Participatory processes contribute to the design of urban spaces based on the understanding of user experience and by enabling alternative or customized solutions. Children and youth benefit from participatory processes by being provided with the opportunity to build a sense of place and belonging, community responsibility, active cooperation, and creativity. However, they are often constrained by the expectations of adults, which isolate them from community participation and social activities. Despite advances in the legal and normative sphere, the realization of the right to participation in relation to children faces significant challenges in order to move from the availability to listen to their voices towards sharing power and responsibility in decision-making. The influence of adultcentrism includes children being seen merely as "the future" and yet not fully capable of making choices and decisions that affect their lives, which also results in silencing and legitimizing rights violations such as those based on age group, gender, race, ethnicity, functional diversity and sexual orientation. Such perspectives do not recognize the gradual autonomy of children – the progressive acquisition of competences inherent to this phase of life. A child-friendly city is committed to an ongoing process of implementing the rights of children and adolescents. In this context, participation is an opportunity to break with adultcentrism and establish horizontal relations of dialogue and intergenerational learning. This session is dedicated to debating the engagement of children in participatory processes for nature-based adaptation. Children can contribute inspirational content about nature and connecting to the local neighbourhood, transforming this knowledge into ideas for change as well as creating compelling messages to fellow citizens of all ages. The methodology proposed for this session is to present practical experiences in a diversity of formats, which will contribute evidence pathways related to the successful engagement of children and youth in the co-creation of nature-based solutions in order to advance sustainable urban development. Three papers will be selected for presentation during the session as well as a paper with URBiNAT workshop results. Topics may address, but are not limited to:
a) childhood specificities in participatory processes;
b) intergenerational learning;
c) legal mechanisms and public policies to guarantee the participation of children;
d) ethical issues involving children e) design and planning in schools;
f) engaging children as part of the achievement of the right to the city.
This paper presents the initiative called "Pollution-free school" involving the "Giuseppe Bagnera" School located within the City of Rome. The initiative has involved the active participation of the pupils and the APA (Air Pollution Abatement) innovative Italian technology provider SME company IsCleanAir®.
In the two years that approximately have elapsed since the launch of the initiative, in April 2016, training and dissemination activities have been carried out, and community awareness programs (school, students, teachers, citizenship, administration, etc.) on the issues of air pollution. In addition, various tests and experimentation phases were carried out, in particular for measuring and more importantly abating pollutants coming both from the intense road traffic that develops in proximity of the School, and from other emissions of residential origin.
The APA demonstrator which was based on an innovative nature-based filterless water-based technology APA, low running cost and zero waste, consisted in a cluster of 3 APA® Large model Abatement systems deployed outdoor in the external perimeter of the school. In order to measure the abatement effectiveness of the APA systems, different sensors for monitoring NOx, CO and Black Carbon were deployed and in collaboration with CNR ISAC and CNR IMM of Bologna, various monitoring campaigns were carried out.
Results highlighted the efficacy of the APA nature-based technology in eliminating the wider spectrum of air pollutants present in the ambient air. Specifically, it was observed that in just 14 days of daytime operation of the APA systems the average concentration of BC did decrease by approximately 50%, similar abatements were recorded for NOx. Whilst the performance for CO was much higher reaching 80%.
During the duration of the experiment pupils were asked to draw and paint the APA Large models stimulating their interest for the topic and making them active participant in the successful initiative.
Urban green spaces (UGS) are important parts of the urban ecosystem, offering solutions for dealing with extreme heat waves, debacles, or floods, and promoting a first contact with the local biodiversity, motivating informal environmental learning [1]. But access to natural parks and contact with different forms of non-human life, mainly by children, has been restricted with the increasing urbanization of the population [2] and the reduction of learning and leisure time outdoors [3]. Research results highlighting the positive impacts of UGS should be used to inform decisions in city planning, involving its inhabitants as agents of the dynamic processes of cities’ transformations and adaptations. And children, as city dwellers, should also be considered in these processes. However, the question arises: are children being involved in the planning and maintenance of the UGS? And, recognizing children's agency, how can these spaces be created, managed, and transformed also through their effective participation and involvement? Using a participatory approach for engagement, we aimed at understanding what preschool children prefer in the city landscape. Photo-elicitation interviews were used to find their opinions, emotions, and perceptions about the city of Coimbra, Portugal, and were complemented with drawings created by children, in two different occasions: following the interviews, and embedded in a storytelling about a utopian new city. The drawings were treated as Personal Meaning Maps [4] and analysed accordingly. Eighteen children, ten aged 5 and eight aged 6, participated in the photo-elicitation interviews, and ten in the storytelling and free drawing sessions (three aged 5 and seven aged 6). Results show that children, in their perception of the public urban space and in their preferences, are mostly guided by aesthetic and emotional values. Aesthetics values were classified through the identification of positive and negative attributes; the attributes identified as underlying emotional values were all positive. Overall, there were almost no direct references to nature, or UGS. It thus appears that urban living can challenge the expected innate affiliation with nature. This result adds to previous observations that children prefer less biodiverse urban gardens [5], supporting the suggestion that the diminishing time children spend outdoors and in contact with nature may enlarge the nature/culture divide [3,6,7]. Together, results show how young children envision a "better city" and how that construction can defy current scientific knowledge on the positive impact of urban biodiversity on human health and well-being. In particularly, children seem to be well adapted to the building environment. From their perspective, the city emerges as a space that offers multiple opportunities to establish meaningful relationships with friends, family, and space. As such, contrary to expectations, young children envision a city that does not necessarily include UGS. However, results also show that urban biodiversity triggers positive memories and interest and curiosity for environmental-related issues that can be used to foster co-construction of significant knowledge.
1. Reyes-Riveros, R. et al. (2021). Linking Public Urban Green Spaces and Human Well-Being: A Systematic Review. Urban For Urban Green, 61, 127105.
2. United Nations (2018). World Urbanization Prospects. 2018 Revision.
3. Neto, C. (2020). Libertem as crianças. A urgência de brincar e ser ativo. Lisboa: Contraponto Editores.
4. Falk, J. et al. (1998). The effect of visitors’ agendas on museum learning. Curator, 41, 2, 106–120.
5. Hand, K.L. et al. (2017). Children's biophilia: importance of urban gardens. PNAS, 114, 2, 274–279.
6. Chawla, L. (2020). Childhood nature connection and constructive hope: A review of research on connecting with nature and coping with environmental loss. People and Nature, 2, 3, 619–42.
7. Dutcher, D.D. et al. (2007). Connectivity with nature as a measure of environmental values. Environ Behav, 39, 474–493.
The URBiNAT project aims to involve local citizens to jointly create a Healthy Corridor in three European cities to ensure the inclusion of neighborhoods living in areas with major social and environmental challenges. A co-creation process organized in 4 phases, co-diagnosis, co-design, co-implementation and co-monitoring, is being implemented in the cities. As part of the co-design phase implemented in Porto, a participatory process involving kids, among others, has been organized in the six schools located in the area to be regenerated.
The objective is to co-design a Nature Based Solution (NBS), namely a vegetable garden, that can answer to educational, environmental, and inclusivity purposes. The process, organized in 8 activities, involves 3 groups of participants and it is implemented through different participatory methodologies. Kids between 8 and 12 years olds together with their teachers from each of the six schools, students participating in the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) post graduate programme and experts of the site area from URBiNAT consortium have been involved in the following activities:
Activity 0 (URBiNAT experts) – Co-selection of the NBS to be implemented in the schools through focus group meetings with Porto municipality. Outcome: vegetable garden NBS for kids
Activity 1 (Teachers and kids) – Teachers gathering kids’ preliminary ideas and inputs after a preliminary training about NBS and URBiNAT received from URBiNAT experts. Outcome: analysis and selection of possible locations of the vegetable garden in each school; preferences’ collection between vertical vegetable garden and mobile vegetable garden.
Activity 2 (Urbinat experts + teachers and kids) – Kids presenting motivation of the selection to the experts; walkthrough with URBiNAT experts guided by kids through the possible locations in the school; co-design of the vegetable gardens functions with kids in groups reflecting on biodiversity and ecosystems; analysis of maintenance requirements of both solutions with teachers and URBiNAT experts. Outcome: coloured drawings and balsa models of the vegetable garden project produced by kids; presentation of projects by kids to the URBiNAT experts.
Activity 3 (Urbinat experts + IAAC students) – IAAC students developing design alternatives inspired by kids’ projects; alternatives include structures for cultivation and textures inspired by Porto's “azulejos” to stimulate senses and enhance the sense of belonging to the place. Outcome: scaled models produced with advanced manufacturing and parametric design techniques.
Activity 4 (Urbinat experts + teachers + kids) – Kids, supported by URBiNAT experts, evaluating design alternatives through emotional mapping adapted at kids and by inspirational re-connection of their projects from Activity 2 with design alternatives proposed by IAAC students. Outcome: Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of design alternatives.
Activity 5 (Urbinat experts + IAAC students) – IAAC students fine-tuning the design alternatives. Outcome: real scale prototype of vegetable gardens portions.
Activity 6 (Urbinat experts + teachers) – Co-adaptation of design alternatives to be implemented. Outcome: infrastructure requirements’ analysis for each school.
Activity 7 (Urbinat experts) – IAAC researchers developing the final design for each school. Outcome: final design of the vegetable garden for each school.
Activity 8 (Urbinat experts + teachers and kids) - Co-implementing the solution together. Outcome: vegetable garden implemented in each school.