HealthyNature – CCMESI

Project title: Evaluating the role of nature-based innovations for healthy cities

Project number: PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0316

Contract no.: TE 29/2020

Funding body: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)

Budget: 431.860 RON

Period: 2020-2022

Research team:

Mihai Răzvan Niță – Project Coordinator

Diana Andreea Onose – Post-doctoral researcher

Athanasios Alexandru Gavrilidis – Post-doctoral researcher

Ana Maria Popa – PhD student

Vacant – PhD student

Aim

The main aim of the project is to evaluate nature-based innovations (NBI) and their health effects, integrating them in a framework for urban planning which will lead to the creation of healthy cities.

Objectives

O1. Assessing the Challenges of urban environments in Romania, by evaluating specific targets and goals of sustainability and resilience, the transformation of land use and urban functions, the search for green cities and identifying key actors in the urban planning process.

O2. The evaluation of nature-based innovations will require identifying typologies and connecting a range of nature concepts, evaluating their effects in cities, determining the services and disservices to urban health and developing a model for integrating NBI in urban planning.

O3. We will explore ways of moving forward towards healthy cities in Romania by assessing the determinants of urban health, identifying the drivers and barriers of health, demonstrating the role of NBI in health and developing a framework for using NBI for healthy cities.

The project will use selected scientific methods on three levels for each WP: (i) establishing the theoretical framework of analysis, (ii) evaluating the existing situation and (iii) developing toolboxes of indicators and models for going forward to the development of an integrative framework for nature-based innovations in healthy cities. Project will use state-of-the-art methods: network analysis, grounded theory, multicriteria analysis, spatial analysis and modelling, PPGIS, sociological surveys.

Main results

Articles

Iojă I.C., Badiu D.L., Haase D., Hossu C.A., Niță M.R. (2020) How about water? Urban blue infrastructure in Romania, Submitted to Cities (IF 4,802), Under review Manuscript Number: JCIT_2019_400R3

Niță M.R., Ioja C.I. (2020). Environmental conflicts in the context of the challenging urban nature. Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 15(2), 471–479.

Conferences

Popa A.M., Iojă I.C., Niță M.R. (2020) Sustainability indicators frames for assessing urban sustainability; The 2nd International Conference on Re-Shaping Territories, Environment and Societies: New Challenges for Geography, November 20-21, Bucharest, Romania

Onose D.A., Niță M.R., Gavrilidis A.A., Popa A.M., Stoia N.L. (2020) Framework for assessing the transformation challenges of Romanian cities; XV-th edition International Conference Present Environment and Sustainable Development, November 21, Iași, Romania

Niță M.R., Popa A.M. (2020), Sustainability indicators used in the environmental planning process in Romania, The 8th European Environmental Evaluators Network Forum (EEEN2020) Environmental Evaluation Supporting the Implementation of SDGs and Transformative Policymaking, 4-5 November, Finnish Environment Institute, Online

Niță M.R., Popa A.M., Grădinaru S.R. (2020) Evaluating the quality of local strategies for sustainability and resilience in Romanian cities; International Geographical Conference Dimitrie Cantemir, 40th Edition, October 24, Iasi, Romania

Niță M.R., Onose D.A., Ioja C.I., Gavrilidis A.A., Popa A.M. (2020) Playing with sustainable planning – analyzing the integration of playgrounds in the urban green infrastructure of Bucharest; International Geographical Conference Dimitrie Cantemir, 40th Edition, October 24, Iasi, Romania