Transforming NBS research with citizens: do-it-yourself interventions?

Given the ongoing climate crisis and accelerating biodiversity loss, harnessing the support of local communities for environmental action has become more critical than ever (Pörtner et al., 2023). Urban streets, in particular, represent an underutilised yet significant opportunity for enhancing biodiversity through a range of greening initiatives (Atkins, 2018). Despite being central to neighbourhood life, streets are frequently among the most deprived urban spaces in terms of green–blue–grey infrastructure (GBGI), leaving considerable potential for ecological and social improvement untapped.

The GP4Streets project is developing Do it Yourself (DIY) interventions across several locations in the South East and South West of England, supporting citizens in their actions and understandings of nature-based solutions. We report the results of a scoping review of literature on perceptions and acceptability of such GBGI interventions. Our vision is to help transform streets into more resilient, sustainable environments which benefit both people and the planet.

To achieve this, we are adopting a participatory action research approach (De Oliveira, 2023), to involve community members in the data collection methods and gain their insights. Our interdisciplinary team comprises environmental scientists, public health experts, ecologists and landscape architects. Together, we are inviting people to take part in the study through a wide range of opportunities. These include walking interviews in their local area, with questions focusing on GBGI at the street and household level, and residents’ perceptions in relation to climate change adaptation, and biodiversity. We also invite them to record plants and wildlife in their garden through an ecological survey and host sensors to record water, air quality and noise.

We will then translate this data into a ‘greening prescription for streets’, i.e. accessible, cost-effective, and easy-to-implement climate adaptation solutions that empower both the public and policymakers to tackle biodiversity loss and other critical environmental and societal challenges posed by climate change in confined urban spaces.

References:

Atkins (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812150-4.00023-9 

De Oliveira (2023). https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-08-2022-0101

Pörtner, et al. (2023) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4881