Background

In an increasingly urbanising world, governments and international corporations strive to increase productivity of cities, recognized as economic growth hubs, as well as ensuring better quality of life and living conditions to citizens. Although significant effort is performed by international organisations, researchers, etc. to transform the challenges of cities into opportunities, the visions of our urban future are trending towards bleak. Social services and health facilities are significantly affected in negative ways owed to the increase in urban populations (70% by 2050). Air pollution and urban exacerbation of heat islands is exacerbating. Nature will struggle to compensate in the future city, as rural land is predicted to shrink by 30% affecting liveability.

Key project: VARCITIES

VARCITIES puts the citizen and the “human community” in the eye of the future cities’ vision. Future cities should evolve to be human centred cities. The vision of VARCITIES is to implement real, visionary ideas and add value by establishing sustainable models for increasing health and wellbeing of citizens (children, young people, middle age, elderly) that are exposed to diverse climatic conditions and challenges around Europe through shared public spaces that make cities liveable and welcoming.

The Healthy Cities Helix is an international Open Innovation community of specialists in the fields of environment, smart cities, architecture, and related disciplines. The Helix was launched as a focus for impact and dissemination services in support of the VARCITIES project's ambition to contribute to the shaping of future cities by designing and developing nature-based (NBS) solutions.

The VARCITIES project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869505 🇪🇺

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