What is the NICE Cities Panel?

The NICE Cities Panel (NCP) integrates one of the main objectives of the NICE project, forming a vibrant community of practice for a more sustainable urban water cycle across European regions and world-wide. Joining the NICE Cities Panel offers cities an opportunity to share knowledge on sustainable water management by integrating a range of NbS typologies (e.g. rain-gardens, vegetated roofs, green walls, constructed wetlands and others) to treat storm-water runoff, domestic sewage, combined sewage overflow and grey water. NICE researchers exchange their knowledge with the audience on technical issues around the selection, design, implementation and maintenance, monitoring and later scaling up of these man-designed technologies that are enhancing the recovery of natural treatment, retention and/or infiltration of water in built up areas.

At the same time, city representatives, other researchers and EU-level stakeholders take part in the discussions on implementation of this knowledge in the contextual frameworks of different cities around Europe and beyond to mitigate water pollution and enhance treated water reuse.

Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform (CNEP): exploring the marriage between NbS suppliers and buyers for sustainable urban water cycle

True to its objectives, the latest NICE Cities Panel was all about screening further services that could be addressed through CNEP for good practice in the NICE Cities Panel community of practice, specifically guiding panel members to the resources available from this marketplace.

Hosted by our NICE technical expert Carme Machí Castañer, from ICLEI Europe and guest speaker, Kieran Farrell, from Horizon Nua, the NICE Cities panel held a training session, giving insight into how CNEP can foster collaboration and support networking in the Water Management NbS sphere, thus addressing needs and scaling the market for circular urban water systems. Conversely, engaged practitioners, EU-level stakeholders (IUCN), academics and representatives from local governments (e.g. Metropolitan Area of Milan), gave insight into the on-the-ground needs from a local perspective. In the last few years, demand for Nature-based Enterprises (NbEs) has gone up dramatically. NbEs are part of an ever evolving space, as Kieran explained, but can basically be seen as organisations in economic sectors that harness natural resources and either directly or indirectly contribute towards sustainable Nature-based solutions. You can learn more about these topics by joining the Connecting Nature Enterprise platform!

Session Takeaways: What we can learn from exchange between practitioners and NbE’s

The group discussions revealed several interesting takeaways for improvement of the CNEP platform for water practitioners, including needs for further training through the CNEP webinars to design more concrete courses on the identified knowledge gaps areas (for example in stormwater management, among other topics). Through regular exchange on shared platforms like CNEP, it can be possible to break free from conventional approaches and mindset, exploring with NbEs and researchers the benefits delivered by a green, blue and gray approach to water management in cities.

This exchange environment can serve to showcase successful practices implemented by NbEs, practitioners and researchers, to raise public awareness of the benefits of integrating NICE solutions and the new approaches for a more sustainable urban water cycle. It was agreed by many that adding storytelling and tangible case studies examples showing these multiple benefits delivered by water treatment NbS will be a critical aspect, and how the CNEP could help to this important endeavor, but also for a more effective exchange within a good community for the inclusion of NICE solutions.

Learn more and get involved!

Stay tuned for a future CNEP webinar on water management, to be held by the beginning of the next year. Make sure to follow NICE’s contribution to the platform from its experts. Lastly, join our next NCP to continue exchange to build on this body of knowledge, defining practices of co-creation and implementation of NbS and water management.