Thursday, 10 July 2025 | 14:00 – 15:30 | EN
About the Session
Urban trees, green facades, water-permeable surfaces, and other green-blue infrastructure solutions help cities stay cool, provide shade, improve quality of life, and reduce flood risks during heavy rain. But how can municipalities plan and implement such projects successfully?
This interactive workshop brought together municipal practitioners from across Europe to share hands-on lessons and inspire new approaches. Participants explored best-practice examples, gained practical guidance, and discussed opportunities and challenges tied to integrating nature-based solutions into urban planning.
The session featured a World Café format, enabling participants to exchange ideas directly with peers and dive deeper into key challenges and innovative approaches presented by three leading initiatives.
Key Takeaways
The workshop highlighted the importance of integrated, long-term planning and cross-departmental cooperation to advance green-blue infrastructure as part of climate adaptation.
City of Worms — Heat-Responsive Urban Design
Marco Elischer introduced the HEAL tool, developed under the Ready4Heat project. The tool helps identify cooler pedestrian routes and supports planning for shaded, comfortable urban walkways. A standout feature is the ability to visualize sun and shadow patterns across the day, offering practical support for climate-sensitive street and public-space design.
Cologne (StEB) — Flood-Resilient Public Spaces
Dr. Maria Ceylan showcased two initiatives addressing flood-prone areas through interdisciplinary planning and multifunctional landscape design:
A low-lying lawn retrofitted as a dual-use retention basin, providing recreation in normal conditions and water storage during heavy rain.
The redesign of Kasemattenstrasse, combining flood protection with heat-mitigation measures such as street trees.
A key insight: success requires a shared long-term vision and clear responsibilities between departments—challenges that became evident when building greening was removed due to lack of maintenance commitments.
Munich & Technical University of Munich — The Sponge City in Practice
Dr. Markus Schmid and Cristina Astudillo shared results from the MARGIN project, examining how sponge-city concepts apply in Munich. With highly variable groundwater levels across the city, integrated planning is essential for managing flood risk, supporting heat-pump deployment, and coordinating land-use decisions. Their work underscores the need for stronger communication and governance structures to advance nature-based solutions at scale.
Conclusion
Green-blue infrastructure is central to building climate-resilient cities. As demonstrated by the participating municipalities, technical innovation must go hand-in-hand with institutional collaboration and long-term maintenance strategies. The workshop provided valuable inspiration for cities at all stages of their adaptation journey—whether just beginning or already implementing large-scale solutions.