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Description
According to contemporary trends in architecture and urban planning, as described in documents such as: ‘The New Charter of Athens 2003: The European Council of Town Planners'' Vision for Cities in the 21st century’ and ‘The Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities’, modern cities should be designed upon the principle of prudent use of the environment. The idea of a ‘smart city’ is also popular – a city that is intelligent, innovative and responds to the needs of its inhabitants while maintaining economic, ecological and social balance. According to the Statistics Poland, as of 2019, only 4% of the City of Radom''s area is green space. This is four times less than in e.g. the City of Chorzów, 10 times less than in the City of Gdynia or the City of Zielona Góra. The year-long air quality research shows that the air in Radom belongs to the most polluted in Poland. In the ranking of European cities (Barcelona Institute for Global Health) in terms of concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) Radom takes the 16th position among cities with the most polluted air in Europe. In 2021, we conducted a survey on the need for changes in environmental policy, use of green areas and engagement of the city’s residents in pro-environmental activities. During the survey, more than 50% people rated the city''s green space most critically and less than 20% critically. The Map of Green Needs of the City of Radom is a digital tool through which we will increase the civic potential of the city. Its main task will be to activate residents in order to collect their ideas and comments on urban greenery and environmental protection in the city. People using the Map will be able to express their needs concerning ecology. The Municipality’s officials and councilors will receive data together with the analysis of needs and recommendations for the City. Non-governmental organisations working on their ecological initiatives will also be able to use the collected data.
Summary of project results
The Map of Green Needs of the City of Radom is a digital tool with which we have increased the civic potential of Radom and the participation of our city''s society in the consultation process. The main task of the tool was to activate Radom''s inhabitants, collecting on one platform their ideas and comments relating to issues related to greenery and environmental protection, which was to contribute to the development of civil society and the improvement of green infrastructure in the city. Our goal was to improve the process of conducting public consultations in Radom and to increase the real influence of residents on ecological and spatial policy. Therefore, at the end of the project, we decided to publish a report on the functioning of the map of Radom''s green needs, both in paper and electronic versions, in which we developed the collected ideas, divided them into categories, showed the percentage of interest in each of them and described the direction of changes proposed by residents. We handed over the entire analysis contained in the report to the Mayor of Radom, representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of the City Hall, councilors of the City Council and presidents of Radom housing cooperatives. Thanks to the media''s interest and the implementation of the communication strategy, we sparked a public (social) discussion about greenery in the city.
Thanks to the application we launched, the residents of Radom were able to mark on the virtual city map the location and the initiative that should be taken there, including, above all: new plantings, mini neighborhood parks, green recreation squares, elimination of heat islands, green stops, and lawn development. In order to use the potential of Radom residents - as shown by the total number of submitted proposals at over 150 - together with other non-governmental organizations and informal groups of residents, we established a social, non-governmental consultative council for greenery, which includes: the Association Łączy nas Radom, the Association Radomians for Democracy, Hale Krychnowice Social Committee, Nature Protection League.
To support the message that you should invest in urban greenery, we organized the Zielony Radom symposium and a series of three online debates. We included other non-governmental organizations in our activities that could demonstrate specific activities in the area of civil society development, grassroots initiatives and the fight for greenery in the city. Additionally, in order to increase communication, administrative and legal competences, we organized a series of four training courses for non-governmental organizations, during which we created a space for discussions about environmental protection and getting to know each other, in line with the principle that non-governmental organizations (thematically close to each other) should cooperate with each other.
The project has fulfilled the hopes placed in it, which is to bring about a change in society, trigger a discussion about greenery and prepare a solid report that will set the city authorities'' course of action towards green investments in the city. We assumed that 150 people would be really interested in the map of Radom''s green needs and would enter 100-150 of their ideas. Meanwhile, the outdoor and media campaign resulted in as many as 838 unique users visiting our website and entering a total of 167 ideas. This is a great success, showing that, as we expected, the people of Radom have their ideas, but they do not have one place where they could share them, believing that they will be passed on - to the city authorities. Thanks to the prepared report (brochure), the ideas included in the application were permanently documented, and the material transferred to the city authorities, including councilors and housing cooperatives, gives a real chance to implement the direction set by the residents and use at least a few of the submitted ideas. The guardian of the achievements of the application is the above-mentioned social, non-governmental consultative council for greenery, which will submit its ideas for implementation in the area belonging to the city and housing cooperatives. Great media interest provided an opportunity to reach a multitude of Radom residents who could learn about the idea of the map, the conclusions drawn from its operation and the idea that it is worth investing in nature (greenery). A change in mentality, impossible to measure today, may pay off in the coming years. Conducting training courses increased the knowledge and competences of social activists, which will have a positive impact on building a civil society in the near future. The list of ideas was also submitted to the City Hall as consultation material, which was to be helpful in creating the city''s Green Areas Development Program.