After signing the Pact of Amsterdam in June 2016, which instituted the Urban Agenda for the European Union and fixed the areas and timelines, 12 partnerships began for collaboration to address as many priorities.
The City of Bologna, together with the Polish Ministry for Economic Development, were chosen to coordinate the working group on sustainable land use and nature-based solutions.
One of the objectives of the partnership is to clarify and simplify the language with which the importance of nature-based solutions (NBS) is communicated. In fact, the use of a simple, correct language is fundamental since the concept of NBS is still not universally clear or applied uniformly in all countries, including the relationship with concepts such as ‘green infrastructure’, ‘ecosystem services’, and ‘green corridors’. This leads to the existence of a civil society that is little informed and has limited access and involvement in initiatives to apply NBS and the positive effects that may be obtained.
In addition, citizens might show a low level of appreciation and acceptance for measures that promote sustainable urban development (e.g. green spaces converted into wells to collect rainwater rather than car parks) since the benefits are not always explained or communicated properly.
This is why the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana, the University of Bologna, and the City of Bologna have come together to draft a glossary, a tool regarding NBS and their application in urban centres that is easy to use and understand.
The glossary is therefore aimed at:
- simplifying the language and providing recommendations to different stakeholders through the creation of a standardized vocabulary conforming to the one used in European projects focused on NBS, thereby providing institutions and citizens with a complete set of clear terms that are simple to use.
- facilitating joint work to create and standardize a vocabulary regarding NBS for use by the scientific and institutional communities, experts in communication, and experts in the sector.
The NBS glossary was created by the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana, the City of Bologna, and the University of Bologna with the support of the European Commission.
