Indicators to promote sustainable and climate resilient water management at urban natural spaces

Abstract

The Horizon Europe project NATURELAB – Nature Based Interventions for improving health and well-being proposes an integrative and innovative approach to contribute to resilient communities with an emphasis on health and well-being. The project established a portfolio of key indicators and guidelines to characterize, design, protect and manage different types of nature spaces. The indicators focus on the characteristics of the nature site and its context, comprising not only the variables that can affect health and well-being but also the settings and resources that ensure that people can have comfort, and their basic needs attended to. The indicators will be tested and validated through its application to 15 experimental sites, located in Europe and Peru. The project aims at contributing to the sustainability of the territory and the resilience to extreme events – such as intense precipitation and heat waves. This study introduces the NATURELAB indicators proposal, aiming to support sustainable and climate-resilient water management in urban natural spaces. These indicators were developed based on prior knowledge, insights from other projects funded by the EU, and tailored to meet specific needs.