REVITALISATION OF PUBLIC SPACES IN HISTORIC CITIES -adaptation of cities courtyards to climate change in Central Europe

European Commission (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the European Territorial Cooperation goal of the EU Cohesion Policy for 2021-2027)

Project title: REVITALISATION OF PUBLIC SPACES IN HISTORIC CITIES -adaptation of cities courtyards to climate change in Central Europe

Agreement number: CE0200517

Project implementation period: 01.06.2024 - 30.11.2026 r.

Project value: 6 212 398,70 PLN (1 467 368,66 EUR)

National funds: 1 242 479,82 PLN (293 473,75 EUR)

Foreign funds: 4 969 918,88 PLN (1 173 894,91 EUR)

Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. inż. Bogusław Szmygin

Abstract: Adapting historic cities and urban public spaces to climate change is a necessity, and building their resilience is one of the EU's policy priorities. This challenge particularly concerns local and regional authorities and policies, NGOs, small businesses and EU citizens. The beneficiaries of the RE- PUBLIC SPACES project will be the EU's historic cities of Central Europe, as well as the European Union as a whole. Within the framework of the RE-PUBLIC SPACES project, investments in the form of demonstration courtyard revitalisations from a climate change perspective will be carried out in Italy in the city of Pinerolo - 'cooling city', in Slovenia in the city of Veleneje - 'green chamber', in Poland in the post-industrial city of Lodz - "water catcher" and in Croatia in Osijek - building biodiversity and developing GI. Each of these will respond to different needs and challanges of the regions. In fact, historic cities are spatially composed of a system of public spaces. Historic centres consist of quartered buildings with internal courtyards, the aftermath of the art of building over the centuries. These are often excluded spaces. There is a need for solutions on a societal level, as well as legislative and organisational measures. To date, there is a lack of tools and policies for this type of space and the revitalisation processes undertaken do not sufficiently take into account the specificities of adapting this type of space to climate change. To change this, international and transnational cooperation is a solid foundation for the project. The different perspectives and experiences of the project partners and the adopted climate criteria based on the challenges of each region will allow us to build common international strategies for adapting backyards in historic cities to climate change. Therefore, the cooperation of research units from 4 countries (Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy) and 4 cities (Velenje,Lodz, Pinerolo, Osijek) implementing the project will allow REPULIC SPACES to cover the wide complexity of the project topic and the different perspectives and experiences. The project aims to revitalise courtyard spaces in historic cities and adapt them to climate change while involving the local community and extensive participatory activities. Through the development of a common multi-criteria methodology based on the climatograms of each region, demonstration of climate strategies tailored to climate challenges, concrete solutions will be developed as a result of needs. To this end, we will develop a multi-criteria methodology for analysing backyards, which will be treated as a single spatial organism. We will propose demonstrators in which we will test and evaluate the developed climate-investment strategies, and then, based on the results, we will draw up protocols of conduct for the spaces of the historical backyards and develop instructions in the form of guidelines for local and regional authorities based on the implementation and charter of green and sustainable backyards as a doctrinal tool. We will start with the first results of the project, which will be available after WP1. This will be a jointly developed international methodology and four different adaptation strategies for courtyards in historic cities adapted to the specific climatic factors of each region and the associated challenges. We will then work on WP2 to create four model revitalisation projects and four demonstrators, which we will test, monitor and describe. The outcome of this activity will be a catalogue showing the implementations. In WP3 we will develop protocols for dealing with backyard spaces and guidelines in the form of a handbook and a charter - a doctrinal document. The outcome will be a jointly developed methodology, implementations and collaborations. As a result, the project will propose a range of solutions consulted with the local community and authorities, thus developing climate change adaptation needs and building a healthy living environment for EU citizens. Within three years of cooperation, we expect to propose concrete solutions in the form of demonstrators and strategies for historic cities. Through dissemination and networking, the results can be implemented in different cities of the European Union.