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Description
"Implementing innovative measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change in municipalities in Bulgaria" is a predefined project run by the National Trust Ecofund in partnership with eight Bulgarian municipalities and the Norwegian association of regional and local authorities (KS). The main objective is to improve the capacity of local authorities to plan and identify creative and innovative urban planning solutions and to implement them to mitigate impacts and adapt to climate change.
The project will focus on increasing the capacity of the targeted municipalities to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to respond to extreme weather events by applying more efficient and innovative measures.
Through trainings and study visits to Norway, local authorities will be supported in assessing their strategic plans and programs - including already implemented climate actions, and will be facilitated in integrating the new knowledge and experience as to climate action and urban development.
The role of the National Trust Ecofund is to provide expertise and cooperate with the municipalities to review and assess their strategic plans as well as to elaborate innovative investment measures. The Norwegian partner will contribute at all stages of the project with the information regarding best practices and experiences in most recent innovative technologies for small scale infrastructure in cities.
The municipalities - Burgas, Kardzhali, Plovdiv, Ruse, Sliven, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Varna will be responsible for managing and implementing the relevant pilot investment actions. The Norwegian partner will contribute all the way through project implementation by sharing experience and best practice models for customizing the latest innovative technologies.
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Summary of project results
The project improved the capacity of local authorities and identifying and implementing specific measures to reduce the impact on climate change and adaptation to it in the field of urban planning and development, based on an analysis of their plans and measures implemented so far. The result achieved is an improved ability of local authorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for extreme weather events through more innovative measures than those currently implemented. An important goal of the project was to start the process of pilot implementation in Bulgaria of some aspects of the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change.
The project envisages improving the capacity of local authorities and identifying and implementing specific measures to reduce the impact on climate change and adaptation to it in the field of urban planning and development, based on an analysis of their plans and measures implemented so far. The result will be an improved ability of local authorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for extreme weather events through more innovative measures than those currently implemented. An important goal of the project is to start the process of pilot implementation in Bulgaria of some aspects of the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change. Municipalities in Bulgaria had already started implementing some climate change mitigation actions, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, waste management schemes or introduction of electric transport. However, there was no experience in Bulgarian municipalities for planning and execution of climate change adaptation measures for urban development, except of some investments in river banks improvements or landslides management measures, implemented as reactions to already appeared disasters. In addition, the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy was endorsed by the Government of Bulgaria in late 2019. It does identify three main risks causing the vulnerability of the sector of urban development as a consequence of climate change: extremely high temperatures, causing the heat island effect; extreme and/or prolonged precipitation causing floods and landslides; high temperatures combined with draughts causing water stress. The most vulnerable cities, which were identified as project partners, are Bourgas, Kardjali,Plovdiv, Ruse, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Sofia and Varna. The eight municipalities were the end beneficiaries of the project and they co-created the project results as well. They developed themselves the analytical reports which served as basis for two major project results: the updated climate change policies in the municipalities and the identification of the relevant investment measures which was implemented during the project.
The innovative measures that were implemented in the 8 participating municipalities under the project are:
- for Stara Zagora Municipality- Building of an anti-heat island in an neighbourhood area;
- for Kardzhali Municipality- Extending the blue-green infrastructure to the old part of the town;
- for Plovdiv Municipality- Rainwater drainage through a complex ecological solution of dammed critical sections of the road infrastructure;
- for Burgas Municipality- Building urban natural island to combat heat and intense rainfalls;
- for Sliven Municipality- Transforming pedestrian street into a green corridor between two city parks in a residential area;
- for Ruse Municipality- Creating innovative anti-heat island;
- for Varna Municipality- Prevention system for monitoring and control of negative geodynamic processes resulting from intense precipitation;
- for Sofia Municipality- Blue-green acupuncture in Vazrazhdane Park - addressing an urban heat island effect by separating a ''cooled'' area.
In addition, two project trainings were conducted: The first started the process of analyzing the existing strategic and planning documents of the municipalities, as well as implemented and currently implemented projects related to climate change. The project partners from the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities and the Western Norwegian Research Institute introduced the participants to the report they prepared on international experience and good practices, and the Bulgarian consulting team introduced the participants to methodology for analysis of existing strategic and planning documents and implemented projects in municipalities. The total nuber of experts trained was 32. In November 2022, the second training was held. 73 participants from 44 municipalities from all over Bulgaria took part in the training. The topic was related to how municipalities can be proactive in order to meet the risks of climate change in populated areas. The aim of the training was to prepare experts from municipalities in Bulgaria for planning and implementing measures for adaptation to climate change in urban areas, for which funding is provided in the various programs of the next programming period.
Three working meetings of the expert teams from the municipal partners of the project were held. The purpose of these meetings was to finalize the analytical reports based on the steps provided in the methodology, as well as on the basis of the learned and shared experiences during the study trips in Norway and to finalize the decisions on the investment measures, cacti and finalize the work on the update proposals of municipal policies and national legislation, as well as the curricula in secondary and higher schools of construction, urban development and landscaping included in them.
Three study trips under the Project were also carried out, the purpose of which was to familiarize on the spot with the experience and good practices of the Norwegian partners for implementing innovative solutions related to adaptation to climate change in an urban environment. Representatives of the eight partner municipalities under the project paid a visit to Bergen and Western Norway within 26-30.04.2022 and 09-13.05.2022. The groups included the expert teams of the partner municipalities – Burgas, Varna., Kardzhali, Plovdiv, Ruse, Sliven, Sofia and Stara Zagora, as well as representatives of NTEF and of the advisory team.
The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and the Western Norway Research Institute (WNRI) were hosts and organizers of the program in Bergen and Western Norway.
The purpose of the visit was on-site familiarization with the work of the Norwegian municipalities in the climate change adaptation field, as well as with concrete projects, which had been implemented or were currently being executed.
In the week from 31 October to 4 November 2022, a team of the Norwegian partners under project visited Bulgaria. During the training, which was attended by over 70 representatives of more than 40 local authorities throughout Bulgaria, the Norwegian team presented the role and functions of the Norwegian municipalities in the climate change adaptation activities, as well as the experience of several countries with concrete measures to adapt to climate change in urban environment.
Representatives of the partners paid a visit to Oslo within the period 22-25 March 2022. The delegation included deputy mayors and project coordinators from the partner municipalities, as well as representatives of NTEF and of the advisory team. The purpose of the visit was on-site familiarization with the work of the municipalities in Norway in the climate change adaptation field, as well as with concrete projects, which had been implemented or were currently being executed.
The project is designed to meet the needs and interests of wide range of stakeholders beyond the direct partners. Main project stakeholders on the national level were the central ministries (of environment, of regional development), professional chambers of architects, of construction companies and specialists, the National association of municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria and other associations and networks of cities and municipalities, relevant universities, specialized NGOs, etc. The stakeholders can be described in four major groups: policy and political level institutions on national, regional and local levels; executive power institutions on local and national levels – municipal administrations, businesses, academia, professional associations, municipal networks and associations; local and national NGOs and civil society.
The policy and political level institutions are the two directly involved ministries (the Ministry of Environment and Water – MoEW and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works – MRDPW of Bulgaria) and their regional and local bodies, as well as the Bulgarian Parliament with its relevant committees and the municipal councils of the eight municipalities. The MoEW, being the coordinator of all climate related policies and actions, is responsible for the implementation and future update of the third National Action Plan for climate change and the Strategy of adaptation, to which the implementation of this project contributes significantly. The MRDPW is the institution developing and implementing the policies in the field of regional development and urban planning and development. As the technical report prepared to serve the development of the Adaptation strategy stated, the regulations in this field need serious review and update to meet the challenges and consequences of climate change. Thus, the identification and implementation of the innovative measures raised very specific and concrete issues concerning the effective current regulations. The expectation of the partners is that the project activities will raise the interest of the professionals in all these institutions and one of the “by-results” of the project will be an established “new” professional network of engineers, landscape engineers and architects who will be with an improved capacity to further work on similar innovative urban development projects.
NGOs involved in environmental protection, media and the wide public were also targeted. The general public support for innovative measures is always of significant importance for their execution and utilization. Knowing that innovation often precedes legislation, such type of activities really needs public support. For this reason, the publicity campaign under the project envisaged outreach also to these groups.
Summary of bilateral results
The KS partners from the Donor State provided an overview and report on the implementation of good practices and innovative solutions. The main topic was innovative solutions for preventing the heat island effect and disasters in urban areas due to climate change.An important stage in the development of the vision and understanding of the innovative solutions funded under this project were the study visits to Norway. The first group study trip included representatives of the municipal leadership of the eight partner municipalities - mayors / deputy mayors. The remaining two study tour groups included representatives of the partner municipalities together with NTEF staff and technical experts. These visits covered more practical and technical examples, but also visits to Norwegian municipalities. Another important stage of the project were the policy analyses for the eight municipalities. They were developed by the project teams of the eight municipalities, following the methodology, and supported through a series of meetings organized by NTEF experts and with the expert support of KS. The expert partners from the Donor Country contributed to the development of the terms of reference and technical specifications for the technical design of the eight innovative projects. They worked closely with and advised directly the assigned contractors.The Norwegian partners also participated in some of the publicity activities and contributed to the overall management of the project.The Bulgarian project partners relied heavily on the chance to learn about the innovative solutions already being implemented in Norway in this direction, as the Donor State partner had the most advanced experience in this area. In this sense, the project capacity building activities were crucial for the identification and development of specific investment measures for each of the partner municipalities.