Mainstream NBS in sustainable urban planning, strengthen the European Green Deal and EU recommendations

It is expected that 80% of the world population will be living in urban areas by 2050, therefore more pressure on natural resources will be exacerbated if we continue with harmful human environmental practices, since pre-industrial era, intensifying the mayor environmental, social and economic challenges in cities. Scientific evidence shows the potential of Nature Based Solution to tackle environmental, societal and economic challenge related to urbanization, climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in cities.

The research article analyses EU regulation and framework related to cities, environmental, economic, and aim to discuss the status quo of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) integration in urban planning Cities in H2020 Project, for better implementation policies on NBS at the city level, identifying gaps and potentials through a comprehensive mapping of the terrain on NBS policies in EU Cities, allowing for upscale and replication of those solutions in a form of a validated roadmap for sustainable cities across Europe and world-wide.

The main findings to shape the sustainability world of tomorrow of the research activities are as follow: to promote the inclusion of NBS in urban planning and decision making processes it was generally perceived that cities with more investment in research and innovation funding are more suitable for enabling cities to design and implement transition pathways to becoming inclusive, resilient, sustainable, low-carbon and resource efficient, to tackle most of the challenges Europe is facing today, such as climate change, health and well-being, loss of biodiversity of unsustainable urbanization.

 Therefore, cities will contribute to improve the environmental, social and economic dimension, providing the way towards a more resource efficient, competitive and green economy with the implemention of the NBS, that might be tackled in an integrated, coherent and holistic approach to enhance sustainability, resilience and quality of life for dwellers.