Rijeka Development Agency Porin presented the Interreg EU Project Blue Green City within the event Climathon Rijeka 2020 that took place on November 13th and 14th as virtual hackaton.
The Climate Hackathon or Climathon is a global movement of cities that sees climate change as an opportunity to connect and bring together a collaboration between cities and citizens, researchers, students, designers, developers, creatives, and entrepreneurs around innovation and creative solutions to mitigate climate change challenges.
As a part of a global climate movement happening at the same time in more than 140 cities around the world, RDA Porin in collaboration with the City of Rijeka organized a local climathon event as an invitation to citizens to be part of the actions that can be taken in Rijeka Region, for the adaptation and mitigation of the effects of the climate crisis.
The main goal of the 2nd Stakeholder meeting was to increase awareness and knowledge about the concept of ecosystem services and the value of green infrastructure through the 24 hours hackathon, by exchanging experiences and good practices, and by creating strong cooperation in finding common solutions to climate change challenges. In order to spread the common understanding of the climate problems within the urban areas, the main challenge was to find a new concept of green infrastructure management where citizens participate as partners.
During the 1st day of the meeting, stakeholders presented existing challenges trough the introductory lectures:
- Presentation of the project “Blue and Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities”, Interreg Europe (Silvia Nađ, Rijeka Development Agency Porin)
- “Why is green infrastructure in cities more than decorations?”, H2020 project ReGreen (Sandra Vlašić, Green Energy Cooperative)
and together with citizens discussed opportunities of GBI and NBS solutions implementation in the Rijeka region while on the 2nd of the meeting participants divided into teams, worked on challenges and presented innovative ideas on how to improve green infrastructures and contribute to the green reactivation of Rijeka.
Out of the eight teams who got involved, the best three finalists-solutions are the following:
1. Urban bee gardens – aimed at increasing gardens with flowers in Rijeka, suitable for bees and pollinators.
2. RIgreen – aimed at organizing a digital platform for citizens to gather and collaborate around greening their cities.
3. Green promenade – aimed at greening the Rijeka waterfront and making it a green space for the gathering of citizens.
These three teams will receive support from the organizers and partners of Climathon Rijeka 2020 exploring the possibilities to help them towards the realization of their ideas and will have the opportunity to participate in the Climathon Global Awards that will take place on January 21st, 2021.
Local event web pages:
climathon.climate-kic.org/rijeka
www.porin.hr/climathonrijeka2020/
Other media releases of the event:
www.regreen-project.eu/news/climathon-rijeka-2020-green-infrastructure/
www.efri.uniri.hr/hr/climathon_rijeka_2020__prijave_u_tijeku/1941/168
