During the last decades new planning paradigms have been shaping our cities: urban areas started the so called “Urban Regeneration” process that led to the renovation of public space, redevelopment of city centerscentres and new innovation districts. Cities started the implementation of new technological systems, such as transport management systems, water and contamination monitoring systems, smart energy grids and energy efficient buildings, leading to the implementation of the “Smart City”. The demand for new environmental sensitivity in urban planning has led to a new sustainable approach: the words “Recycling”, “Re-Naturalization” and “Recovery” tend to identify the new-urban territorial agendas.

These strategies have mainly been applied to the most wealthy parts of our urban areas, in order to attract tourism and companies, repositioning cities in the global economic framework. In order to apply regeneration strategies, smart systems and renaturalization processes also to deprived area, we need to keep in consideration the following aspects:
– Deprived areas are the ones where the most urban problems come together: they tend to be affected by pollution issues, due to the current or previous presence of industries and infrastructures, by social issues, due to the deprivation condition of their inhabitants in terms of economy and education, by social tensions, due to different cultural backgrounds being the areas where most of immigrants are located, by lack of services and low quality built environment and public space. This leads to issues related to liveabilityliveability, functionality, quality of life and social cohesiveness, lack of awareness and environmental education and in the most severe conditions to physical and mental health issues.
– There is a growing awareness about climate change’s effects on our planet and the need for adaptation strategies. During the last decade the implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NbS) has started to be tested in order to enhance urban areas’ resilience. The solutions have been selected and evaluated based on their efficiency in providing ecosystem services. However today a new pattern is emerging, tending to consider the nature beyond the ecosystems service that provides, as a stakeholder by itself, considering nature needs, health status and stresses and compatibility with the human environment
– Innovative systems for assessment, simulation and monitoring are emerging, they are based on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, immersive realities, gaming methodologies. These innovations open the possibility to reach a higher accuracy in information delivered and an engagement sophistication that wasn’t dealt with before, thus helping overcome lack of interest in participation and lack of education for knowledge transfer through practices.

Taking into account these aspects GreenIn Cities aims to develop, test and validate methodologies and tools aimed to operationalize collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation urban planning approaches and to co-create innovative “greening” and renaturing solutions for regeneration, repurposing, rehabilitation and pollution abatement in deprived areas, addressing the following challenges:
Challenge 1 – Improve Societal readiness Level and awareness of vulnerable groups living in deprived areas > find new strategies and methods for engaging vulnerable groups of people living in deprived areas and for empowering them in co-creation, decision-making, monitoring, and maintenance activities, thereby ensuring equitable and effective greening and renaturing interventions as well as people’s ownership of regeneration projects, leading to long-lasting positive impacts on the community.
Challenge 2 – Go beyond the greening and renaturing classical understanding, including non-human health dimension and addressing concepts included in relevant EU policies and initiatives> investigate the needs of non-human species and their compatibility with human needs to find mutually beneficial holistic solutions that can improve health and well-being for both humans and non-human species, while also aligning with and addressing important EU initiatives and policies such as the New European Bauhaus, European Green Deal, and Sustainable Development Goals as well as climate change, resilience and adaptation challenges.
Challenge 3 – Leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance co-creation process and maximise urban regeneration impacts > Experiment with new applications of advanced technologies to harmonize inputs from multiple and differentiated stakeholders in local analysis, to develop new tools and methodologies that make co-creation more appealing, effective, and inclusive, and to find new meanings across vast amounts of data available in cities and through citizen science sensing kits for accurate prediction and monitoring of urban regeneration process performance.
Overall, addressing these challenges will require a multidisciplinary approach that combines social and environmental sciences, design, and technology. It will also require close collaboration with stakeholders, including vulnerable groups, policymakers, and non-human species, to ensure that the project addresses their needs and is relevant to their interests.