The Nature Smart Cities Business Model will launch as a ‘beta’ version early in 2022. The Business Model has been co-created by the Nature Smart Cities partners and has undergone rigorous testing with the seven pilot projects. In addition the model has been subjected to demonstrator testing with a number of potential new green infrastructure (GI) projects in the 2 Seas region.

Dr Phil Back manages the process of testing the Business Model and explains what this phase is all about: ‘The Business Model – a software package – helps officers in smaller cities to make the case for GI in their municipalities. The model, developed by our academic partners at the Universities of Antwerp and Ghent, has already been subjected to exhaustive internal testing, which has highlighted changes and adjustments that needed to be made. Now we are taking it out into the real world, to see how well it stands up to the complexities and challenges of genuine projects now at the planning stage.’

The test results from projects in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands will be fed back to the academic partners in November, with a report to be circulated after that. The universities will use the test findings to refine the model before it is finalised and launched.

In Mortsel, close to Antwerp, Phil used the model to test a project related to the repurposing of the city’s stadhuis or city hall. The building dates to 1964 and was built with significant population growth in mind. That growth never took place, so the building is being repurposed to provide community facilities including a library, meeting and activity space, and a café alongside the usual municipal services.

The project at Mortsel involves replacing the existing hard surfaces on the buildings frontage with something that is both more attractive and more supportive of biodiversity and water management. These ideas were run through the Nature Smart Cities Business Model as part of the demonstrator testing. The model coped well with the project’s requirements. Phil notes: 'The Mortsel project is relatively small-scale, and reasonably straightforward, so we were not expecting many problems with using the Business Model. However, the project’s specific requirements did ask questions we weren’t prepared for, which is exactly why we’re doing these tests with real life projects.’

Phil also visited Cambridge, where the challenge was much bigger: ‘Here the Nature Smart Cities project is a large-scale tree planting initiative, placing trees on public land and encouraging residents to plant appropriate species of tree in their own gardens. Since privately owned residential land makes up 39% of the landscape within the city boundary, the potential for planting is enormous – as is the project. The numbers involved here, both in terms of project area and numbers of trees, are probably well beyond what the designers of the model had in mind. We know the model works well on smaller sites, but here we’ll be looking carefully at the results to see how the model performs with large-scale projects.’

The Business Model bridges the gap between science and practice, providing a tool that draws on academic research and places the practical needs of smaller municipalities at its core. Are you curious about what the Business Model has to offer? In Spring 2022 you can join our free capacity building programme, and you’ll get the chance to get hands-on with the model yourself.