Report on the exploratory analysis of the CLEARING HOUSE case studies (D2.1)

This report is the main outcome of Task 2.1 of work package 2 (WP2). Overall, this WP aims to analyze and compare the implementation of UF-NBS in selected cities and city regions in view of their impacts on urban ecosystems and societies, their cost effectiveness, and their replicability in distinct contents. In this context, Task 2.1 consisted of an exploratory analysis of all selected case studies, useful to provide the context for a comparative, in-depth analysis of ongoing cooperative efforts toward the enhancement of UF-NBS (T2.2) in the second phase of CLEARING HOUSE.

The report includes a wide Europe-wide perspective to UF-NBS potential in urban areas via a spatial quantitative analysis (Chapter 2), and five in depth case study analyses on the governance arrangements, planning approaches and socio-ecological situation of the CLEARING HOUSE urban areas (Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7).

The initial proposal for D2.1 was to conduct an exploratory analysis of not only the five case studies in Europe included in this report but also of five case studies in China; Beijing, the Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen metropolis, Hangzhou, Huaibei and Xiamen. It became clear that a combination of data availability and obstacles presented by COVID-19 which prevented international travel and field work would make achieving this with the original timeframe impossible. Since D2.1 is an input to task 2.2 it was concluded that to avoid delay the exploratory analysis of the Chinese cities would be moved into task 2.2 (the in-depth analysis of the case study cities and city regions). A further advantage being to allow the case histories from D1.4 to be inputted directly into task 2.2 as well as the results from local co-design workshops.

Using the most recent available and comparable data provided by the Copernicus programme, a first assessment of mapping the UF-NBS potential in European urban areas is provided based on a selected set of indicators. The use of indicators which display respectively the availability of forest areas (forest share); the potential per-capita supply with forest areas and trees (forest area per resident); and the biophysical benchmark of canopy cover (tree cover density) was instrumental in showing the broad variety characterising European urban areas and in positioning the five case study localities. Analysing the relation between certain indicators allows a first but descriptive conclusion on influencing factors such as built-up structure or city size.

On the basis of the screening tool developed as part of Work Package 1, five case study analyses of five European localities were performed. These took the form of "locality profiles", each including elements of general context, information on the current state of UF-NBS in the locality, analysis of UF-NBS governance and finally an outlook on the strategic objectives for the locality, and on the existing challenges and barriers. The case studies were based on data collected through desk research, review of scientific and policy literature, and key informant interviews, and have also benefited from the discussion and exchange that took place during the project workshops (WP3). 

The information presented in this report will populate the repository developed in WP1 with spatial and other information from the case study cities. It will feed into the development of the analytical framework to be used as a basis for the in-depth analysis of the case study cities and city regions. The findings from the exploratory analysis will be discussed in a workshop.