Building resilience in the face of significant sustainability challenges

50 percent of the world's population lives in cities

For the first time in history more than 50 percent of the world's population now live in urban areas. By 2050, about 70 percent of people are likely to be city dwellers, compared with less than 30 percent in 1950 (UN Population Division, 2010). Coupled with the impact of climate change, this period of unprecedented urban growth is creating enormous environmental challenges for European cities from the loss of urban biodiversity leading to increased flood risk to ever expanding urban consumption "footprints" on the rural areas surrounding cities.

Reducing urban ecological footprint

In response to these challenges, researchers, local authorities and business partners from
16 cities in 11 different European countries will work together over the next 5 years to create new transition strategies to enable European cities to build resilience and sustainability and reduce their urban ecological footprint.

TURaS in Rotterdam, Stuttgart, London. Brussels, Rome, Seville, Dublin and Nottingham

Each city will focus on a particular strand of research before coming together at the end of the 5 years with an integrated approach to urban resilience and sustainability. In Rotterdam, Stuttgart and London, for example, to mitigate against higher flood risks researchers will look at new ways of using up rain water such as green walls and roofs. In Brussels, Rome and Seville, business leaders will look at ways to support sustainable local businesses while in Dublin and Nottingham, the feasibility of using derelict sites to increase urban biodiversity and improve urban community life will be investigated.

Citizens to co-produce the city of the future

An important element of the project is engaging with local citizens to get their input on sustainability issues. Speaking at the event, Dick Gleeson from Dublin City Council said: "We are very excited about the potential of this project to enable citizens to co-produce the city of the future".

About the TURaS project

The TURaS project is coordinated by University College Dublin and is supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU. Climate Alliance as one project partner will support a training concept which allows the transfer of the results to neighbourhoods and is responsible for the dissemination of the project results.