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Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (BLUE AP)

Adaptation context

The City of Bologna covers an area of approximately 14 hectares, has a population of about 380,000 inhabitants, and is a strategic hub of the national road and rail network.The local economy is based on small and medium-sized enterprises, which have a reputation of prestige and national importance, and that contribute greatly to the richness of the territory.

Most important is the trade fair centre, which hosts major events of national and international scale. A distinctive feature of the city is the university: founded in 1088 and considered the oldest in Europe, it attracts about 85,000 students living in the city or gravitating around it.

Bologna is a founding member of ICLEI, the international network of governments for sustainability, partner of Eurocities and Local Agenda 21 in Italy.

Upon acceding to the Aalborg Commitments (2006) and the Covenant of Mayors (2008), the city of Bologna strengthens its presence among the European cities active in the field of sustainable development, aiming the development of solutions for a sustainable resource management in a time of profound economic and social changes.

The Environmental Report belongs to the programming tools of the City since 2003, and is gradually becoming a reference point for the analysis of health status and policies of the territory.The Municipality of Bologna has been involved for years in several European projects focused on protecting the environment and urban redevelopment.

The Administration is committed in projects such as GAIA, a public-private partnership for the urban forest, UrbanAPI, which uses new technologies related to urban planning and environment, and various projects on energy: GovernEE, 3NCULT, Sustainable Now.

An important step is the development of the Action Plan for Sustainable Energy (SEAP), which implements actions to increase energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources in the urban and industrial area, focusing on construction industry, service sector, local production of energy, mobility and public facilities. The actions are implemented through participatory and agreements with stakeholders, which lead to an increase in investments and a consequent reduction in emissions.

The project

BLUE AP is a LIFE+ project for the implementation of an Adaptation Plan to Climate Change for the Municipality of Bologna, providing for some concrete local measures to test, in order to make the city more resilient and able to meet the climate change challenges.

The BLUE AP planning and testing actions developed in the city of Bologna will lead to the creation of guidelines useful for the definition of similar adaptation plans, that can be adopted by other medium-size Italian cities.

Bologna will be the pilot-city, the first in Italy, that will face climate changes with appropriate and creative tools.

Project details

Funding Program: LIFE + 2011Project Total funding: € 986,000Total EU Co-financing: € 493,000

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