Session Description
Cities increasingly commit to nature-positive, climate-resilient and healthy development, yet urban green and blue infrastructure is often delivered as isolated projects or as mitigation after key strategic choices have been made.
Looking back at lessons from urban planning, impact assessment and community practice, this interactive workshop asks: how can impact assessment help cities move urban nature from a project-level add-on to an inclusive, connected and durable urban system?
The workshop will examine three connected dimensions: people, wellbeing and equitable participation; connected and multifunctional urban nature; and early integration through SEA, EIA and planning.
Following a brief framing by the chair, three invited contributors will offer short, case-based provocations from different regions and perspectives. Participants will then work in facilitated groups to identify recurring implementation barriers, transferable practices and practical changes to environmental, social, health, strategic and cumulative impact assessment. Particular attention will be given to rights, participation, Indigenous and local knowledge, distributional effects and the risk that nature-positive initiatives reproduce exclusion or green inequities. The final plenary will consolidate a concise set of principles and priority actions for impact assessment practice. These outputs will support dialogue within IAIA, and complement the practice-oriented work of the IUCN Urban Alliance's network-building role.
The workshop welcomes practitioners, planners, regulators, researchers, Indigenous and community representatives, city and subnational governments, and community members.
Session Summary
Using short case-based provocations and facilitated discussion, participants will connect wellbeing, biodiversity, governance and implementation to support more inclusive, nature-positive urban development and inform future IUCN and IAIA work.
Additional Information
Working-group questions
1. What people, wellbeing, biodiversity and system-level outcomes should impact assessment identify, assess and monitor?
2. Where does the delivery chain break between assessment, approval, planning, financing, implementation, maintenance and monitoring?
3. What practical changes to assessment methods, governance, coordination and participation would create more inclusive and durable urban nature outcomes?
Session Chair
Umberto Baresi
Queensland University of Technology
Australia