Start Park Project: Co-designing Green-Blue Infrastructures to Build Resilient Communities to Climate Change

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are becoming a relevant approach to design urban green areas as green-blue infrastructures (GBIs) capable of delivering multiple ecosystem services. Thanks to the key aspect of providing multiple benefits, GBIs are one of the main solutions proposed for Climate Change (CC) adaptation and mitigation. At the same time, collaborative and design-based methodologies are raising attention on the design of GBI, allowing to design public spaces with a bottom-up approach. Indeed, the traditional top-down approach often adopted by municipalities in designing green parks and areas has proven to be insufficient for the design of public spaces. Moreover, co-design of GBI can also be an opportunity to raise sustainable development awareness in the population. This chapter wants to share the experience of the Start Park project, a methodology developed for the co-design of GBI for CC adaptation with citizens. Specifically, the chapter highlights the educational value of a Start Park process, with particular attention on the social impact obtained in the two experiences in the municipalities of Prato and Lucca.