REROAD
Transforming Urban Streetscapes into Nature-based Spaces for People and Biodiversity
- Category
- Project
- Call
- DUT Call 2024
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- Eurac Research
REROAD tackles the urgent challenge of transforming urban streetscapes to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequities. Streets, often dominated by grey infrastructure, are underutilized as potential spaces for nature-based solutions (NbS) and circular economy practices. The project focuses on reimagining streets as multifunctional public spaces that integrate ecological, social, and mobility functions. It addresses the research question: how can urban streets be systematically transformed to enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, and justice while reducing environmental impact and material waste?
REROAD will implement Urban Living Labs (ULLs) in Bolzano (Italy), Coimbra (Portugal), and Granada (Spain) to co-create transformation scenarios for high-usage streets. Using spatial analysis, stakeholder engagement, and participatory design, the project will develop street archetypes, NbS strategies, and circular business models. It will integrate biodiversity, justice, and circularity into masterplans for each city. The work combines research and co-creation through participatory processes in Urban Living Labs to develop actionable and context-sensitive strategies for urban street transformation.
REROAD will deliver a masterplan for biocentric, circular, and just streetscape transformation, supported by a street atlas, NbS selector tool, and a portfolio of circular business models. It will enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, and social equity in cities while reducing material waste and promoting sustainable mobility. The project will empower municipalities with actionable tools and frameworks, foster stakeholder engagement, and contribute to EU goals on climate neutrality, biodiversity, and circular economy. Its outcomes will be scalable and replicable across European cities.
Italy
Lithuania
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Chalmers University of Technology , Institute for Research and Technological Development in Construction, Energy, Environment and Sustainability, Kaunas University of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Universidad de Granada
City of Bolzano, City of Coimbra, City of Granada
Contact
Rocco Pace
rocco.pace@eurac.edu