Greater Manchester

As flooding, burst river banks and upland fires become more common and summer temperatures soar, it can be impossible to know what extreme weather to expect next.
Current data suggests that around 250,000 properties across Greater Manchester are currently at risk of surface-water flooding and around 50,000 properties have a 1 in 100 chance of flooding in any given year. In December 2015, 31,200 properties lost their power supply and repairs to infrastructure damaged by flooding cost €13m alone. Increased temperatures have also doubled the number of heat stress incidents since the 1950s, affecting vulnerable citizens in particular, and storms now account for more than 20% of all weather events across the region. 
It’s safe to say that the effects of climate change have begun to take their toll on our city region, causing problems with housing, transport and the city region’s economy, as well as having a effect on citizens’ physical and mental health.
 
That’s where the IGNITION project comes in. The €4.5m IGNITION project is well on its way to giving us the tools we need to increase green infrastructure in Greater Manchester by 10% by 2038 and helping to stop the effects of climate change.

Greater Manchester feels that the solutions to these challenges lie in substantial retrofit programmes of urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions (NBS) to combat urban over-heating (provision of shade and evaporative cooling) and flooding. 
These measures will slow the flow of excess water caused by extreme weather events. Nature-based solutions will also help to improve air quality, the visibility of the region, increase the level of biodiversity within an urban environment, and help to improve the health and well-being of citizens.
It is estimated Greater Manchester requires a 10% uplift in urban green infrastructure by 2038. Implementing and funding delivery at the scale and pace required needs the formation of an estimated minimum €10m of investible packages of projects to persuade businesses and organisations to invest in NBS and climate change adaption features.

• Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Manchester City Council - municipality 
• Salford City Council - municipality
• Environment Agency - environmental agency
• Business in the Community - business community representative
• United Utilities - business community representative
• UK Green Building Council - business community representative
• City of Trees - NGO
• Groundwork - NGO 
• Royal Horticultural Society - NGO
• Manchester university - higher education and research institute 
• Salford university - higher education and research institute 

The IGNITION project will deliver the following results by establishing innovative nature-based solutions funding and delivery mechanisms to increase Greater Manchester’s urban green infrastructure (GI) coverage by 10% by 2038. The project is divided into the following areas:

1.    An NBS project identification process, which sets out a full pipeline of projects equating to a 10% increase in Greater Manchester’s urban green infrastructure by 2038 (from a 2018 baseline).
2.    A breakdown of the overall pipeline into phases, each valued at €10m+.
3.    The development of a range of innovative business models and financing mechanisms which represent the funding required to deliver the project pipeline.
4.    Increased investor confidence to invest in NBS projects through visibly showing the impact of GI on buildings and the real world returns to the public, urban managers, decision makers and investors. This will focus on the University of Salford’s campus Living Lab. 
5.    Innovative governance, delivery and procurement mechanisms and processes that are capable of increasing Greater Manchester’s capacity to deliver and maintain NBS projects. 

October 2019: Version 1 of the city-scale nature-based solutions project pipeline process will be complete, with phase 1 of deliverable set of projects identified.
April 2020: Funding models and finance mechanisms to deliver phase 1 of the Greater Manchester NBS pipeline will be established.
April-October 2021: Greater Manchester governance and delivery frameworks will be set up with the delivery vehicle for phase 1 of pipeline procured and contracts for funding and delivery signed.
October 2021: Nature-Based Innovation Centre on the University of Salford campus will be installed and matured in its role as a visible demonstrator and living test lab of the urban green infrastructure approach to combatting climate change.