On October 26-27, Bolzano and Merano hosted a two-day in-person meeting with their twin city, Brescia, Italy.
The representative of Bolzano, Federico Michael Fleischmann welcomed architect Laura Treccani, Viviana Pochetti and Stefania Boglietti from Brescia's Department of Urbanistic and Strategic Planning, and led the participants to the visit of the roof in Via Lancia, a pilot site for nature-based solutions implementation. This roof will soon become a biodiverse green roof and partly an extensive solar green roof. Next, participants also explored Bolzano's Gardening Department and met with Katia Zanoner, the technical collaborator of the Gardening Department. Katia explained the "RIE", a system ensuring green practices in Bolzano's construction projects for over 15 years.
The following morning, participants met at Merano's city hall, where Nicola de Bertoldi, the urbanistic director, provided an introduction and the JUSTNature team presented the activities of JUSTNature planned for Merano. Following this, Andrea Balestrini, the projects ecological expert, explained the recently introduced "ecological functionality index" within Merano's building regulations. This innovative approach mandates that every new project reaches specific points related to biodiversity and inclusiveness of flora and fauna.
In terms of the cross-learning exchange, the Brescia delegation then showcased their remarkable project, "un filo naturale", aimed at facilitating a green transition in the city of Brescia.
Before concluding the event, attendees had the opportunity to explore green areas in Merano, where they encountered towering historic trees. The central learning exchange focused on knowledge and experience in implementing nature-base solutions including technological tools to monitor the impact of interventions.
This Cross-Learning workshop was very fruitful for both municipalities and they agreed to empower further collaboration and exchange of ideas, suggestions for effective implementation, and experiences in NBS.
We look forward to continue our partnering!
