Ready, Steady, Go: Advancing Urban Green Infrastructure in the EU

Ready, Steady, Go: Advancing Urban Green Infrastructure in the EU

In the article “Advancing Urban Green Infrastructure in the EU“, Luigi Petito, Head of Secretariat of the WGIN’s EU Chapter, explores how green infrastructure is transforming urban areas across Europe. As cities face the pressures of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, the European Union is promoting nature-based solutions such as green roofs, urban parks, and sustainable drainage systems to address these challenges. Petito highlights how these initiatives improve environmental resilience, enhance energy efficiency, and support urban competitiveness.

The article provides a short overview on the new EU institutional framework and two major policy files on the European Commission’s agenda that provide clear opportunities to promote urban green infrastructure in European cities: the European Water Resilience Strategy and the European Climate Adaptation Plan. 

Read the full article here.

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61st IFLA World Congress to be held from September 10th – 12th in Nantes, France

As part of WGIN’s ongoing collaboration with The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) we are pleased to announce the 61st IFLA World Congress, organized in partnership with the French Federation of Landscape Architects (FFP, Fédération Française du Paysage.) The event will run from September 10th – 12th 2025 at La Cité des Congrès in Nantes, France. The IFLA World Congress is the most important annual event for the landscape architecture profession and the IFLA community. In 2025, the Organising Committee has chosen the theme GUIDING LANDSCAPES: planning, designing and managing new resilient urban neighbourhoods, reorganising public space by reopening land, increasing rainwater infiltration and developing urban biodiversity to cool cities are all key issues. The congress will bring together 1,200 landscape architects, urban planners and decision-makers from over 50 countries. WGIN encourages the green infrastructure community to join IFLA2025 for inspiring lectures, discussions, study visits, networking and social events! Please share and circulate this information among your colleagues. KEY DATES Call for Abstracts starts: Submit your abstract now! Registration opens: mid February 2025 Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2025 Notification of abstract selection: 15 April 2025 Deadline for authors registration: 15 May 2025 Early bird registration deadline: 15 June 2025 Standard registration deadline: 25 July 2025.

World Congress on Green Roofs and Façades | Call for Papers

  Climate adaptation and the greening of cities is the order of the day. Which strategies and measures in roof and façade greening are proving to be effective and successful? Challenges lead to solutions and new strategies, technical innovations and developments, which will be presented and discussed at a scientific, practice-oriented congress. The congress will take place at the University of Basel, in the historic Kollegiengebäude. Contributions will be offered in the technical field of green roofs and façades, on building ecology topics, on research and on the development of new strategies and as an instrument of ecological urban planning. The World Congress on Green Roofs and Green Façades on June 5 and 6, 2025 will offer an information platform and be a driving force for establishing the promotion, research and development of green roofs and façades worldwide. Call for papers is now open until January 15 2024. Submit your paper and find more information here: Call for Papers | ZHAW Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR Visit the congress website for more information: World Green Roof and Facades Congress 2025 | Organized by ZHAW

Briefing for MEPs | Making European Cities more Resilient through Urban Green Infrastructures

The European Chapter of the WGIN is publishing a new policy briefing entitled “Making European Cities more Resilient through Urban Green Infrastructures”. The paper intends to explain the challenges cities are facing and will be increasingly confronted with as a result of extreme weather events and how to support their adaptation to climate change. In that context, this briefing demonstrates how urban green infrastructures, namely green roofs and walls, are key solutions to enable an increased resilience of urban areas while providing many accompanying benefits for their inhabitants such as stormwater management, the restoration of biodiversity in cities, reducing pollutants’ concentrations and increasing residents’ wellbeing. Concrete examples are provided to showcase these benefits. The briefing also explains why urban green infrastructures are central for several upcoming EU initiatives, in particular the European Climate Adaptation Plan and the European Water Resilience Strategy, and provides a few suggestions to boost the deployment of urban green infrastructures in the new EU political mandate. Read the full paper here.