Application of NBS for local adaptation of educational buildings to climate change
The LIFE-myBUILDINGisGREEN project aims to increase the resilience of educational buildings through the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as prototypes of climate adaptation and improved well-being. The first set of NBS has been implemented in a Spanish school in a rural area. We have got a significant reduction in the temperature inside the building at the same time we have increased local biodiversity, produced new living educational material and beautified the environment.
Local
Spain
Region: Extremadura. Province: Badajoz. Municipality: Solana de los Barros
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
LIFE Programme, LIFE Climate Change Adaptation, 2017. Project code: LIFE17 CCA/ES/000088
No
Yes
2021-12-31
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Spanish National Research Council Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Miguel Last name of representative: Vega Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: Project Manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C/ Claudio Moyano, 1 Town: Madrid Postal code: 28014 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 636 09 57 06 E-mail:miguel.vega@rjb.csic.es Website:https://life-mybuildingisgreen.eu/
Name of the organisation(s): CARTIF Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Raquel Last name of representative: Marijuan Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Parque tecnológico de Boecillo, 205 Town: Valladolid Postal code: 47151 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 983 54 65 04 E-mail:raqmar@cartif.es Website:https://www.cartif.es
Name of the organisation(s): Diputación de Badajoz Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Pilar Last name of representative: Muñoz Romero Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Chief of Sustainable Development Goals Department Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Av. Tomás Romero de Castilla, 2 Town: Badajoz Postal code: 06011 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 924 21 22 45 E-mail:pmunoz@dip-badajoz.es Website:https://www.dip-badajoz.es/
Name of the organisation(s): Comunidade Intermunicipal do Alentejo Central Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Teresa Last name of representative: Batista Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Head of the Environment and Development Unit Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: R. 24 de Julho, 1 Town: Evora Postal code: 7000-673 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 266 749 420 E-mail:tbatista@cimac.pt Website:http://www.cimac.pt/
Name of the organisation(s): Câmara Municipal do Porto Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Nuno Last name of representative: Morais Gender: Male Nationality: Portugal Function: Officer in the Environmental Management Unit Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Estrada Interior da Circunvalação, 15443 Town: Porto Postal code: 4100-183 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 22 532 0080 E-mail:nunomorais@cm-porto.pt Website:https://www.cm-porto.pt/
Climate change is now recognized as one of the most serious environmental, social and economic challenges facing the world. The IPCC's Fifth Report (2014) identifies that many of the global risks of climate change are concentrated in urban areas. In addition, implementing measures that enhance resilience and enable sustainable development can accelerate processes of adaptation to climate change.
Europe's educational buildings will face multiple challenges in the coming decades, and climate change will increase this pressure. The project focuses on the building sector, specifically on a public educational building existing in a small town located in Badajoz (Spain). The impacts of climate change (heat waves, changes in annual and seasonal precipitation patterns) are affecting the health and well-being of children who are the main users of these types of centres.
The overall objective of the project is to contribute to increasing the resilience of this building by the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions as prototypes of climate adaptation and improved well-being.
Other specific objectives are:
1. Analyze and verify the impact of Nature-Based Solutions as measures to adapt to climate change in a pilot building and their transferability to other buildings.
2. Promote sustainable ecosystem-based adaptation measures and increase the capacity to apply such knowledge in practice through dissemination and demonstration workshops.
3. Promote the governance of regional authorities, directors and building managers, and the building industry to integrate Natured-based Solutions as part of measures to promote sustainable adaptation in buildings through the development, creation and dissemination of governance to tools and territorial agreements.
Nature-Based Solutions
Climate adaptation
Heat waves
Educational buildings
Resilience
- Reduction of the temperature inside the educational building using nature-based solutions with low carbon waste levels. The project has implemented prototypes of green roofs, green walls and other solutions in playgrounds to provide more shadow in summer.
- Reduction in energy and water consumption by decreasing the building temperature and the use of irrigation water. Despite the solutions addressed to reduce the temperature in the building, there are other solutions that recirculate the rainwater to use it as irrigation water.
- Reduction in CO2 and NOx emissions. The nature-based solutions implemented include plants as part of the system to reduce the temperature inside the building. These plants capture CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Many of the nature-based solutions implemented by this project are prototypes that could be transferred to other regions with similar climatology and problems.
The nature-based solutions implemented by the project increase the aesthetic value of the educational building. These solutions are accessible to the students in the building and they are great educational materials for subjects related to environmental sciences. Also, the implemented solutions act as green corridors connected to other green spaces that are close to this building, increasing the abundance of animals such as birds, pollinating insects, butterflies and reptiles.
The design of the solutions implemented in the playground area of this educational building was derived from a participatory process between the project managers and the educational community (teachers, students and parents of these students). The users of this building shared their ideas to improve the habitability in the playground area during recreation time.
The project has organised several meetings to integrate civil society's opinion about the implementation of nature-based solutions. We have organised some workshops with local authorities, universities, other schools from the region of the project and experts in architecture and landscaping. Their feedback has been taken into consideration during the implementation process and we shared the results of the project with them in order to get more impact on the transferability of the solutions.
We had several meetings with stakeholders at different levels:
- Meetings with the Municipality of Solana de los Barros, where the school is located, allow us to get the commitment of the schools in the maintenance of the solutions after the project has finished.
- Meetings with other Municipalities in the region to get their commitment to the future implementation of nature-based solutions in public buildings. During these meetings, we have also tried to get modifications in the local regulation of buildings to facilitate the implementation of these kinds of solutions.
- Meetings with regional authorities to explore the way the regional regulation can integrate the use of nature-based solutions in new buildings.
- Meetings with national authorities to explore the way we can include the nature-based solutions designed by the project in the Technical Edification Code. We are currently working to explain what are the steps to follow to achieve this target.
- Meetings with Teacher for Future to get the support of the educational community to educate about the importance and benefits of nature-based solutions as an alternative way to adapt buildings to climate change.
- Meetings with Green Building Council Spain to get support in the certification process to demonstrate the sustainability of the building where the nature-based solutions were implemented.
- Several meetings in Europe to share the knowledge acquired during the project implementation. Some examples are the EU Green Week, the New European Bauhaus meeting, EURESFO 2022, the Conference of the Parties, etc.
The project gathered experts from different fields such as:
- Senior botanists that selected the best choices of plants to be used in the nature-based solutions and design the re-naturalisation of the playground areas. These experts elaborated on the monitoring plan of local biodiversity associated with the implemented nature-based solutions.
- Senior architects that worked in the design, implementation and monitoring of nature-based solutions. They worked in collaboration with the botanists implied in the project to get the most efficient solutions.
- Local and regional authorities to get the needed permits for the implementation of the nature-based solutions and to assure the personal staff needed for the maintenance of these solutions after the project has finished.
- Educational community from the schools where the nature-based solutions were implemented to get their opinion about their needs to enhance their well-being when using the school facilities.
There was a general work group with representatives from all these fields and three specific groups that work on administrative, technical and communication issues.
With the execution of this project, the following results have been achieved:
- Climate adaptation of a pilot building (educational centre) through the implementation of nature-based solutions prototypes.
- Well-being improvement and thermal comfort for the educational community of Gabriela Mistral school.
- Connection with the Steering Committees and climate adaptation platforms of the EU.
- Reduction of CO2 and NOx.
- Collection of rainwater included in the irrigation system, which means a significant reduction in water consumption.
- Increase the green area of the building.
- Reduction of energy costs for cooling and heating.
- Signing several government agreements to facilitating the transferability of nature-based solutions in other public buildings.
- Organisation a number of meetings, workshops and other similar events about sustainable architecture, climate change adaptation and nature-based solutions.
- Elaboration of different documentation for the transferability of the project, such as a catalogue of governance tools, online training platform, catalogue of available nature-based solutions, etc.
The project has been an interesting demonstration of the potential of nature-based solutions as innovative tools for climate change adaptation in public buildings. The project has contrasted the traditional way to cool buildings (artificial cooling) with this alternative option and it has also demonstrated it can be useful for this purpose while it gets other interesting results such as biodiversity increase, lower costs during the implementation of the solutions, beautification of the building, etc. Between the implemented nature-based solutions, there have been some prototypes specifically designed and tested for the project. The main prototypes are:
1. Green roofs with native plant species and low maintenance requirements using a specific soil with sphagnum and protozoa.
2. Green walls integrating plant species in steel cables and vertical planters.
3. Shading structure implemented in outdoor spaces with a high occupation rate.
4. Draining surfaces that allow the spread of vegetation while reducing the surface temperature and increasing the filtration of rainwater.
Our project has been structured in a series of actions as follows:
- Preparatory actions:
a) collection of information and design of technical criteria for the selection of the pilot building.
b) elaboration of a database with the prototypes and nature-based solutions available for the project.
- Implementation actions:
a) Setting the baseline of the pilot building to compare the results with.
b) Preparation of the construction work project, application for the necessary administrative permits and implementation of nature-based solutions.
c) Monitoring of indicators to measure the impact of the implemented nature-based solutions as alternatives for climate change adaptation in buildings.
d) Meetings with local, regional and national authorities to facilitate the future transferability of the designed solutions.
- Monitoring actions focused on general and socio-economical indicators.
- Communication actions:
a) Broad dissemination of the project at different levels.
b) Specific communication activities for the target audience such as onsite demonstrative workshops, online training courses, etc.
c) Connection with other European projects and platforms related to climate change adaptation and/or sustainable architecture.
- Management actions
The nature-based solutions implemented by this project can perfectly be transferred to other buildings with similar climatic conditions. In fact, currently, there is a school in Evora (Portugal) which is implementing some of these solutions.
The governance tools identified as facilitators for the transferability of the solutions could be used by other projects in Spain and Portugal and could also provide some ideas about how other projects should approach local, regional and national authorities in their countries.
The methodology to select the pilot building could be used by other organisations in Spain and Portugal because the used criteria are based on the reality of these countries.
- Carbon sequestration: the implemented prototypes are new sustainable alternatives that act as built-in carbon sinks. The use of these kinds of solutions avoids the installation of equipment which entail enormous energy costs and the consequent emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.
- Air Quality Improvement: the prototypes installed in the pilot building contribute not only to lowering the temperature and increasing the relative humidity inside the buildings through natural refrigeration, but act also as absorption measures for polluting gases for health.
- Increase and Conservation of Biodiversity: the nature-based solutions use ecosystem-based approaches for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and they are cost-effective alternatives while providing multiple benefits beyond biodiversity conservation.
- Efficient rainwater management: water resources are directly affected by climate change. The management of these resources is affected by the vulnerability of cities to climate change. A reduction in rainfall is projected in southern Europe as well as important storm scenarios and flood risk in most of Europe. The application of efficient nature-based solutions reduces the need for water resources and retains rainwater.
- Nature-based solutions provide sustainable, profitable, multifunctional and flexible alternatives to achieve different objectives. Working with nature in the urban environment can build the pathway to a more efficient, competitive and ecological economy. The application at a local level (educational centre) of the project prototypes makes possible the creation of new jobs not just in the project area but also at a European level. This will allow economical growth, increasing the urban natural capital instead of removing it.
