Transitioning towards Urban Resilience and Sustainability (TURaS)
Aim of the project
The TURaS initiative brings urban communities and businesses together with local authorities and researchers to collaborate on practical new solutions for more sustainable and resilient European cities. The TURaS project is coordinated by University College Dublin and receives €6.7 million in funding from the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU. For the first time in history more than 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas, compared with less than 30% in 1950. This percentage is expected to further rise and reach 70% by 2050.The unprecedented urban growth combined with the consequences of climate change causes significant environmental challenges for European cities, ranging from the loss of urban biodiversity to increased flood risk.
In response to these challenges, researchers, local authorities and business partners from 16 cities in 11 different European countries will work together over the next five years to create new transition strategies to enable European cities to build resilience and sustainability and reduce their urban ecological footprint.
Each city will focus on a particular strand of research before coming together at the end of the five years with an integrated approach to urban resilience and sustainability. In Rotterdam, Stuttgart and London, for example, to mitigate higher flood risks researchers will look at new ways of using up rain water, such as green walls and roofs.
In Brussels, Rome and Seville, business leaders will look at ways to support sustainable local businesses, while in Dublin and Nottingham, the feasibility of using derelict sites to increase urban biodiversity and improve urban community life will be investigated.
Solutions provided by PRACSIS
With its expertise and experience in EU communication projects, PRACSIS will be in charge of the development and maintenance of the interactive TURaS web platform. The platform will be central to all communication and dissemination activities within TURaS, as it will:
provide an open forum for interaction and exchange between project partners, local authorities and citizens in the participating urban areas, and
integrate a user-friendly database of clean-tech businesses in the participating urban districts as well as a business forum to facilitate networking among local businesses.
Furthermore, PRACSIS will be actively involved in dissemination activities. For this reason, communication tools will be employed to further strengthen the project’s outreach. Social networking websites will be used, media material will be published and success stories will be showcased in local languages.
Visit the TURaS website designed by PRACSIS:
TURaS on the FP7 website:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=FP7_PROJ_EN&ACTION=D&DOC=1&CAT=PROJ&RCN=100238
Project partners
Institut Bruxellois Pour La Gestionde L’environnement, Belgium
Varna Free University, Bulgaria
Pracsis Sprl, Belgium
Institute For Sustainability, United Kingdom
Dermot Foley Landscape Architects Limited, Ireland
Sevilla Global S.A., Spain
Comune Di Roma, Italy
London Borough Of Barking And Dagenham, United Kingdom
Helix Pflanzen Gmbh, Germany
Gemeente Rotterdam, Netherlands
Barking Riverside Ltd, United Kingdom
Climate Alliance - Klima-Buendnis - Alianza Del Clima E.V., Germany
Regionalna Razvojna Agencija - Ljubljanske Urbane Regije Zavod, Slovenia
Institut Za Arhitekturu I Urbanizam Srbije, Serbia
Nde Consultants Ltd, United Kingdom
Dublin City Council, Ireland
Bic Lazio Spa, Italy
Bioazul, Spain
Vereniging Voor Christelijk Hoger Onderwijs Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek En Patientenzorg, Netherlands
Municipality Of Sofia, Bulgaria
Verband Region Stuttgart, Germany
European Business And Innovation Centre Network, Belgium
Universitaet Stuttgart, Germany
Universita Degli Studi Di Roma La Sapienza, Italy
Aalborg Universitet, Denmark
Univerza V Ljubljani, Slovenia
University Of East London, United Kingdom
Project Details
Client:
DG Research, European Commission
Services/Activities:
Communication platform development, dissemination of project results, web design