After over two years of the work on pilot green roof strategies, which foresee innovative approaches towards the achievement of local sustainable development and climate adaptation targets, the results were presented at the final conference of the GRAD project. The conference, held under the name „Green roofs as a tool for climate adaptation in urban areas”, took place on the 11th of December 2020 and gathered a significant pool of participants interested in comprehensive approaches towards green roof development in cities.
The conference was opened by Anna Jaskuła, Executive Director of the Association of Municipalities Polish Network „Energie Cités”, which is the coordinator of the GRAD project. She welcomed the participants present in the virtual room (due to the pandemics the conference was held on-line, using Zoom Webinar), who then could listen to the presentation of Matthias Daun, Advisor for Energy and Climate Policy of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). He presented the initiative, explained how to apply for funding for climate-related projects under it and what are the benefits of joining EUKI community. Next presentation was given by Wojciech Augustowski from the Polish Ministry for Climate and Environment, who talked about the cities in climate adaptation process and instruments supporting local action in this area. He also presented the results of the first national research conducted by the Ministry and concerning urban greenery. Then Patrycja Płonka, project manager in the Association, presented the catalogue of tools that the cities have to facilitate and promote green roof construction on their territories, as well as the key results and products of the GRAD project.
The very awaited presentation was the one of the representative of the city of Hamburg, whose experiences with the development and implementation of green roof strategy were an inspiration for taking similar action in 8 Polish pilot cities. The results of the Hamburg’s model initiative were presented by Hanna Bornholdt, landscape architect responsible for strategy implementation. She highlighted that one of the keys to success are political declarations of the representatives of local self-government, cooperation with other organisations and experts, educational actions and city model projects. Then, Izabela Małachowska-Coqui from the COQUI MAŁACHOWSKA COQUI Landscape Architecture Office, expert in the project, discussed the process and stages of the development of 8 Polish pilot strategies, as well as they key challenges that the cities have faced at this time. She also presented the most important provisions elaborated by the teams working on the documents last months.
After the first presentation session there was time for the discussion panel, during which representatives of 8 pilot cities - Bielsko-Biała, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia, Kalisz, Kraków, Lublin, Wrocław and Warszawa – debated on how green roofs influence the quality of life within a city and how to encourage both the developer companies and the citizens to build them. Leszek Drogosz, Deputy Director of the Warsaw’s Infrastructure Office highlighted the important role of green infrastructure in the Warsaw’s overall climate adaptation strategy, while Adam Ruśniak, Deputy Mayor of Bielsko-Biała, and Mirosław Hagemajer, Director of the Planning Department of the city of Lublin, talked how – being inspired by the study visit in Hamburg and its model green roof strategy – they decided to transfer German experiences to the local ground. In Gdynia, Hamburg’s example and case studies seen during the study visit, led not only to the development of the Operational Programme „Green roofs in Gdynia”, but also to planning concrete investment: green roofs on the buildings of the city library, primary school or the city theatre. These were presented by Bartosz Frankowski, the Head of the City’s Environmental Department. Bydgoszcz’s input focused on sustainable rainwater management, which is one of the city’s priorities. The city is already modernising its rainwater drainage system and implements a programme called „Rain is a gain”. Beata Kempa, Head of the Department for Environmental Policy, presented these activities and elaborated on how the green roof strategy may further support rainwater management within the city territory.
Green roofs’ retention potential was also mentioned by Jacek Grzelczyk from the City of Kalisz, who stressed the need to improve rainwater and meltwater retention in urban areas, as well as presented city’s activities aiming to keep the rainwater at the place of the fall. Łukasz Pawlik from the Kraków Municipal Greenspace Authority presented the participants promotional and financial instruments supporting green roof development foreseen in their policy „Green roofs for Cracow”, which was developed within the GRAD project, and Grzegorz Synowiec from the Wrocław City Hall familiarised them with the support schemes foreseen in their strategy, as well as the benefits that its implementation should bring to this capital of the Lower Silesia region.
After the inspiring debate among the representatives of all Polish pilot cities, the participants of the conference could learn more about the role of green roofs as a tool for climate adaptation of urban areas, their retention potential, as well as on the other nature-based solutions (NBS) that can be implemented in a city. The closing presentation was given by Mieczysław Wołosz, Director of the Katowice Municipal Greenspace Authority, who talked about Katowice’s first edition of green participatory budget, its main assumptions and results.
GRAD’s final conference was an excellent opportunity to summarise all activities undertaken within the project, as well as encourage discussion and exchange of experiences among city representatives interested in comprehensive approaches towards the development of green roofs and possible local instruments supporting this development. We would like to thank all the experts, speakers, city representatives, other participants and all the people, who engaged in GRAD project implementation last years. We hope that the documents developed within its framework will contribute to the popularisation of green roofs among the municipalities, as well as developer companies, entrepreneurs and citizens. We also hope that proposed strategies and guidelines will help Polish cities in implementing concrete support schemes for green roofs.
More information on the GRAD project and its products may be found on its official website: http://www.strategiezielonychdachow.eu/en/
