BEGIN - Blue Green Infrastructures through Social Innovation
*REGIOSTARS Public Choice Award winner 2021*
*REGIOSTARS Award nominee 2020*
Background
Cities are particularly susceptible to the negative impacts of flooding, urban heat islands, poor air quality, and other risks associated with more extreme weather conditions. In addition to conventional grey infrastructure, we need blue-green infrastructure (BGI), e.g.: green corridors, permeable paving, bio-swales, rainwater harvesting. BGI can better deal with extreme weather events, foster ecosystem services and increase the liveability of cities in the North Sea Region. BGI’s holistic approach has viable environmental, social and economic benefits for city residents.
Objective
The overall objective of BEGIN is to demonstrate at target sites how cities can improve climate resilience with Blue Green Infrastructure involving stakeholders in a value-based decision- making process to overcome its current implementation barriers.
Partnership of 6 NSR countries
The Netherlands: City of Dordrecht; IHE Delft; Erasmus University of Rotterdam
Belgium: City of Antwerp; City of Ghent
Germany: Agency for Roads Bridges and Waters, Hamburg; Hamburg University of Technology
United Kingdom: Construction Industry Research Information Association (CIRIA), City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Kent County Council, Aberdeen City Council, Enfield, Royal College of Arts, University of Sheffield
Sweden: City of Gothenburg
Norway: City of Bergen
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Latest Project News
Review of BEGIN Business Cases for Blue and Green Infrastructure projects
07 February 2022The CIRIA team has published a review that considers how the BEGIN partners have developed appropriate and tailored business cases for using Blue a…
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BEGIN wins the REGIOSTARS Public Choice Award!
03 December 2021Last night, the BEGIN project won the Public Choice award at the
The REGIOSTARS Awards have become Europe’s label of ex…
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BEGIN Green Infrastructure project featured in Kent's 2021 Property Report
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NEXT LEVEL 2021: a 1-day celebration of nature-based solutions
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As seen on TV – Bradford’s now famous tree projects
27 January 2021Bradford's tree project was featured on primetime UK television last month! The project featured on BBC's Countryfile as part of a much bigger plan by…
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