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Australia is experiencing an accelerated rate of climate-related extreme weather events, and many of the solutions to reduce the exposure to climate-risk are nature-based, governing urban forests, waterways, and stormwater. However, the governance of nature-based solutions in Australian cities is still fragmented and piecemeal, generally lacking a coherent narrative and widespread support. What is needed are institutional spaces that mainstream such solutions. In this paper, we draw on a case study of urban forestry implementation across metropolitan Melbourne, as a lens to examine the creation and evolution of such institutional spaces. We explain the functions and design characteristics of institutional spaces from the perspective of the requirements for establishing and maintaining institutional spaces and what is produced or the outcomes from institutional spaces. The mobilisation and evolution of institutional spaces are important to understand for the impact on the planning and governance of individual cities as well as the metropolitan region. Our key findings frame institutional spaces as relational, learning-oriented, collaborative, and empowering spaces that facilitate transformative agendas and actions for the mainstreaming of nature-based solutions in cities. From these findings, we identify seven recommendations for how practitioners can make the most of institutional spaces. Practitioner pointers Creating space to bridge silos, foster experimentation, and develop evidence-based policy is critical to mainstream nature-based solutions. Collaborative approaches are essential for effective institutional spaces, to participate in networking and knowledge co-production opportunities. Actors in institutional spaces facilitate mainstreaming by learning from and building on policy and practice legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the processes of residential solar PV uptake is critical to developing planning and policy energy transition pathways. This paper outlines a novel hybrid Agent-Based-Modelling/statistical adoption prediction framework that addresses several drawbacks in current modelling approaches. Specifically, we extend the capabilities of similar previous models and incorporate empirical data, behavioural theory, social networks and explicitly considers the spatial context. We provide empirical data affecting households’ propensity to adopt, including perceptions of solar PV systems, the role of tenure and urban location. We demonstrate the approach in the context of Melbourne metropolitan region, Australia; and draw on housing approval data to demonstrate the role of housing construction in accelerating adoption. Finally, we explore the approach’s validity against real-world data with promising results that also indicate key areas for further research and improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are implemented across multiple cities worldwide and feature as promising solutions in local and global agendas. As solutions that can deal with interlinked urban challenges, NBS are being taken up by cities in different geographies and are considered to be mainstreaming. The process, referred to as mainstreaming, and how this can be achieved needs to be better understood, which is identified as a research gap. In this paper, we examine the roles that actors can undertake that contribute to the mainstreaming of NBS in cities. The aim is to understand the roles that urban actors, especially those within local governments, assume in the process of NBS mainstreaming to mobilise and implement novel and innovative strategic solutions for cities. This topic is explored in a case study of the metropolitan Melbourne region in Australia, where urban forest strategies are gaining traction in local governments for addressing urban resilience concerns. We present how the roles different actors assume contribute to the (re)shaping, building, and/or transformation of institutions to attain climate and ecologically resilient cities. The main contribution of this paper is a pathways framework that illustrates how sustainability norms can move through the mainstreaming process, facilitated by the roles that actors undertake – to champion, advocate, and realise transformative discourses and actions within urban politics and urban practices. Our key findings are framed as success factors of mainstreaming agencies and pathways underpinning transformation, which are: commitment longevity, innovative capacity, collaborative mindset, and on-ground delivery. • Policy, practice, and research actors can facilitate NBS mainstreaming in cities. • Role archetypes describe the mainstreaming actions of specific actors. • The configuration of roles is analysed to explain mainstreaming pathways. • Define mainstreaming pathways framework for actors' roles in NBS mainstreaming. • Success factors are commitment, innovation, collaboration, and on-ground delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are at the forefront of sustainability agendas, especially as places to implement the solutions needed to address key sustainability challenges. City-level governments have responded in diverse ways to these challenges, including adopting and implementing a mix of policies to improve resilience and liveability that address issues including heat mitigation, water security, and climate risks. To support such sustainability strategies, we argue that mainstreaming, as a process of embedding novel thinking and solutions into governance and practice, urgently needs to be comprehensively understood and leveraged. Therefore, drawing on a mix of empirical and theoretical research and focusing on the mainstreaming of nature-based solutions in urban planning, we examine and systematically conceptualise mainstreaming as a governance and planning process. Drawing on a recent case study of urban forestry governance across metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, we show how the identified drivers and mechanisms of mainstreaming can be successfully applied. The resulting framework emphasises the need for a dynamic understanding of mainstreaming processes and what ensures they can be enabled and accelerated in the governance and planning of cities. Further, this framework may be applied for mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions as well as other sustainability innovations. ● Mainstreaming is examined as a transformative (urban) governance process. ● We identify drivers and mechanisms for mainstreaming NBS (urban forests) in cities. ● We explore disruptive and anchoring mechanisms as part of mainstreaming processes. ● The design of mainstreaming must be integrative, learning-oriented, and innovative. ● Mainstreaming needs to be context-sensitive and adaptable to be widely applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]