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This guidebook offers a practical approach and toolbox for setting up and applying reflexive monitoring. It will help practitioners to deepen their understanding of reflexive monitoring’s methodology. Think of it like a cookbook that offers the ingredients, illustrations, and steps needed to get a great result, but instead of whipping up a tasty meal, you’re designing your very own reflexive monitoring process., Suggested citation: Lodder, M., Allaert, K., Mulders, W., Collier, M.J., Dick, G., Frantzeskaki, N., Georgiou, P., González, G., Hölscher, K., Kelly, S., Madajczyk, N., Notermans, I., Pašić, B., Prieto González, A., Sillen, D., & Vos, P. (2022). A practical guide to using reflexive monitoring for nature-based solutions: a Connecting Nature Guidebook. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7501579

This guidebook offers a practical approach and toolbox for designing and implementing your own co-production processes. It presents co-production as a new governance approach for working on nature-based solutions in cities and offers a practical framework for designing your own co-production approach., Suggested citation: van der Have, C., Hölscher, K., Lodder, M., Collier, M.J., Dick, G., Dziubala, A., Fletcher, I., Frantzeskaki, N., Georgiou, P., Kelly, S., Malekkidou, E., McCann, S., McQuaid, S., Mulders, W., Notermans, I., Pašić, B., Prieto González, A., Quartier, M., Sillen, D., Trendafilov, I., Vandergert, P., Xidous, D. (2022). A practical guide to using co-production for nature-based solutions: a Connecting Nature Guidebook. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7501980

Co-production is a governance method that can be used by cities and other stakeholders when developing nature-based solutions in cities and for the good of cities. Not only does co-production foster collaboration and partnership but it stimulates learning among diverse actors – these actors could be civil servants, citizens, urban planners, entrepreneurs, architects, scientists, or engineers, to name but a few. In a co-production model, they contribute to the design, implementation, and management of nature-based solutions together. Actors are not just consulted or informed, they are involved from the very beginning in the process. They have a role in the making of plans, infrastructure, and policy. The goal of co-production is to generate results that may be shared with all the actors. Examples of such results would be new ways to frame a problem, or new policies and visions. By bringing diverse actors together, co-production also results in new relationships. It can therefore mobilise and empower participants to create better and greener cities and communities., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Frantzeskaki, N., Lodder, M., Allaert, K., Notermans, I., and Collier, M.J. (2022). Co-production: a Connecting Nature Guidebook. Brussels: DG Research and Innovation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7509645

Reflexive monitoring is an evaluation method that gives urban practitioners insight into the progress of their project in real time. It helps them evaluate day- to-day activities and to respond to them while considering the bigger picture.This is especially helpful when addressing the complex challenges nature-based solutions tend to combat, such as climate change and social exclusion., Suggested citation: Lodder, M., Allaert, K., Hölscher, K., Notermans, I., Frantzeskaki, N., and Collier, M.J. (2022). Reflexive Monitoring: a Connecting Nature Guidebook. Brussels: DG Research and Innovation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7503980

This guidebook introduces the Connecting Nature Framework. The Framework supports the planning, delivery, and stewardship of nature-based solutions on a large scale in cities and communities. It provides a comprehensive toolkit for urban practitioners who want to develop nature-based solutions and in this way foster urban resilience, increase citizen health and wellbeing, support innovation, and promote empowerment. This guidebook is intended for a wide audience of practitioners, from urban planners at local authorities to community groups, entrepreneurs, and non-governmental organisations. The Connecting Nature Framework is co-produced by scientific partners and cities. This generates innovative solutions for science and practice. It supports Europe to become a global leader in the innovation and implementation of nature-based solutions., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Allaert, K., Lodder, M., Sillen, D., Collier, M.J., Connop, S., Dick, G., Dumitru, A., Dziubala, A., Frantzeskaki, N., Kelly, S., Madajczyk, N., McQuaid, S., Mowat, L., Osipiuk, A., Quartier, M., Sermpezi, R., Vandergert, P., van de Sijpe, K., & Vos, P. (2022). The Connecting Nature Framework: facilitating and connecting innovations for the large-scale implementation of nature-based solutions. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7502565

This Deliverable presents our underlying conceptual and methodological approach as well as analytical results by which we have co-developed co-production and reflexive monitoring methodologies for the planning, delivery and stewardship of nature-based solutions on a large scale in cities. Next to supporting co-production and reflexive monitoring processes on the ground in the Connecting Nature Front-Runner and Fast-Follower Cities, a main aim was to generate systematic insights about how cities go about designing and implementing such novel governance approaches. On the one hand, co-production is booming in cities worldwide as a mode of collaborative governance. By bringing together diverse actors – for example, civil servants, practitioners, social innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs and citizens – co-production can support the generation of transformative nature-based solutions (pertaining not only to their mere technical design but also to their financing and business models and social innovations) addressing local needs and mobilising local opportunities. We developed a comprehensive framework that supports the design, implementation and evaluation of co-production. The framework covers different types of co-production, methods, principles for process design and evaluation as well as capacities for co-production to implement the principles. On the other hand, we developed a reflexive monitoring process to support processes of ongoing learning-by-doing and doing-by-learning. Nature-based solutions planning, delivery and stewardship requires ongoing reflection as well as adaptability to respond to new insights, demands and needs. Our reflexive monitoring methodology consists of a step-wise approach with several process tools that the cities have adapted into their regular activities to create space for reflection and capturing learnings. The recording of learning objectives and outcomes helped the cities structure what opportunities and barriers they have encountered and how they have navigated them, generating insights on critical steps and lessons learned for the design, delivery and stewardship of nature-based solutions. Building on a comparative analysis of the cities, we generated several key lessons about how to adapt and implement co-production and reflexive monitoring: Overall, all cities recognised the value of co-production to engage with and empower diverse actors and reflexive monitoring to facilitate continuous learning and adaptation in real time when planning, delivering and stewarding nature-based solutions. In this way, co-production and reflexive monitoring are able to address the various governance needs for knowledge, partnerships, societal and political support and learning. Adopting new governance processes and tools that challenge conventional practices requires the creation of institutional and organisational space in cities and the acquisition of new skills and knowledge. It also requires new cultures within city governments to work across siloes. Co-production and reflexive monitoring are flexible approaches that need to be made fit to a specific city’s contexts. For example, we could distinguish between various types of co-production processes depending on different goals and settings, including different types of actors and methods. Regarding co-production, it has been challenging to reach out and motivate diverse actors to participate in co- production, including especially vulnerable and low-income communities or specific actors from the business and finance community. This requires dedicated communication and community engagement efforts and skills as well as making the process accessible to different audiences. The value of reflexive monitoring extended to the facilitation of knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer learning between Front-Runner and Fast-Follower Cities. We learned that, from the idea initiation stage, it can take a few years before the cities started implementing their learning outcomes with reflexivity changes. Based on our work with the cities and comparative analysis, we produced conceptually grounded and practice-proven, hands-on guidebooks that help urban practitioners and planners design and implement concrete steps, activities and tools for the co-production and reflexive monitoring of nature-based solutions. We have put in place several mechanisms to ensure the long-term sustainability of our co-production and reflexive monitoring work – in particular, to continue to spread knowledge for example through the OPPLA platform and the UrbanByNature programme., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Lodder, M., Janssen, A., van der Have, C., Kindlon, D., McCann, S., Allaert, K., Xidous, D., Albulescu, P., Sulea, C., Prieto Gonzalez, A., Gonzalez Vazquez, M. M., Trendafilov, I., Velikova, V., Van De Sijpe, K., Quartier, M., Vos, P., Dick, G., Kelly, S., Sermpezi, R., Bakola, E., Boskidis, Ioannis; Tsouris, Vasilis; García-Espina Adank, Christian; Malekkidou, Eleni; Mavroudi, M., Osipiuk, A., Dziubala, A., Madajczyk, N., Dymek, D., Pasic, B., Suljevic, N., Beslagic, L., Collier, M. J. (2022). Connecting Nature Deliverable 7: Final report of all meetings, consultations, webinars and workshops and the publication of a co-production guidebook for cities consisting of 2 guidebooks: 'A practical guide to using co-production for nature-based solutions' and 'A practical guide to using reflexive monitoring for nature-based solutions' (including infographics). Project. Brussels: DG Research & Innovation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7443221

The Connecting Nature Framework is a process tool that has been co-produced and co-applied with science and practice partners in the project with the aim to give a hands-on and comprehensive guide to the Connecting Nature cities to develop their nature-based solution exemplars. It places the nature-based solution at the core of an interactive process that distinguishes three phases of development for a nature-based solution: planning, delivery, and stewardship. Throughout each phase, there are seven separate elements that need to be considered: Technical solutions, Governance, Financing and business models, Nature-based entrepreneurship, Co-production, Reflexive monitoring, and Impact assessment. While the first phase of the Framework development and application has focused on three Front-runner Cities (2017- 2019), we have in the second phase (2019-2022) transferred the Framework, including the generated knowledge and insights about how to apply it to different city contexts, to the seven Fast-follower and Multiplier Cities., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Allaert, K., Janssen, A., Lodder, M., McCann, S., van der Have, C., Asmaryan, S., Bakola, E., Beslagic, L., Boskidis, I., Collier, M. J., Connop, S., Dick, G., Dumitru, A., Dymek, D., Dziubala, A., Fletcher , I., García-Espina Adank, C., Georgiou, P., Gonzalez Vazquez, M. M., Gvilava, M., Kelly, S., Madajczyk, N., Malekkidou, E., Mavroudi, M., McQuaid, S., Osipiuk, A., Pasic, B., Prieto Gonzalez, A., Quartier, M., Rizzi, D., Sermpezi, R., Suljevic, N., Tomé Lourido, D., Trendafilov, I., Tsouris, V., Vandergert, P., Van De Sijpe, K., Velikova, V., Vos, P., and Xidous, D. (2022). Connecting Nature Deliverable 6: Connecting Nature Framework Reports for Fast-follower Cities. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7319263

This document presents the Nature-based Solutions Framework developed in the Connecting Nature project to support the planning, delivery, and legacy of nature-based solutions on a large scale in cities. The main aim of the framework is to provide a comprehensive standard that informs urban planning and policy practice to scale up urban resilience, innovation, and empowerment via nature-based solutions in cities. The framework facilitates learning by and for cities on how to generate and connect diverse types of (e.g. technical, market, governance, social) innovations engendered by nature-based solutions. In this way, we generate innovation propositions for science and practice for the large-scale implementation of nature-based solutions and for making Europe a global leader in the innovation and implementation of nature-based solutions. Our main premise lies in our understanding of nature-based solutions as ‘living’ sustainability transition experiments. A key challenge is large-scale implementation – or ‘up-scaling’ – of nature-based solutions. This includes, for example, the replication or expansion of demonstration projects or the institutional embedding of new knowledge, skills, and collaboration and financing mechanisms. Scaling nature-based solutions is therefore about more than the individual innovations: it is about how they are connected to each other and to their contexts. This requires new types of processes, partnerships, conditions, skills, and knowledge to allow for multi-actor collaboration and synergies, design fit-to-context nature-based solutions that generate multiple benefits, and ensure early assessment of the transformations brought about in cities. We have co-produced the Nature-based Solutions Framework, its translation to the frontrunner cities, and the derivation of lessons through iterative interaction between researchers and planners of the cities in the Connecting Nature project. This means that we adopted a ‘learning-by-doing’ approach based on science-practice collaboration and cross-disciplinary cooperation. Our aim is to in this way integrate and generate new knowledge and ultimately to translate this knowledge into urban planning and policy frameworks and unlock existing barriers. This document envelops the reports by the frontrunner cities Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Poznań (Poland), which showcase how the cities made use of the framework to implement their nature-based solutions exemplars. It summarises how the cities’ experiences contribute to (connecting) diverse types of innovations for the large-scale nature-based solutions implementation in cities., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Allaert, K., Frantzeskaki, N., Lodder, M., Notermans, I., Sillen, D., Collier, M. J., Connop, S., Dick, G., Dumitru, A., Dziubala, A., Kelly, S., Madajczyk, N., McQuaid, S., Mowatt, L., Osipiuk, A., Quartier, M., Sermpezi, R., Vandergert, P., van De Sijpe, K., and Vos, P. (2019). Connecting Nature Deliverable 5: Nature-based Solutions Framework for Front-runner cities. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7442857

Co-creation and co-production have been recognised as a novel collaborative mode of urban governance, which allows for deep participation to leverage and weave together local, expert and tacit knowledge and ultimately advance urban sustainability and resilience. Co-creation and co-production promote collaborations and partnerships among diverse actors – including civil servants, citizens, planners, entrepreneurs, architects, scientists, and engineers – in the design, implementation, and eventually stewarding of nature-based solutions (NBS). In this way, they can support the generation of new and more integrated knowledge that leads to the design of multifunctional NBS (pertaining not only to their mere technical design but also to their financing, business models, and social innovations) addressing local needs and mobilising local opportunities. In addition, the collaborative nature of co-creation and co-production generates novel and shared problem framings and visions, spurs new relationships between actors (for example between local government and citizens, across city departments) and triggers the (re-)definition of roles and responsibilities and empowerment of actors to become engaged in NBS advocating and stewarding. This report presents the work-in-progress on how in Connecting Nature we have developed the frameworks and guidebooks for co-production of NBS and reflexive monitoring via an iterative co-production process between the scientific partners and cities – so far together with the Connecting Nature frontrunner cities Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Poznań (Poland). Next to supporting the co-production processes on the ground, the framework also integrates insights on how different cities design co-production processes in practice, including the starting considerations/objectives, when and how (not) to connect to which types of actors, the tools used and opportunities and challenges encountered. The frameworks allow to systematise knowledge from the experiences with co-production and reflexive monitoring from cities back to the conceptual level of the design principles and to thus develop conceptually grounded and practice-proven guidebooks with empirical examples and lessons. Setting up high-quality, viable and effective co-production requires good process designs, knowledge about the right tools and methods, as well as enabling conditions that provide the basis for co-production. In summary, the framework encompasses the following building blocks: Co-production design principles provide a heuristic to design and evaluate knowledge co-production processes. Next to facilitating the design and implementation of co-production processes, the principles allow for the outcomes and impacts of co-production to be mapped and measured, for example, whether knowledge-based outputs inform strategic urban agendas. Co-production tools and methods can be used in specific co-production activities and settings so as to facilitate discussions, interactions, and knowledge exchanges between actors in line with a specific objective (e.g. vision development, problem framing). Reflexive monitoring framework that includes a set of tools and methods to continuously learn about how the co-production process proceeds and identify follow-up actions and consequently adapt the process of NBS implementation on the go. We have worked with the cities in Connecting Nature to co-produce and apply the frameworks of co-production and reflexive monitoring. In this way, we could advance and apply the frameworks and methods as reported here, as well as learn from the cities’ experiences to derive conclusions for co-production and reflexive monitoring of NBS implementation. Both frameworks have proven valuable in both cities to support the co-production of NBS and to identify and navigate critical conditions, opportunities, and barriers for co-production. Specifically, the insights help to characterise co-production journeys and patterns in cities and to derive lessons learned. From the insight on needs, barriers, opportunities, and lessons for co-production, we can further expand the co-production framework by identifying co-production capacities that embody the conditions that need to be in place to enable and facilitate co-production. This work has resulted in two draft guidebooks on co-production (Appendix A) and reflexive monitoring (Appendix B), which combine the theoretical review and practical experiences and examples and will be further enriched as the project moves along. The guidebooks are conceived as methodological guidance and rich cookbooks based on the theoretical review and practical experiences and examples with co-production and reflexive monitoring that are presented here., Suggested citation: Hölscher, K., Frantzeskaki, N., Lodder, M., Notermans, I., Sillen, D., Albulescu, P., Collier, M.J., Dick, G., Dushkova, D., Dziubala, A., Haase, D., Macsinga, I., Madajczyk, N., McQuaid, S., Osipiuk, A., Quartier, M., Sulea, C., Vandergert, P., van de Sijpe, K., and Vos, P. (2019). Connecting Nature Deliverable 4: Report on outcomes of meetings, consultations, webinars and workshops leading to the publication of a 'Co-creation for cities' guidebook and infographics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7011030

Co-creation and co-production of knowledge with relevant city actors are at the core of Connecting Nature activities and the development of a reference framework for impact evaluation also applied co-creation principles to the design of an iterative process between scientists and practitioners in cities. The aim of this deliverable is to summarize the outcomes of this comprehensive scoping and co-production exercise, focusing on the development of the first set of indicators to be applied and tested in the monitoring and assessment of nature-based exemplars in the frontrunner cities of Genk, Glasgow and Poznan, carried out under tasks 1.1 to 1.4 in work-package 1 (“Assessment, evidence, and evaluation”): Task 1.1: synthesizes and evaluates lessons learned in nature-based solutions experiments, mapping and constructing a database on successful and failed NBS projects developed in the European context. Task 1.2 maps the innovative and transformative emerging experiments for nature-based solutions, through an expert-driven assessment. Task 1.3 focuses on the development of a robust, short, and easy-to-apply set of indicators for impact evaluation, through the critical review of existing scientific evidence and indicators, the setting up of an iterative co-production process, which allows us to connect indicators to the frontrunner cities ́ singularities. Task 1.4 focuses on assessing the organizational structure of city councils, mapping those factors that either hinder or foster innovative urban NBS. Furthermore, this document will report progress in the construction of the indicators set so far, presenting the process and primary outcomes in the construction of a new reference framework to assess and monitoring of NBS., Dumitru, A., Lenoir Improta, R., Albulesca, P., Collier, M.J., Connop, S., Dick, G., Dushkova, D., Frantzeskaki, N., Haase, D., Lodder, M., Nash, C., Macsings, I., Martin, G., Mowat, L., McQuaid, S., Rhodes, M-L., Sillen, D., and Sulea, C. (2018). Connecting Nature Deliverable 1: Report on contributions to tasks 1.1 to 1.4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7010765