Community social characterization
Brussels Capital Region has 19 municipalities with a variety
of people with socio-spatial fractures, economic inequalities.
30,000 (neighbourhood) > 178,000 (municipality)
Governance in the pilot case
Current legislation has a strong focus on democratic innovations (neighbourhood councils, participatory budgeting)
Motivation of the pilot
Flooding risks occur more and more. Mostly socially vulnerable groups live near the basins where water damage occurs the most. Giving more room to water within the city (passive approach towards water threads) by integrating NBS for water management with regard to the complex social challenges.
Local governance profile
Brussels municipality, regional organisations, local partners
(universities, institutional partners, SMEs, inhabitants).
Target group
Focus on precarious and vulnerable populations within the
intervention zone.
Existing NBS applications and initiatives
H2020 project “URBiNAT” with NBS projects in Never-
-over-Heembeck. City is piloting NBS: water management,
urban agriculture, biodiversity, energy management in
municipal buildings, and support to citizen initiatives.
Small scale NBS testing
Formalizing water taskforce for the intervention zone in line
with the framework of TRANS-lighthouses (e.g., inclusion of
under-represented groups, iterative participatory process),
to integrate water measures as part of NBS spatial interventions. Several specific sites can be chosen, depending on bottom-up dynamics and other projects of the city.
Leverage resources for NBS
Climate Action Plan and Municipal Water Plan are essential
tools to leverage NBS implementation. At the Regional level,
various plans such as the regional water plan or the regional
climate plan.
Challenges raised during the preparatory meetings
The social context of the intervention zone will have to be studies. Mapping the cultural, ethnical, social and religious landscape in order to be truly able to find representatives of each group and to engage the community.
Environmental Challenges
Flooding risks, overflow of sewage waters and Urban Heat
Island effects (UHI) : adapting to these challenges, linked to
an increased densification of the urban landscape (sealing
of surfaces), and balancing the various needs attached to
land uses (e.g. housing)
Who owns the land?
Diverse and diffuse ownership structures. The city and the
social housing companies own some buildings in the perimeter. Opportunities for pilots can be found near owned (social) houses or buildings, where the city can bring additional stimulus surrounding the integration of water measures in co-design processes, on top of the bottom-up dynamic.
Social Challenges
Diverse, growing population, with associated housing needs,
lack of public services, and many young children, as well
as an intergenerational gap in public services, and specific
needs associated with international migration (administrative,
economic, socio-educational, and health support).
Related projects to create synergies
Contrat école Paul Henri Spaak. Deconnection of roofs
Brussels expo, redesign of the prince Leopold square,
existing subsidies for water works (prime verts), communal
water plan and its proposed structures and projects.
Economic Challenges
Precarity and polarisation linked to financial precarity, and
a growing concern with education (qualification for the job
market, intergenerational dynamics, language skills, discrimination in recruitment procedures, drop out levels from
training programs).
Possible local partners, associations, initiatives and champions to be engaged
Brussels municipality, regional organisations, local partners
(universities, institutional partners, SMEs, inhabitants).
Neighbourhood council, Brusseau-network EGEB-network.