In March 2025, the students of the Master’s Degree in Urban Resilience for Sustainability Transitions at UIC had the opportunity to visit the city of Granollers. As part of their 1-month workshop, they developed a set of guidelines to help shape the future neighborhood of the city. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the many innovations and initiatives already being carried out in Granollers! Take a look at our summary video!
Learning the definitions and theoretical frameworks of resilience is a fundamental part of our Master in Urban Resilience for Sustainability Transitions, but do you know what’s equally important? Observing concrete actions taken by cities! Combining these two aspects is exactly what we had the opportunity to do with Dr. Ana Terra Amorim-Maia from the BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, who came to teach us from October 22nd to 25th. Together we visited some Climate Shelters in Barcelona, places – both indoor and outdoor, public and private – where people can seek thermal comfort from extreme temperatures. Dr. Ana Terra Amorim-Maia has researched these shelters using ‘intersectionality’ – i.e. the interconnection of social categories that apply to a given individual or group, creating a unique system of disadvantage and discrimination – as a lens for her analysis. Since the Climate Shelters initiative is primarily designed for vulnerable people who can’t find comfort at home, it is indeed fundamental that attention is paid to inclusivity. We also explored neighborhoods transformed by Superblocks and Green Axes. These site visits gave us the chance to compare theory with practice to assess the successes and challenges of the observed Barcelona’s climate resilience measures. Climate Shelters (refugios climáticos) in El Gòtic Our tour started from the Museu Frederic Marès, in the heart of El Gòtic neighborhood. The museum’s patio features citrus trees and other greenery that already provide some nice relief from the heat. A sign near the museum entrance indicates the presence of a climate shelter. The designated space is a room on the ground floor (if you thought you could visit the museum for free, I’m sorry, you will be disappointed!). People going to the climate shelter can use the bathroom and if they ask for some water, they will be given a reusable cup to fill. The room has informative panels about the museum’s history on the walls, a table and some chairs. However, the size of the room was one of the first limitations we noticed, as it wouldn’t suit us all. Moreover, the space is not children-friendly: since it’s inside a museum, people are required to be quiet. Thus, families with children could feel unwelcome in this space. Furthermore, one common characteristic of Barcelona’s Climate Shelters is the fact that they maintain their original uses and functions, which can lead to a lack of assistance from the staff, who may
Introduction Barcelona is often celebrated for its innovative approach to urban planning, but how does this translate into practice? As part of our exploration of nature-based solutions (NbS) and green infrastructure (GI), our master’s had the opportunity to visit several key sites and learn from Gabino Carballo, a seasoned landscape architect and NbS project coordinator at Natural Base Solutions. The visit allowed us to critically analyze the implementation of NbS at the municipal level, assessing both their successes and shortcomings. Through this, we deepened our understanding of urban resilience and the real-world challenges of maintaining sustainable landscapes in a dense metropolitan setting. Key Takeaways: Green Infrastructure and NbS in Action One of the primary insights from the visit was the evolving nature of green infrastructure in Barcelona. The city’s urban landscape is shaped by the contrast between Ildefons Cerdà’s original plan and the realities of modern urbanization. Over the years, various policies have sought to integrate green infrastructure, culminating in the Pla del Verd i de la Biodiversitat de Barcelona 2020 and the Pla Natura Barcelona 2021-2030. A major revelation was the distinction between natural and engineered NbS. While the term “Nature-Based Solutions” suggests working with nature, much of what we observed was highly engineered. Bioengineering techniques that manipulate natural processes to create sustainable outcomes. For example, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), a form of Low Impact Development (LID), mimic natural water cycles through infiltration and evapotranspiration, reducing runoff and improving water quality. Challenges and Observations While the site visits showcased impressive NbS initiatives, they also revealed key challenges in implementation and maintenance. One notable example was an unmaintained NbS implementation using horizontal tree trunks, also known as log erosion barriers, for erosion control on slopes. These barriers were designed to create various plateaus throughout the slope, allowing for better water penetration into the sediment. However, due to the lack of upkeep, some of these structures had deteriorated, reducing their effectiveness and leading to increased erosion. This highlights the need for sustained investment and adaptive management in NbS projects. We saw real-world implementations of Barcelona’s master plan and how they are or are not maintained over time. One key observation was the use of organic and synthetic nettings for slope stabilization, combining coco coir and polyester fiber with a metal top net. This design facilitated vegetation growth, which further stabilized the sediment. However, this intervention was not in its best
As part of the Master’s program in Urban Resilience for Sustainability Transitions, the class of 2025 participated in a two-day deep dive into the housing cooperative Sostre Civic. Held on February 6th and 7th, 2025, this seminar and site visit were part of the Community Resilience module, introducing strategies to address housing shortages, community displacement, and modern individualistic living standards. On February 6th, the group visited Sostre Civic’s headquarters in Eixample, Barcelona, a hub for multiple cooperatives spanning legal, construction, architecture, and sustainability fields. These organizations collaborate as a cooperative network. In the conference room, Nina Turrull from Sostre Civic’s engineering and technical team provided an in-depth overview of Barcelona’s housing crisis and the cooperative’s mission. Barcelona faces an escalating housing crisis due to complex socio-economic and political factors. Tourism and short-term rentals, fueled by platforms like Airbnb, have driven up rents, reducing housing availability for residents. Additionally, stagnant local wages, rising living costs, and policies favoring remote workers further widen the affordability gap. Investment properties and the lack of social housing also contribute to long-term residents being priced out of the city. Sostre Civic offers an alternative housing model aimed at helping residents work around current housing issues. Established in 2004, it is a cooperative focused on community needs rather than profit. The right to use model employed by Sostre Cívic is a cooperative housing approach where the cooperative owns the property, and members pay an initial contribution and monthly fees for the indefinite right to live in their homes. Unlike ownership or renting, residents don’t own the property but have secure, long-term, and affordable housing while actively participating in the cooperative’s management and decision-making.This model aligns well with public-private partnerships (PPPs) and community land trusts (CLTs) by enabling access to publicly or community-owned land for affordable housing projects. In a PPP or CLT arrangement, the land remains collectively owned while cooperatives like Sostre Cívic manage housing, ensuring long-term affordability, community control, and resilience against speculation. Currently, Sostre Civic has over 1,700 members across 27 cities in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Its portfolio includes 14 co-living projects, with 11 more in development, totaling 561 homes. By 2027, they expect to expand to 19 co-living spaces and 6 additional projects, reaching 656 homes. The price range they work with depends mostly on the location, land and project cost. It significantly varies if the housing is new construction or just
In February 2025, the students of the Master’s Degree in Urban Resilience for Sustainability Transitions (UIC), accompanied by Juan del Río, visited Cardedeu to explore two inspiring initiatives: The Phoenicurus food forest, a true biodiversity hotspot, home to more than 300 species The La Fresca food cooperative, in which participate more than 200 families. The visit allowed the students to learn about the core principles of permaculture, which respect natural rhythms and seasons while allowing the soil to regenerate. We also took the opportunity to broach the topic of the circular economy and its benefits for the city and its residents. Watch our recap video!
During the Primavera R Festival on April 11th, we had the pleasure of walking along the Sant Ildefons Climate Itinerary, guided by Virginia Vallvé Cádiz. The city of Cornellà is developing Cornellà Natura, a strategic decade-long project aimed at renaturalizing the city while enhancing its environmental, social, and landscape values to create a more human-friendly urban space. Our visit focused on the renaturalization projects developed along the Climate Itinerary – a route which winds through highly frequented zones surrounded by workplaces, schools, markets, healthcare facilities, and social services. The goal of the Climate Itinerary is to adapt public spaces by integrating shaded areas, water points, and comfortable resting spots for pedestrians and cyclists. The visit will highlight completed interventions along the route, as well as ongoing studies and future plans to enhance the area’s resilience to climate change. Take a look at our Recap Video!
This research is driven by the overarching goal of making successful green and net-zero transition focused Urban Pilots sustainable. Cities are rapidly growing in population, size and energy consumption, which addresses the need for more efficient and effective but also sustainable governance. Climate change actions across the European Union (EU) in general are aiming for carbon neutrality and cities have a pivotal role in achieving these goals. From the bottom-up approach, the local governance level is essential for at least two reasons. First, in a general mindset of ‘local elaboration’ of sustainable development, cities are the logical loci for action because they do not only concentrate (future) consumption and production and are hence at the origin of unsustainability ‘symptoms’, they are simultaneously the operational units in which concrete actions can be envisaged, designed, (politically) facilitated and effectively rolled out. Second, local level governance is closest to the citizens and residents – seen as enablers of innovation, users of products and services who in the end are the key actors to implement the transition to net-zero. Most ambitious are the cities that have joined the EU Cities Mission aiming to become climate neutral by 2030, but also the regions and cities that have joined the EU Mission on Adaption to Climate Change to become climate resilient by 2030. Regardless of the high ambition, too often, we see great examples of small- and large-scale city experimentations “dying” when the project ends. How to overcome these challenges and make exceptional transition focused Urban Pilots sustainable? For solving a part of this research gap, this work in progress is focused on two main areas. We are interested in how to upscale university-born and transition focused Urban Pilots to new contexts and how Transition Teams in municipalities, their roles and capacities could benefit this process. For the first, we will utilize the experience gathered from the Smart City Challenge Innovation Program managed by the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, an international research and development centre under Tallinn University of Technology driven by the passion to enhance the quality of life in urban areas. For the second, we will use the experience and knowledge collected from the NetZeroCities project where the FinEst Centre is a partner. The aim of the first research area is to identify the main challenges of transferring and adapting university-born Urban Digital Technologies (UDTs) to new contexts (cities in the same country
Cities are home to 57% of the world’s population, whilst being responsible for the production of 70% of the world’s carbon emissions. This outsized influence places cities as being crucial to the fight against climate change, with UN General Secretary António Guterres stating in 2019 that “cities are where the climate battle will largely be won or lost”. To this end, cities across the globe are initiating a range of actions and projects to reduce their carbon emission impacts. One such approach is to conduct urban regeneration, described by UN Habitat as the ‘bringing back of underutilized assets and the redistribution of opportunities, increasing urban prosperity and quality of life’. The prevalence of this approach is well illustrated within the EU’s UP2030 project, where 10 of the 11 partner cities are conducting some form of regeneration which expands beyond single building renovations. Whilst the premise of urban regeneration represents it as an inherently positive action, there are significant issues which blight it, particularly the significant likelihood of resident displacement and gentrification. Therefore, if a city authority is to pursue the path of urban regeneration, it is essential that it is effective; not only in terms of delivering the aesthetic and communal elements which underpin it, but also in terms of carbon emission reduction. For this to be the case, the use of emission data is an essential prerequisite. Before and after images of London’s Olympic park, a famous example of urban regeneration Urban Carbon Emission Data Whilst the majority of the worlds cities have some form of emission data, the scope, quality and applicability of this varies significantly from city to city. Within urban carbon accounting there are two key elements which influence the data available to the city – which calculation method is utilised and which ‘scope’ to account for. The former relates to whether the city follows a ‘bottom-up’ or ‘top-down’ approach. A bottom-up approach is to calculate carbon emissions through adding an emission factor to activity data, for instance the calculation of a car’s carbon emissions can be calculated by adding an emission factor to the amount of petrol used to power it. On the other hand, a top-down approach takes national level emission data and ‘downscales’ it to the city level. The bottom-up approach, whilst more accurate and granular than the top-down approach, is more difficult and time consuming to conduct. The other consideration for a
Commonly defined as the potential for implementing a mitigation or adaptation option, climate actions’ feasibility encompasses much more than a simple “can-do” attitude. The implementation of climate action has been particularly studied after the Paris Agreement and has sky-rocketed since its inclusion in the latest IPCC Reports. The feasibility of adaptation options in Africa, the water sector in urban and rural landscapes, or mitigation actions in developing countries are just a few examples of a term whose definition is still ongoing. However, a huge gap exists between what is planned and what is currently being implemented to make sure we reach climate goals effectively.. The evaluation of feasibility is complex, and based on the evaluation of barriers (those that constrain climate action) and enablers (those that enhance climate action). Thus, analysing case studies provides empirical evidence on an action’s planning, implementation, and monitoring processes. While recent comprehensive conceptual frameworks offer a more holistic, strong and structured visual approach, iterations between testing theoretical frameworks with empirical data might lead to adequate solutions. Some international repositories work on compiling empirical data on climate action. For example, the Global Covenant of Mayors – A complete collection of action plans and monitoring reports from the MyCovenant reporting platform, 4th Release is a comprehensive database where signatories worldwide report on their sustainable energy climate action plans (SECAPs). Analysing such data has proved to serve the purpose, as recent studies are already using it to delve into feasibility extensively and even identify key predictors of greenhouse gas emissions for cities committing to mitigate. The following sections will delve into such data and provide an overview of some observations that can be useful in identifying barriers and enablers for empirical implementation. What can be feasible? The features of climate actions can define their feasibility. For instance, the lack of detailed information in climate action planning is an acknowledged barrier to action implementation. Different types of actions might also have different constraints. While developing synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels, such as hydrogen or others, might face technological maturity constraints, other mitigation strategies like solar fields or wind farms require huge land extensions. Understanding the type of climate action and its requirements facilitates identifying barriers. Figure 1 depicts the number of mitigation actions per sector compiled in the GCoM Database and their implementation status. Local heat and cold production seems to be the most successful sector, with a percentage
The move towards carbon neutrality is vital for tackling anthropogenic climate change and limiting temperature rise, protecting our ecosystems, fostering sustainable economic and social development, enhancing public health outcomes, and moreover, creating a more equitable society for everyone. In the UK, there is, on the face of it, a robust legal framework for achieving carbon neutrality. For example, the Climate Change Act (2008) initially set a target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels and an amendment to the Act in 2019 set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, making the UK the first major economy to enshrine such a target into law. Notwithstanding other related UK legislation that feeds into the carbon neutrality agenda, local or urban scale action – which can also be described as ‘place-based’ action – will play a significant role in the UK’s drive for carbon neutrality. An important area of research interest for social science climate scholars is the need to examine how new forms of local and/or urban climate governance experimentation act as an ‘enabler’ or ‘barrier’ to place-based climate action. For this blog, I am just exploring the role of climate commissions as a barrier to urban carbon neutrality, by reflecting upon the findings of a recent British Academy funded ‘policy insights’ project. This project, supported by the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN), gathered evidence on the governance, policy, networked and scalar relationships between climate commissions and local, national, and international climate agendas and focused on three research questions: What are UK climate commissions doing to address local climate mitigation and/or adaptation through the lens of ‘place-shaping’? How are commissions adopting an inclusive and/or pluralistic approach when engaging different sectors through place-based governance innovations? How are these innovations shaping (or being shaped by) local, national, and international climate policy agendas? Through answering these research questions, the respondents revealed some interesting insights into the role played by climate commissions as a governance barrier to urban carbon neutrality or net zero (although there are some differences between the two terms, see here). The methods used in this project consisted of a survey, in-depth interviews, and a ‘policy insight’ networking workshop. The survey was co-designed by the project team of Candice Howarth (LSE, UK), Andrea Armstrong (Silent Spring Consultants) and me, and it comprised of 25 open and closed questions. The questionnaire was circulated during May to July 2023 via
