The UPPER project takes a comprehensive approach by integrating greenery, green infrastructure, and innovative outdoor services and activities. It aims to revitalize underutilized urban areas, creating Demonstration Sites for testing self-produced NbS interventions such as phytoremediation, indigenous tree planting, and soft engineering measures. The Productive Parks have been co-designed and will be co-managed by project partners, local citizens, and stakeholders, with a focus on long-term maintenance and sustainability. The initiative also explores the Green Areas Bank to meet the demand and supply of NbS, while integrating a job and skills program for vulnerable citizens. Support for social enterprises and for-profit startups ensure market exploitation and further development of the Productive Parks, ultimately aiming for wider implementation and impact.
For the Upper project, together with the Municipality of Latina, 7 partners worked trying to develop the design and construction of Productive Parks and Demonstration Sites according to the objectives of the project, which can be classified as environmental, urban, economic and social and summarized in three main ideas:
1. focus on the self-production and self-maintenance of NbS, with technologies that enable Public-Private-People Partnerships (PPPP), with a view to ensuring long-term sustainability and the extension of good practices at citizen level;
2. link the implementation of NbS to social benefits such as the employment inclusion of marginalized groups, mental health care and social cohesion;
3. promote the formation of an NbS market through "productive parks", encouraging the development of new businesses with new business models on the supply side and stimulating the formation of demand from inhabitants and public and private stakeholders.
The implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in urban environments is gaining momentum as a means to address environmental challenges and promote sustainable development. However, effective monitoring and evaluation are essential to assess the performance of NbS interventions and to guide decision-making. One of the main UPPER partners was Ce.R.S.I.Te.S. (Centro di Ricerche e Servizi per l'Innovazione Tecnologica e Sostenibile / Research and Services Center for Technological and Sustainable Innovation). Ce.R.S.I.Te.S. is the interdepartmental centre approved as a Sapienza University of Rome research and services centre. It pursues the aim of managing and promoting institutional research activity, the management and promotion of teaching support services carried out at La Sapienza - Latina branch. It brings together researchers active in environmental, biological and economic areas. It boasts many years of experience in sustainability, energy and environmental planning also in collaboration with local authorities and companies. For the UPPER project it was the point of reference for monitoring the NbS results, the interpretation of the environmental solution as well as the socio-economic data produced by the various partners.