Adapting urban greens in different climates

Over the last two weeks, Naturvation researchers Sander van der Jagt visited Madrid and Valladolid while Hade Dorst stayed in Valencia and Barcelona to interview key actors involved in designing and implementing nature-based solutions. Conversations with, amongst others, municipalities, SUDS experts, project developers and architects revealed the different conditions that these actors experience in their efforts to green their environments. For instance, in the Mediterranean climate, improving the water cycle is a valuable contribution to urban sustainability. For urban greening, this climate also means that particular vegetation types need to be used; i.e. plants that do not need a lot of water. Or, as one interviewee noted, ‘in Barcelona, for the most part of the year parks will not naturally look like those lush, neat, green ones in England; people might have to adapt their image of a nice park to one that fits our dry climate’.