“La naturaleza es sabia”, goes a familiar Spanish saying, reminding us that ‘nature knows best’—though, truth be told, we humans tend to be slow learners (how else do you explain our tendency to pave over every inch of land, only to then miss the shade of a tree?).  Yet, a promising avenue appears with the rising interest since the late 2000s in what has been named nature-based solutions (NbS) by scientific literature and practitioners. NbS was initially put forward to address climate change effects by working with natural ecosystems rather than relying purely on engineering interventions. As epicenters of human activity, cities are increasingly turning to these solutions to also improve urban resilience and create healthier environments.

Reimagining urban regeneration

GreenInCities, an EU-funded initiative launched in June 2024, explores NbS for urban regeneration through the lens of sustainability and co-creation. It reunites a mixed consortium of around thirty partners including diverse municipalities – Cork, Prato, Helsinki, Nova Gorica, and Athens, among others – and actors from the global Fab Lab ecosystem such as the Fab City Foundation, Fab Lab Reykjavik, and Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. They’re blending data-driven NbS with innovative technologies for participatory planning and co-creation, guided by principles of the New European Bauhaus—a policy and funding initiative for the green transition in built environments blending sustainability with design and aesthetics (‘beautiful, sustainable, together’ says its motto). The goal? Design, test, and monitor methodologies resulting in tools and solutions to bring into deprived areas holistic urban regeneration – i.e. beyond traditional greening by addressing both human and non-human well-being.

Tools and solutions for transformation

The project has developed a Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox, covering everything from heatwave risk assessments to enabling citizen science initiatives. Examples include habitat mapping to help classify urban biodiversity, or experiential walks to assess people’s perceptions of their environment. GreenInCities also features a catalog of implemented NbS for public spaces and buildings. Among them, we can find so far small greenhouses for education, eco-friendly playgrounds made of recycled materials, or vertical food gardens using digital fabrication. Other initiatives, like forest bathing sessions and community kitchens, aim to reconnect people with nature while fostering social ties.

This isn’t of course the first project on NbS in cities, but it has a couple of distinct elements worth looking at. One is its approach close to the “One Health” or “Planetary Health” frameworks, which emphasize the interconnectedness of environmental and human well-being, recognizing that what benefits the planet also benefits its inhabitants, and vice-versa. This core value of the project can be found in the inclusion of tools like the Animal-Oriented Design workshop, which helps consider non-human needs in urban planning. Another important point is how purposeful social considerations balance the initiative’s heavy focus on technology. So, NbS driven by data and digital methods? Absolutely—but equally by governance and inclusion. For example, the “Horizontal Support Systems” category includes solutions like social currencies or notions of prioritizing public over private interest.

For more on the project, explore its open resources, such as the GreenInCities Values and Ethics Handbook. And remember, “la naturaleza es sabia”— but… (read in my ‘annoyed mum voice’) if we’d just actually listen!