Improvement of environment, of air, and adaptation to climate change of industrial areas trough NBS
Application of environmental improvement systems in industrial areas through the implementation of NBS. Environmental, but also social, economic and cultural improvement has been achieved through the combined incorporation of standards of renaturing and sustainable urban drainage systems located along a green-blue corridors. The NBS have been materialized in two pilot projects: one in Argales industrial park (Valladolid, Spain) and another in Cantarias industrial area (Bragança, Portugal).
Cross-border/international
Spain
Portugal
{Empty}
1. Valladolid (Spain)
2. Bragança (Portugal)
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
INTERREG_POCTEP 2014-2020
No
Yes
2022-09-05
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): University of Valladolid Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: M. Rosario Last name of representative: del Caz Enjuto Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Assistant Professor and resercher Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Avenida de Salamanca, 18 Town: Valladolid Postal code: 47014 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 610 82 45 91 E-mail:rosario.delcaz@uva.es Website:https://arquitectura.uva.es/
Name of the organisation(s): Polytechnic Institute of Bragança Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Artur Last name of representative: Gonçalves Gender: Male Nationality: Portugal Function: Auxiliary Professor and resercher Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança; Campus de Santa Apolónia, Apartado 1172 Town: Bragança Postal code: 5301-855 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 273 303 339 E-mail:ajg@ipb Website:https://www.ipb.pt
Name of the organisation(s): Ayuntamiento de Valladolid _ Valladolid City Hall Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Isabel Last name of representative: Sánchez Íñiguez de la Torre Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Agencia de Innovación y Desarrollo Económico de Valladolid. Calle Vega Sicilia nº 2 bis Town: Valladolid Postal code: 47008 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 983 24 74 01 E-mail:isiniguez@ava.es Website:http://www.valladolidadelante.es
Name of the organisation(s): Fundación Patrimonio Natural Castilla y León Type of organisation: Other public institution First name of representative: Inés Last name of representative: Méndez Tovar Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: Project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Edificio PRAE. Calle Cañada Real, 306. Town: Valladolid Postal code: 47008 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 983 34 58 50 E-mail:ines.mendez@patrimonionatural.org Website:https://patrimonionatural.org/
Name of the organisation(s): AEICE _ Efficient Habitat Cluster Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Enrique Last name of representative: Cobreros García Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: Cluster manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Cámara de contratistas de Castilla y León, Calle Valle de Arán, 5 Town: Valladolid Postal code: 47010 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 983 25 07 25 E-mail:emcobreros@aeice.org Website:https://www.aeice.org/
Name of the organisation(s): Diputación de Ávila, Agencia de la Energía Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Alberto Last name of representative: López Casillas Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Function: Project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Agencia provincial de la energía, Calle Canteros s/n Town: Ávila Postal code: 05005 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 920 20 62 01 E-mail:alopez@diputacionavila.es Website:https://www.apea.com.es/
Name of the organisation(s): Camara Municipal de Bragança _ Bragança City Hall Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Lia Last name of representative: Joao Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Camara Municipal de Bragança, Forte S. João de Deus Town: Bragança Postal code: 5300-263 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 273 304 200 E-mail:liajoao@cm-braganca.pt Website:https://www.cm-braganca.pt/
The objective of INDNATUR was to design and implement mechanisms and schemes for environmental improvement in outdated industrial areas in the cooperation area Northern Portugal-Castilla y León (Spain), through Nature Based Solutions (NbS). Environmental, but also social, economic and cultural improvement has been achieved through the combined implementation of renaturation guidelines and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in public spaces of the industrial area of Argales (Valladolid, Spain) and the industrial area of Cantarias (Bragança, Portugal).
The core action of the project consisted of the development of two blue-green corridors (one in Argales and the other in Cantarias) where NBS (vegetation and SUDS) were implemented. It was innovative in Europe, especially for the fact that renaturalisation works were carried out on well established and obsolete industrial areas. Given that the NBS had to be compatible with existing infrastructures and with decades-old urban planning standards, while not affecting the proper functioning of the industrial areas, the challenge was noteworthy.
The project also included other actions that sought to highlight the urgency of incorporating nature in all urban areas, including industrial areas (where renaturing actions and projects are not usual), to make them more resilient, sustainable, ‘human’ and adapted to climate change.
Actions undertaken included:
- Monitoring and ex-post measurements of air quality (PM10 and PM2.5 micro-particles, NOX, CO2, etc.), comfort (temperature, humidity and wind), subsoil water infiltration and biodiversity
- Governance and replicability actions
- Training and green entrepreneurship actions with NBS
- Circular economy actions: compost from organic waste generated on industrial sites and use of substrates made from construction and demolition waste mixed with compost.
- Dissemination and dissemination actions.
Nature-Based Solutions
Renaturation
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems
Training, green employment and replicability
Circular economy
INDNATUR is framed within the thematic objective 6 of the INTERREG POCTEP: Preserve and protect the environment and promote resource efficiency; investment priority 6E - Actions to improve the urban environment, revitalize cities, rehabilitate and decontaminate old industrial areas (including conversion areas), reduce air pollution and promote noise reduction measures; and specific objective OE6E - Strengthen local sustainable development throughout the Spanish-Portuguese border.
Sustainability is at the heart of the project, as it aimed at designing and implementing environmental improvement systems for industrial areas through Nature-Based Solutions. The increase in sustainability has resulted from the combined incorporation of renaturation guidelines and sustainable urban drainage systems in public spaces of industrial areas.
The development of the project has led to the following results related to sustainability:
- Improvement of air quality, improvement of the urban heat island in industrial areas and improvement of the infiltration of rainwater into the subsoil, alleviating the flooding problems that one of the streets used to suffer in the case of Valladolid.
- Increase in biodiversity, tested by measuring indicators.
- Demonstration of the effectiveness and applicability of the NBS in the environmental improvement of industrial areas.
- Creation of a new culture, in the area of cooperation, of the importance of working with nature to improve people's quality of life and the protection of the planet.
- Training of technicians and workers in the use of NBS, as well as in the generation of green employment from these solutions.
- Incorporation of circular economy guidelines such as the manufacture of compost from the organic fraction of waste generated in some companies in the industrial areas; and verification of the suitability of using substrates for planting vegetation generated from the mixture of compost and construction and demolition waste.
Industrial areas, especially those built decades ago (the subject of the project), are often hostile spaces, unattractive from the point of view of both their aesthetics and the quality of the user experience they offer to workers and visitors. The roads and open spaces in them were developed with criteria of hardness and impermeability, including materials that are neither friendly nor beautiful. Moreover, most of these obsolete industrial areas lack vegetation and trees, which not only has a negative influence on the comfort of the public space (no shade in the streets and very low humidity), but also on the attractiveness of the landscape. In the case of the Valladolid industrial area, Argales, there is not a single tree or other vegetation in the public space. In the case of the Braganza industrial area there are some, although not enough.
The negative landscape impact of the buildings is also significant, as the roofs of the buildings are made of fibre cement or sheet metal and the façades are made of poor, unattractive materials. In addition, the enclosures of the plots, which are characteristic of industrial areas, as the buildings are usually set back from the street alignment, also lack vegetation, which contributes to the harsh and unattractive image of the industrial space.
However, street trees and vegetation significantly enhance the landscape quality of these areas, not only because of their intrinsic beauty, but also because they soften the impact of building facades and roofs and provide positive user experiences related to aesthetics. The result is that after the intervention one can enjoy a space that was previously unattractive to the eye.
In Argales and Cantarias several green elements have been introduced: rows of trees, trees in containers, shrub and herbaceous vegetation combining textures and colours, varied vegetation and different flowering periods, which have significantly increased the landscape value of the areas intervened.
Most industrial areas built on the outskirts of cities during the second decade of the 20th century have now became relatively centrally located, but often isolated from the city itself, poorly or not connected to cycling and pedestrian networks, as well as to public transport systems and green spaces. This is the case in Argales and Cantarias. When they were built, they were conceived as exclusively working areas. As a result, today they lack open spaces and recreational areas where workers and visitors can rest and relax.
INDNATUR has aimed at overcoming these weaknesses and seeking the integration of these huge spaces into the urban structure and the provision of a friendlier, healthier, more attractive and safer environment for the workers (men and women). To this end, the following interventions have been carried out:
- Connection with networks of green spaces. In Argales, the blue-green corridor connects a ditch with the old bed of a stream. In Cantarias, the intervention links two green spaces in the immediate surroundings.
- Creation of living spaces. Attractive and comfortable spaces and resting points have been set up, with trees, benches and shade.
- In Argales, cycle lanes have been added to the main avenue that will connect with existing routes.
- The attractiveness of the urban landscape and the environmental quality have been improved, which will result in more frequent use and therefore a safer space, especially for women, who will perceive it as less dangerous.
The transformation of a hostile environment into a friendlier, healthier and more comfortable one after the introduction of the NbS should have an impact on equal opportunities and non-discrimination. It should not be forgotten that public space (streets, open spaces) is, or should be, the space for public interaction, and should therefore be pleasant, accessible, beautiful, and encourage social encounter. In other words, the very soul of the city.
Civil society in the cities of Valladolid and Bragança, particularly those who work and/or visit the pilot industrial areas, but also the technicians and workers trained in the use of NBS, benefit from the project from an environmental, social, economic, and cultural perspective. Environmentally, because pre and post measurements show a slight improvement in air quality (not very significant, given the volume of the intervention), rainwater infiltration into the subsoil, an increase in biodiversity, etc. Socially, because there is an increase in comfort: temperature decrease, humidity increase, new shaded areas and rest areas, etc. Economically, because it has been proven that those renaturalised spaces experience an increase in the value of plots of land and buildings. Culturally, because the space has significantly improved its landscape attractiveness.
Since the beginning of the project, regular contact has been kept with property owners. Several discussion and reflection sessions have also been held and free advice has been provided to them (making specific renaturation proposals for their plots) to encourage them to contribute to improving the quality of the industrial areas. It should be noted that European funding did not provide for the incorporation of NBS in private areas.
A social participation and awareness-raising plan was worked on and implemented, which included, among others, studies based on surveys and emotion monitoring, involving both a representative sample of society and personnel from the industrial areas, on the perception of the benefits of the NBS. The results show a lack of awareness, but also a positive assessment of the benefits of NBS.
Informative and participative workshops were also held with students, neighbourhood associations and workers, as well as debate workshops on the replicability in industrial areas in rural environments.
In this sort of project, supported by European co-financing, the collaboration of all stakeholders, both external as well as the project partners, is essential.
At the European level, the Interreg Poctep programme funding has assumed 75% of the cost of the project. The remaining 25% has been financed by the seven partner institutions.
At the national level, CONAMA, a foundation of major relevance at the Spanish level, which promotes sustainable development in Spain and Latin America, has provided enormous support for the project. It has raised awareness of the project by including it in numerous forums: NBS Observatory, publications, invitations to debates and working groups, permanent institutional forum, which has aroused the interest of other industrial areas to replicate solutions like those implemented by the project.
At the regional level, all project partners have made a great effort to promote the inclusion of NBS in the public agendas of politicians and public decision-makers. To this end, they have held numerous meetings with technicians and politicians from municipal, provincial, and regional administrations, as well as business associations, professional associations of engineers and architects, trade unions, etc.
At the local level: in addition to the dissemination meetings and workshops with professionals, professional associations and municipal technicians, the involvement of the city councils of Valladolid and Bragança should be highlighted, as they contributed their own funds, higher than those committed in the call for proposals, for the implementation of the blue-green corridors.
In addition, several dissemination actions have been carried out, contributing to increase the knowledge required for the better implementation of the project. Thus, the following can be highlighted: conference attendance, specialized articles, participation in exhibitions, conferences and specific forums on urban renaturation and NBS.
The consortium behind the project was composed of two Universities: the University of Valladolid and the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança; two City Councils: the City Council of Valladolid and the Municipal Chamber of Bragança; two regional and local public institutions: Fundación Patrimonio Natural Castilla y León (dependent on the Junta de Castilla y León) and Diputación de Ávila; and a business cluster related to the efficient habitat, AEICE. Each partner, according to its expertise, was responsible for one of the many tasks of the project.
Among the consortium partners we can find diverse profiles: from architects and urban planners, to economists, agricultural and forestry engineers, technical environmental experts, who carry out their tasks in their different jobs as teachers, researchers, project technicians, managers, etc.
In addition, thanks to INDNATUR funding, experts in other fields were recruited to properly address all the activities of the project. Thus, experts in communication, entrepreneurship and green employment, landscaping and circular economy were also involved.
All partners have been in continuous contact throughout the 3+ years of the project. The researchers of the University of Valladolid, as project leaders, promoted regular meetings with all the members of the consortium and partial meetings with each of them when circumstances required it.
It should be emphasised that the added value of the process lies precisely in the diversity of professional profiles involved in the project, all of them with well-defined roles, given that the methodology involved the initial design of a roadmap which set out the steps to be taken. All of this, despite the global pandemic caused by Covid 19, which caused major difficulties for some of the tasks to be carried out. However, in the end, and thanks to the extension granted, they were all successfully completed.
Given that the project involved diverse types of actions, the results are also wide ranging. The following is a summary by type of action.
Analyses, simulations and measurements on air quality, urban well-being, groundwater infiltration and biodiversity. They proved that: the air temperature can be reduced by up to 5 degrees in the areas subject to intervention; in the next 15 years 7355 tons of CO2 can be stored; that the infiltration of water into the subsoil has increased substantially in some areas reducing flooding; there has been an increase of birds, lepidoptera and carabids in the environment.
A catalogue of NBS technical solution sheets specifically applicable to industrial areas was developed (see corresponding file).
In the blue-green corridors, the following NBS were implemented: 117 rows of trees; 17 trees in pots and containers and 32 trees in copses; 368 m2 of infiltration trenches; 314 m2 of rain garden; 2,864 m2 of renaturalised watercourses; 172 m2 of; permeable pavers in parking slot; 2894 m2 permeable pavements; 72 planted tree pits and 152 permeable tree pits; 2 green pergolas and 2,836 m2 of green areas. In addition: 2 smart posts and 11 benches.
The following documents have been produced: Set of specific recommendations for integration in general planning; guide for composting plant waste and reintroduction as fertiliser; methodology for the replicability of NBS in industrial areas and in rural and urban environments.
6 training and entrepreneurship workshops for technicians and workers were held in Valladolid and Bragança.
A NBS Cooperation forum involving Public Administrations was set up.
4 articles were published in specialised portals, 3 posters in exhibitions and presentations at numerous forums by invitation.
A video and an exhibition of the project have also been produced, a website has been created and extensive dissemination in the media and social networks has been done.
An early step of the project (in 2019) was to analyse the state of the art on the implementation of NBS in industrial areas. The research found that this solution, which had long been implemented in residential areas and in some types of facilities, was not very popular for industrial areas. Some isolated cases were detected in newly built industrial areas, but none at Spanish or European level that applied a broad set of NBS in old and outdated industrial areas (see CONAMA 2020 communication). In these cases, the implementation of NBS means adding extra complexity to the project, given that, when they were designed and built, these needs were not considered. This is the key indicator of the innovative nature of the project, as it addressed a challenge for which there were no specific references.
INDNATUR's interest has been, and still is, proven by the fact that the project partners have been invited to numerous forums to present the project's achievements for replicability it in other locations. Likewise, the project has had, to date, some acknowledgements such as being one of the selected projects, among the more than 600 submitted, in the XV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism and having been nominated for the prize for innovation in the Sustainable Construction Awards of Castilla y León.
The holistic approach of the project can also be considered innovative, as it addresses not only the implementation of NBS and the scientific measurement of their results, but also the replicability to industrial sites in rural areas, as well as the training of technicians and workers in this regard. It also includes circular economy actions, experimental testing of the growth of vegetation on substrates created from the combination of construction and demolition waste with compost. All of this is complemented with participatory actions and a wide range of dissemination activities.
For the development of the project, a roadmap with two types of actions was defined: those divided in consecutive stages and organized hierarchically, and those transversal ones that have extended throughout the life of the project.
As for the former, the following activities and actions were developed:
1. Definition of NBS for its implementation in industrial areas, plus benchmarking actions; analysis and measurements of the initial status of industrial areas; drafting of a catalogue with NBS sheets for industrial areas; preliminary drafts of the Argales and Cantarias blue-green corridors.
2. Pilot actions for the application of NBS in industrial areas, in which the following actions were carried out: preparation and implementation of a social participation and awareness-raising plan; projects for the implementation of the blue-green corridors; evaluation and monitoring of the NBS implemented; governance actions: (E.g.: recommendations on the implementation of NBS in urban planning; dissemination meetings on NBS with a range of agents…). Also, circular economy actions, as mentioned.
3. Training, green employment and replicability actions, including training workshops, forums for replicability, publications, etc.
In terms of cross-cutting actions, reference should be made to:
1. The management and coordination of the project, with two streams, a general one (involving all partners) and a partial one (in which those partners in charge of specific actions participated). All of them were coordinated by a leader belonging to the University of Valladolid.
2. Dissemination and communication actions, involving the following: drafting of a communication plan; creation of a website and a video; itinerant exhibition; regular communication actions in the media and social networks; days to publicly present the project and conference attendance.
The project's aim of replicability in other places was considered from the beginning of the project. Thus, Diputación de Ávila, the public administration in Spain that meets the needs of rural municipalities, joined the partnership. Although the implementation of blue-green corridors was not foreseen in any industrial area of any of the municipalities of the province of Avila, different meetings and workshops were held with municipal authorities and technicians of several municipalities. Proposals for renaturalisation were also drafted for two of them. In addition to these internal replicability actions, many of the aforementioned activities involved participation in diverse forums (were the project was invited to explain the interventions carried out), promoting replicability in other parts of Spain. It is worth mentioning two of these conferences that were held with associations of industrial areas in Aragon and Badajoz.
Furthermore, the knowledge gained throughout the project can be transferred and is useful since, as previously stated, there are no relevant experiences of decisive implementation of NBS in outdated industrial areas. This knowledge has been shared in different ways, both through the drafting of documents made available to the public through the download section of the project website (www.indnatur.eu), as well as through the organization of various training workshops on the use of NBS, or through the production of articles and communications to congresses.
Among the documents provided by the project, it is worth mentioning the catalogue of NBS sheets for implementation in industrial areas; the report on the implementation of NBS; the report on NBS measures to be incorporated in urban planning; the report on the application of substrates made from construction and demolition waste and compost, and the methodology for the replicability of NBS in industrial areas.
From an environmental perspective, the world is facing two major global challenges: climate change and biodiversity loss. INDNATUR is aligned with both concerns, which appeal to both local and global scales.
Regarding the first one, climate change, mitigation and adaptation measures are addressed, among them:
- Implementation of different NBS including vegetation and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS). These SUDS contribute to CO2 sequestration and improve thermal comfort in public spaces and adjacent buildings, reducing energy demand.
- SUDS contribute, as evidenced in the Argales industrial area, to prevent flooding in certain flood-prone areas. Infiltration trenches have been essential in this regard.
- Similarly, cycle lanes have been built to reduce car journeys to the industrial area.
- In addition, two circular economy pilot projects have been carried out: installation of composting machines that transform part of the organic matter generated in the businesses in the industrial areas into compost, and creation of substrates from construction and demolition waste mixed with compost, which have been used to make some plantings and test their viability in the long term.
In relation to the loss of biodiversity and the risks this entails for both human health and territorial resilience, the project also makes its own modest contribution. To this end, the blue-green corridors of Argales and Cantarias connect other urban spaces with vegetation and water already existing in the surroundings of the industrial areas, so that they serve to reinforce the green infrastructure systems of both cities. In addition, when selecting the vegetation, special care was taken to ensure the diversity of tree, shrub and herbaceous species, as well as their adaptability to the local microclimate.
