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Project Cities
The Co-ADAPT project brings together Berlin, Vienna, Košice, and Ankara to collaboratively explore and implement community-driven nature-based solutions tailored to diverse urban contexts across Europe.
Berlin
Berlin is at the forefront of implementing nature-based solutions, particularly in water-sensitive urban design and community-led green initiatives. The city demonstrates how NbS can be integrated into dense urban environments to address climate adaptation and biodiversity challenges. Berlin faces various climate challenges, in particular increasing heat waves and changes in precipitation patterns, which are placing growing pressure on urban greenery—especially trees that have been declining for years. Environmental burdens and access to green infrastructure remain unevenly distributed across the city. At the same time, Berlin is at the forefront of implementing NbS, particularly through community-led green initiatives and water-sensitive urban design as the city aims to develop into a “sponge city”. In this way Berlin is demonstrating how NbS can be integrated into dense urban environments to support climate adaptation and biodiversity. However, budget cuts are forcing environmental organizations and community centers to scale back their work, limiting progress despite existing civic engagement. Against this backdrop, the Berlin Climate Adaptation Law, which was enacted in late 2025, offers hope that these challenges can be overcome in the future.
UfU – Independent Institute for Environmental Issues
Contact: Nicole.Wozny@ufu.de
Vienna
Vienna is actively implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to address urban heat islands and strengthen overall sustainability, with a strong focus on green infrastructure such as tree planting, façade and roof greening, and the unsealing of paved surfaces. Supported by strategic frameworks like the city’s Urban Heat Island (UHI) plan and research led by institutions such as BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences), these efforts demonstrate how increasing urban vegetation can significantly reduce heat and improve microclimates. Initiatives like the “Greener Linien” project, showcased by GRÜNSTATTGRAU, highlight the potential of façade greening in dense urban areas, while collaborative research projects such as NBSOIL and UrbanHeatEquality explore soil health, climate resilience, and the social dimensions of NbS to ensure equitable implementation. Vienna also contributes to cross-sectoral approaches through platforms like the Alpine Climate Board, addressing challenges such as water management, and promotes the unsealing of urban surfaces as a key strategy for enhancing climate adaptation, as emphasized in projects like LAND4CLIMATE.
IEC – Innovation Education Centre
Contact: pelin@zentrumib.org
Košice
Košice represents a dynamic urban context where nature-based solutions can support sustainable transformation, enhance green infrastructure, and strengthen community participation. Over the past 50 years, the average annual temperatures of European cities have increased by more than 2°C. In the summer heat, it is even more than 5°C. It is important to note that the city of Košice is in partnership with cities in the project that are at least as large in terms of population as the entire Košice and Prešov regions combined (Vienna) and as the whole of Slovakia (Ankara), or Slovakia without Bratislava (Berlin). The temperature increase in Košice is the highest. While the average annual temperatures over the past 50 years in Ankara have increased by 1.8°C, in Berlin by 2.3°C, in Vienna by 2.4°C, in Košice they have increased by as much as 2.7°C!
People & Water
Contact: danka.kravcikova@gmail.com
Ankara
According to Ankara’s city plan, the city is located on the Ankara Plain, effectively forming a “bowl” that once supported a balanced ecosystem of vineyards and fresh air. However, rapid and dense urbanization over the past 50 years has led to the disappearance of these vineyards, turning the “bowl” into a polluted environment further exacerbated by unorganized traffic and a rapidly growing population. Today, green areas are insufficient, small, and fragmented—particularly in Çankaya—while larger green spaces, mostly man-made regional parks, fall under the jurisdiction of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, creating property and governance challenges for implementing cohesive green infrastructure. At the same time, Ankara’s city center, especially the Çankaya/Kızılay area, is heavily vehicle-oriented, with limited and disconnected pedestrian zones divided by major roads. Climate change adds another layer of pressure, with increasing temperature fluctuations, drought, extreme precipitation, and shifting seasons; heavy rainfall leads to stormwater damage in impervious urban areas and erosion in rural zones, negatively affecting both human and ecological systems. As a semi-arid city with declining water availability—exacerbated by the transformation of natural water sources into sewage systems and reduced snowfall—Ankara faces growing water scarcity, making improved water management essential for sustainability. In response, Çankaya Municipality has taken initial steps, aligning with the Covenant of Mayors to reduce carbon emissions and implementing its Sustainable Energy Action Plan (2015–2020), while also participating in EU-funded projects such as “Climate Resilience through Rain Harvesting,” which developed pilot water retention landscapes and led to the construction of biological sloughs, one of which received recognition from the Healthy Cities Association. Through initiatives like Nature4Cities, Çankaya aims to build on these efforts, offering a vision of a greener, healthier, and more livable city supported by shared knowledge and global best practices.
DKM - Nature Conservation Centre
Contact: tugba.can@dkm.org.tr