Dublin as an integrated green-blue landscape for ecology and amenity.

“This landscape will become the backbone of a new green infrastructure project to facilitate nature, pedestrians and cyclists and form a route from the biosphere of Dublin Bay to St Anne’s Park to Dublin’s winter hinterlands at Sillogue.”

To ensure that the project met people's needs, they invited locals and communities from the planning phase to suggest what they would like to see in this area and express their concerns. In saying that, he points out that there is hesitancy and apprehension about leveraging nature-based solutions rather than traditional methods due to a lack of understanding of the concept.

“One of my key objectives is to complete some nature-based demonstration projects so that people can just go and look at them. Once they see the benefit of something, they definitely become more open to change,”

John further explains.

He adds that there are situations that allow them to adopt nature-based solutions, but often, they still have to use traditional methods alongside them to meet planning requirements.

John sees the monetary value of preserving and enhancing natural habitats, biodiversity, and clear water, highlighting the importance of a multi-objective approach to handling interconnected issues.

“Where we have habitat loss, we have climate issues, where we have urbanisation, we have biodiversity issues, so it tends to grow wings quite easily.”

Besides water-related considerations, landscape design also has to factor in sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by planting more trees and other vegetation that store carbon.

One of Deirdre`s favourite projects she worked on in recent years was the development of a new park, Bridgefoot Street Park. This park is located in the Liberties area of Dublin City Centre and was designed by Dermot Foley Landscape Architects.

“Not only was it exciting to create a brand-new park in an area with a large deficit of access to green open spaces, but the park was also built using a variety of reused building materials and materials on the site.”

Construction phase of Bridgefoot Street Park in Dublin. Image: Dublin City Council

The aim was to create a playful and exciting urban landscape for all ages while transforming a hard landscape site in the city centre with sustainability at its core.

To stay true to their mission and reduce the amount of construction waste going into landfills, most materials used were moved from other building sites in Dublin.

In the end, 180 new trees, in addition to a mixture of herbaceous and ground-cover planting, have been planted in the park, increasing the urban canopy and assisting in reducing carbon emissions due to the uptake and storage of carbon.

These trees provide much-needed shade for park users and increase the space for biodiversity within the city.

Re-used materials on the surface at Bridgefoot Street Park. Image: Dublin City Council

Deirdre adds: “The Bridgefoot Street Park design highlights some important sustainability objectives, demonstrating how we can help to reduce our carbon impact in the design of new public spaces and also how to change the public perception of secondary raw construction materials.”

In 2023, the park development won the prestigious Landezine International Landscapes Award (LILA) in the Public Landscapes category.

The jury highlighted the reasons for selecting this project:

“Bridgefoot Street Park is a story about public space, community participation, circular economy, and ecological measures, and, above all, it is a project that well reflects our growing care for social and environmental issues of urban open space in the 21st century.”

In addition to creating a new green urban area, locals also have a sense of ownership while enjoying the playground and community garden, which adds value to a development like this.

“We have no choice but to move in this direction, and working with nature is the key to achieving climate targets and creating more liveable and sustainable cities.”

Bridgefoot Street Park is an award-winning development in Dublin, demonstrating the integration of nature-based solutions and sustainability in a city environment. Image: Dublin City Council

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

May 2024

Collaborative content with

Profit with Purpose Magazine

Szilvia Szabó ⬤ Author

Journalist, Editor

What does feeding ducks at parks have to do with biodiversity?

Bronagh Loughlin — Tue, 14 May 2024 09:18:29 +0000

What does feeding ducks at parks have to do with biodiversity?

Tags

Biodiversity

Sustainable City

Topic

Biodiversity

Feeding ducks in public parks could seem like an innocent act of kindness, yet it is more detrimental to the animals and the natural environment than it appears.

The Feed Ducks Initiative is an Irish organization that is partnering with government authorities to make duck feeding in public spaces more sustainable while protecting these habitats.

Matthew Knight, Director of the Feed Ducks Initiative, explains the origins of the project: "Our story began back in 2021 in the middle of COVID. We used to take my son, Oscar, who was quite young and has autism to the park because he was really engaged with the wildlife.

He was so interested in the ducks and at that time, I always noticed people were throwing bread at the ducks.

Lots of it was floating in the water or wasn’t eaten.

I knew as much that feeding bread wasn’t right for the wildlife, so I thought to myself, what if we put a dispenser here that releases small quantities of the right stuff the public can give to the ducks instead?”

Matthew Knight, Director of the Feed Ducks Initiative

The ultimate goal of this project is to limit negative harm to biodiversity.

Matthew shares why it is so important that ducks are fed the right food and, similarly, not overfed:

“A lot of councils put up signs as to why not to feed ducks bread.

Bread in itself goes largely uneaten, then it rots and causes build-ups in pond ecosystems, which leads to algae blooms and outbreaks of diseases such as botulism. There are several knock-on effects on biodiversity from this.

Algae blooms kill off the habitats the ducks naturally feed on, which means that the wrong food also negatively impacts the environment."

The units mean that people stop bringing bread, and they also have signs on the units to explain why not to feed ducks bread and the impacts of doing so.

Every feeder built is made from recycled plastics, equivalent to 20,000 plastic bottles, and the dispensers are solar-powered.

The units are free for councils to install, and community members pay to use them while 10 per cent of the proceeds go back into environmental projects.

Duck feeder units are built from recycled plastic utilising solar energy. Image: The Feed Ducks Initiative

Matthew adds, “We also have a QR code on the unit that takes the community to a webpage about each habitat. It features facts about wildlife like ducks and geese, but also swans and other various animals.

This is a way to engage the community and get them to connect with nature.”

Fewer people feeding the bread also means we’re improving the water quality.

Since people aren’t bringing bread, there is also no packaging involved, so the Feed Ducks Initiative is, in fact, also reducing the number of plastic packages littering parks that would otherwise go into water bodies.

After speaking to his local council, Matthew was given permission to go to the park, where he designed a prototype to test his theory.

When that was complete, there was a reduction in overfeeding, which was a sign that this innovation was something very unique to the community.

He wondered if there was anything similar or if the same thing would work well in other parks.

Matthew explains: “We approached Cork City Council, and they were really receptive and said yes. This marked our first unit, and it was a kind of repurposed gumball machine, able to withstand vandalism but still look nice in the park. We eventually created a contactless version of the same device and put it in Cork City, and that received even more acceptance.”

At this point, Matthew’s idea had been validated in two separate parks and two separate communities.

“The kids loved it, the families loved it, and the issues we were seeking to address were decreasing.

We decided to bring this to more parks outside Cork, but to do this, we had to design a model that would be scalable and fit in other communities.”

In April 2022, the Feed Ducks Initiative exported its first solar-powered contactless duck food dispenser to the UK, the first original design of their dispensers.

The dispenser is free of charge to the community, which means the council does not need a budget to implement these feeders.

Since the dispensers are solar-powered, they do not need a direct electrical connection.

When people tap their card on the dispenser, the food is released into a tray that the person scoops out to feed the ducks on the site.

Currently, the Feed Ducks Initiative is in 23 locations, five of which are in Ireland and 18 of which are in the UK.

“People really like the duck feeding units.

There is a family amenity in the community that is low cost and they get an opportunity to learn about wildlife which creates happy memories."

In terms of challenges in getting started, Matthew found the main one to be sourcing the right people in the right departments within councils to speak to.

This meant they largely relied on people hearing about what they were doing. In saying that, this approach has still been effective since the duck feeding units have been really accepted into all the communities they are placed in.

"I think everyone can cast their mind back to a memory of feeding ducks as a child and so to think that kids now can do it in such an environmentally positive way is very rewarding.”

He adds: “We’ve only received requests to go into even more parks as a result. We’ve grown from one feeder in September 2001, and as of June, we’ll be just shy of 50 units, so the growth rate of the units has been tremendous.

We look forward to working with more councils and are eager to bring this initiative to more communities to empower them to spark positive change.”

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

May 2024

Collaborative content with

Profit with Purpose Magazine

Festival to bring together Berliners for Green Cities

Business Spirit News reporting — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 10:10:39 +0000

Festival to bring together Berliners for Green Cities

Tags

Topic

Two days for entrepreneurs and citizens in Berlin to discuss and discover impactful solutions for green cities.

The third edition of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival takes place from the 16-17th of September at Engelnest, Berlin, to present impactful solutions for green minds.

The two-day event aims to bring together entrepreneurs and citizens to discuss and discover new solutions to build sustainable and zero waste cities.

Topics covered by over 60 speakers focus on the main aspects of creating future cities, such as sustainable food systems and urban lifestyle, mobility and technology, among others.

“We want to create a space where entrepreneurs, companies and people can meet, learn from each other and find resources – Berlin is the perfect place for it,”

says Coral Ruz, Founder of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival.

On the first day, entrepreneurs, companies, institutions and investors will gather to connect and exchange ideas helping the shift to make cities more sustainable.

Coral Ruz, Founder of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival, has started an international zero waste community in Belrin in 2019.

Keynote speaker of the event, Kilian Kaminkski, co-founder of Refurbed, the fastest growing online marketplace for refurbished products, will address attendees with a presentation focusing on why „The future is Circular Economy’.

The second day will focus on citizen engagement in transforming cities and zero waste movements.

Participants can attend conferences, and masterclasses, meet with brands, enjoy an immersive networking experience with the Green Networking Party and meet with local artists thanks to the collaboration with the Berlin Music Commission.

Zero Waste Berlin Festival 2021; Image: Ana Torres

“In curating this year’s programme, our aspiration has been to highlight inspiring and solution-oriented projects across the private, public, and civic sectors,”

shared Therese Sivertsson, Program Manager of the festival.

Speakers include Franziska Voß from BSR, Frieder Söling from Noch Mall, Ana Milhazes from Zero Waste Portugal and many more.

The day will close with Positive Planet Kino; a full program of short films and documentaries addressing the future of the planet with a positive approach.

Tickets and the entire program are available on the event’s website.

The first edition of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival was launched in 2019 as a passion project of founder Coral Ruz and has grown into an international movement ever since, reaching more than 40,000 people.

Headline image: Ana Torres

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

September 2022

Making cities human and kind

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 10:49:28 +0000

Making cities human and kind

Tags

Topic

"Cities are hubs for change, places where we dream, discuss, live, grow, and work." Lior Steinberg, urban planner, shares insights on how to transform city life to be more human and kind.

Expert opinion by Lior Steinberg,

co-founder of Humankind, an agency for urban change based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

I believe that places that encourage positive connections between people and the environment are humane and kind.

For example, streets prioritising car movement are not human and kind since they do not allow residents and visitors to interact, relax, and socialise.

Additionally, it excludes many groups who cannot or will not own a car. On the other hand, a street designed with space for pedestrians, cyclists, transit, benches, trees, interesting shops, and meeting places is human and kind.

Lior Steinberg, urban planner and co-founder of Humankind agency

I co-founded Humankind, an agency for urban change based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to make cities more human and kind to ourselves, others and our planet. If we create human and kind cities, we create sustainable presents and better futures where we can live a good life together.

We provide cities, organisations and changemakers with human-powered data and insights to make sense of the present, creative tools to start shaping the future today and share our knowledge so anyone can be a city maker.

Cities are complex systems created and experienced by equally complex beings.

To make them better, we need better insights. Although we have the data, the real challenge is the lack of connections and interpretation. Local governments and municipalities collect and store a lot of data about their cities. In practice, they often struggle to translate this data into meaningful, actionable insights for improving quality of life.

The idea behind our human-powered data approach is to rethink how we collect and analyse data about our cities. The most important thing is to make sure that we are asking the right questions.

For instance, instead of measuring the number of cars passing in a street, maybe we can measure the comfort of street users?

Instead of mapping all playgrounds in the city, could we measure the playfulness of streets and public spaces, regardless of whether they are defined as an official playgrounds?

We strive to create better public spaces by combining spatial analysis with system and trend research. Our Good Public Space concept is a humble attempt to capture all the great qualities of public spaces in a simple, affordable, and scalable way.

We acknowledge that "Good" can mean different things to different people, but research shows that most people view pleasant interactions with other humans and nature as positive. Therefore, there is a need to analyse whether places are designed to encourage such interactions. Additionally, we observe how people behave in the space.

Many companies are often too focused on one discipline, whether they are architects, urban planners, or engineers. In order to create great cities for people, you must approach the city from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Cities can spend years discussing possible changes with residents, or they can try it and see if it works.

One of our unique projects is offering a ‘Daytrip to the Future’, allowing participants to imagine a better future. Instead of forecasting or trying to predict the future, we translate future possibilities into present-day choices.

Using tactical urbanism - low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment - we help cities try different designs and schemes. For instance, making a street pedestrian-only for the summer or installing a pop-up bike lane instead of a parking lane.

Having an authentic experience and not just theoretical ideas can be more powerful, leading to better decisions. You can do something as simple as finding the perfect place to set up a bench or as complex as rethinking an entire traffic circulation plan.

To me, it is all about improving our public spaces and streets and creating places that make people smile.

Headline image: Ronald Cuyan, Unsplash

This content was originally published in the Profit with Purpose Magazine.

Read more insights on making cities sustainable and inclusive in the Summer 2022 edition of the magazine >>>

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

June 2022

Building the largest community of 'City Changers'

Business Spirit News reporting — Fri, 27 May 2022 12:47:24 +0000

Building the largest community of 'City Changers'

Tags

Topic

Gerald-Babel Sutter, Founder of Urban Future, the largest gathering for ‘City Changers’ shares how to bring together thinkers and doers to shape our cities.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

May 2022

Call for entrepreneurs driving circular city transformations

Business Spirit News reporting — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:47:33 +0000

Call for entrepreneurs driving circular city transformations

Tags

Topic

Start-up teams with innovative circular economy solutions in urban areas are invited to apply to the Circular Cities accelerator program.

The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator public-private initiative offers an extensive programme and funding for entrepreneurs driving the transformation of cities to become more sustainable and climate-resilient.

Start-ups are invited to submit their projects focusing on a circular solution in the textile, food, tourism, mobility, construction sectors and other relevant areas.

“The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator helped us not only to connect to other leaders in this area, but also to connect to relevant stakeholders such as cities to create valuable partnerships,”

says Dominik Campanella, Co-Founder of Concular, and participant of the previous Circular Cities program.

Proposed business solutions need to be scalable in urban areas, particularly to the markets of the partner cities of the program, which includes Dublin, Berlin and potentially other large cities.

Selected teams will go through three stages: working on their business strategy, market validation, and investment readiness.

At the first stage, 25 teams will be supported with €3.000 per team, then 15 teams will continue the next phase when they will each receive up to €15.000 grant.

The final module will be an invite-only option for the best ten projects to present their ideas to investors.

Application is open until 10 April to enterprises with an advanced business model and minimum viable product with a legal entity registered no longer than five years in Europe.

The duration of the program is eight months, starting on 25 April and closing with a demo day on 02 December 2022.

The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator program is managed by Climate-KIC, Luvent Consulting GmbH, DTU - Technical University of Denmark, UPS, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity's Ideas Workspace, Veolia and primeCROWD investment group.

Headline image: CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

March 2022

Open call for innovators who want to shape the future of cities

Business Spirit News reporting — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:30:58 +0000

Open call for innovators who want to shape the future of cities

Tags

Topic

The Urban Future international gathering of changemakers is looking for impact entrepreneurs with projects making cities greener and more accesible.

The Urban Future event, the largest meeting for ‘City Changers’ will return as a live event in Helsingborg, Sweden, on the 1-3 June, bringing together thinkers and doers shaping the future of cities.

Organisers are calling innovators and entrepreneurs with an idea to transform cities to become more sustainable and accessible. They are looking for projects that are tackling environmental or social issues in an urban space, touching the lives of citizens and passionate about driving change.

The application is open until February 6, and 10 selected businesses will receive two complimentary conference tickets and have their travel and accommodation expenses covered.

Gerald Babel-Sutter co-founded the Urban Future global gathering in 2014 with the aim to bring together the brightest minds who strive to make their cities more sustainable and livable.

“We usually choose our topics based on the main struggles City Changers go through when driving sustainability in cities,”

said Babel-Sutter about how they decided on the focus of this year’s event.

Gerald Babel-Sutter, co-founder of Urban Future

The 2022 conference tracks combine the expertise of more than 450 leading urban shapers and will be structured around the following topics: Leadership; Changing Structures; Impact Entrepreneurs; Revitalising Neighbourhoods; Building New Districts; Skills for CityChangers.

One of the highlights of the agenda will be the transformation story of the host city, Helsingborg and how they managed to fundamentally change their operation within ten years to become a top-class hub for innovation.

“We immediately liked the fact that Helsingborg was so open with what it had tried and what worked and what didn’t,” Gerald continues.

“Helsingborg has understood that to reach their goals, they need to experiment and make mistakes along the way. In Sweden’s first municipal innovation hub Hbg Works, any idea to improve the City can be tested. A no-strings-attached vision fund invites residents to join in and realise their city development dreams.”

The Urban Future event takes place in different countries each year, offering a place for urban impact innovators to connect and exchange ideas.

Headline image: Urban Future

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

February 2022