MedCities celebrated a capitalisation event of the HERA and previously, NATURMED, projects to explain the objectives achieved during the last two years.

In this project, MedCities has supported the cities of Bethlehem, Jerash and Saida in the development of a green infrastructure strategy, with funding and technical collaboration from Barcelona City Council.

The three-member cities have explained their experiences in increasing green infrastructures by defining the potential sites for the installation of different types of #natural elements in those cities. This was done through a thorough analysis of the current and potential green infrastructure in each one of the cities.

In addition, the project contributed to increasing the awareness of the citizens about the benefits of naturalising the cities and increased the capacities of the staff of the three local authorities concerning different topics related to green infrastructure: geographical information Systems (GIS), or water-efficient and low-maintenance management of the city trees and shrubs, or biodiversity and social and gender inclusiveness promotion through green infrastructure and Nature-based solutions.

Each of the three cities intervened to explain the implementation of demonstrative pilots and Barcelona City Council also participated to talk about what has been done to #greener the city now that the situation is more than complicated with the severe drought.

The exchange of knowledge is the key!

During the whole project implementation, knowledge exchange between municipalities and the municipality of Barcelona contributed to enhancing the plans and pilots developed and implemented so as to increase the expertise of all parts in the topic of green infrastructure.

Finally, the session served to assess the challenges and needs of MedCities members in making greener and climate-resilient cities, to shape MedCities working group on greener and climate-resilient cities.