Lessons Learned

Defining social and well-being indicators at early stages of the project design (e.g., through surveys) enables an assessment of the potential impact of NbS for urban regeneneration.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid

Linking NbS to wider spatial, social and economic needs during the different stages of the implementation process (not considering it a stand-alone action), increases the cobenefits.

 

4 M

  • Management

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Tailoring your communications to your audience and using the appropriate terminology enhances engagement with, and support for NbS acceptance.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Malmö

Understanding Power vs. Interest of the involved stakeholders (scope, frame, responsibilities, engagement points and decisions) before planning the NbS, and identifying their roles in citywide development plans, help inform ways of working and potential areas for collaboration.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Considering budgetary conditions prior to the co-design and the implementation, to decide who would be involved and how much efforts are foreseen.

 

4 M

  • Management

 

City

  • Milan
  • Quito

Consider post-implementation commitments (maintenance and associated costs) prior to the NbS co-design and implementation, aiming to ensure the longevity of the solution.

 

4 M

  • Management
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Knowing the regulatory framework (when proposing some innovative solutions) to avoid unexpected costs, and planning proper modifications, if possible (change of regulation, exceptions, alternatives).

 

4 M

  • Management

 

City

  • Milan
  • Quito

Considering collaborative decision-making at the initial stage of challenge/problem identification (pre NbS ideation phase). Matching capacities, ambitions and knowledge of the local actors (especially champions) is essential in the process.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Madrid
  • Malmö

Employing creative ways to engage vulnerable groups and keeping regular contact with them, in case of the impossibility of organising in-person meetings.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade

Conducting a slowly and continuous engagement of the stakeholders (mainly in long-term implementation projects), contributes to the production of better process outcomes.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan

Empowering residents with project and budgetary control, providing opportunity for capacity and confidence building, potentially transforming residents in active community members/ambassadors.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • London

Offering a high level of transparency by selecting the most appropriate and effective available channels to share information with the involved team and external stakeholders.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Malmö

Fostering a deeper engagement of the community by setting up wide-reaching communications, and raising awareness actions.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid

Promoting co-ownership by creating and maintaining a core group of stakeholders (e.g. Urban Innovation Partnership-UIP) and proposing participative activities (neighbourhood events), to pursue the success of the implementation process. Making it flexible (involvement of right members at a given time) contributes to its proper functionning.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Larissa
  • Madrid
  • Malmö
  • Quito
  • Sfântu Gheorghe

Establishing a framework cooperation contract, setting timelines, inputs needed, and roles regarding the co-creation processes supports continuity of the engagement also on the co-monitoring and co-management phases.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan

Involving key community-stakeholders at early stages in the all phases of the co-creation process (NbS planning, co-design, co-monitoring, co-implementation, co-maintenance...), so that they are aware of the benefits and assume responsibility.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Using diverse engagement techniques, considering both online and face-to-face possibilities, may ensures the right level of engagement.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade

Including social and well-being indicators in the monitoring process (e.g., surveys with questionnaires), which are crucial to assess the impact of the NBS for an urban regeneration.

 

4 M

  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Creating and maintaining a shared vision among stakeholders with a Theory of Change, periodically updating it to track progress towards intended outcomes.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Planning an interim report of the monitoring evaluation process, providing different mechanisms for conducting an assessment based on indicators of change.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Enabling a continuous evaluation system throughout the project lifecycle, improving the assessment and shaping the ongoing process, where stakeholders feedback on data collection methods and provide data, thus supporting an effective evidence gathering.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London

Building flexibility in the monitoring and evaluation processes, since some metrics may be hard to capture in a pre/post assessment, and alternatives must be given.

 

4 M

  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid

Involving scientific/technical experts during the entire process of monitoring (establishing the vision, defining KPIs, measuring the pregreening, designing the questionnaire, guiding the post-greening methods, support the analysis of results, and reporting).

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Understanding how different types of intervention are related and contribute to the same outcomes, aiming to promote more significant changes in social dynamics.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Madrid

Creating a procurement process to find partners and stakeholders that can build and add synergies to the NbS implementation process.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Quito

Involving different departments of the municipality at the early-stages of the process, so that they are aware of the activities, objectives, needed contributions, fostering an active collaboration.

 

4 M

  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Larissa
  • Madrid
  • Malmö
  • Quito
  • Sfântu Gheorghe

Proposing a cyclical planning management process including a proper replication roadmap, aiming to ensure that the NbS planning fill the expectations with appropriate co-creation mechanism.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Larissa
  • Madrid
  • Malmö
  • Quito

Involving a professional expert experienced in co-design to jointly work with the city, proposing training sessions in terms of method and tools.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Creating a policy framework for co-creation practices addressed to administration and businesses (considering it is not a common practice at district level or private businesses).

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • Hamburg

Considering micro-funding as a means of changing social power structures, acting as a catalyst of change and overcoming apathy through immediate and visual impacts.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • London

Producing statistics and stories that recognize the need for different kinds of evidence for decision-making, considering different types of data and its requested precision at the different stages of the planned development.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Quito

Integrating capacity-building actions to enable the effective involvement of the community in the co-design process, helping to bring together valuable local knowledge and putting local needs and priorities at the core of the design.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Upskilling and building knowledge on co-creation processes within the cities administration team, aiming to embed these processes in future projects and programmes.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Management

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Quito

Considering the requirement and development of different types of data and methods in each development phase, ensuring effective evidence gathering.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Regularly assessing the relevance and applicability of the training modules, co-design activities and outreach, making the results more effective.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Developing comprehensive products that support replication, such as physical manuals and guidelines to support the community, specific platforms with easily accessible information, etc.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Madrid
  • Quito

Using digital tools and scenario-creation at early stages of the project conception to support the co-ideation and co-design processes.

 

4 M

  • Methods
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • Madrid

Being precise about the definition of co-design and being clear about the specific requirements (to the project/institution) in a procurement to find a multi-disciplinary team.

 

4 M

  • Methods

 

City

  • London
  • Milan
  • Quito

Prototyping sessions and testing the activities with residents/stakeholders, for guiding them to better envision design solutions and engage with replication initiatives.

 

4 M

  • Material
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • London
  • Milan

Identifying the innovation pathways for NbS during a project and understanding how innovative solutions could be replicated. Conducting a regular self-assessment can help to determine if improvements can be made on materials, methods, management and monitoring.

 

4 M

  • Management
  • Monitoring

 

City

  • Hamburg
  • London
  • Milan
  • Belgrade
  • Larissa
  • Madrid
  • Malmö
  • Quito
  • Sfântu Gheorghe