NbS Bike Tour | Ankara

Starting at the Ankara City Council and ending at Esat Hal, the cycling tour offered an opportunity to examine Ankara's urban landscape from an ecological perspective. Along the route, participants were encouraged to observe street trees, green spaces, paved surfaces and the relationship between buildings, roads and natural systems. The tour highlighted several key urban environmental challenges, including the urban heat island effect, limited soil permeability, stormwater runoff and fragmented green spaces. By observing these features directly, participants explored how NbS could be integrated into existing streets and public spaces. The tour introduced a range of small-scale nature-based solutions relevant to the urban environments encountered along the route. Street trees play an essential role in reducing urban temperatures, providing shade, improving air quality and supporting biodiversity. The tour highlighted opportunities to improve growing conditions for existing trees by increasing permeable soil areas and introducing vegetation around tree pits. Impermeable roads, pavements and building surfaces prevent rainwater from naturally infiltrating the soil. Participants explored how rain gardens, vegetated depressions and other small-scale rainwater retention measures could help manage stormwater locally while supporting urban greenery. Replacing selected impermeable surfaces with permeable materials can improve rainwater infiltration, reduce surface runoff and contribute to healthier urban soils. The tour encouraged participants to consider where such interventions might be appropriate. Connecting fragmented green spaces through street trees, native plants and pollinator-friendly vegetation can help create ecological links within densely built neighbourhoods. These connections can provide habitats for birds, butterflies and other urban wildlife.

Throughout the tour, participants carried banners featuring slogans promoting nature-based solutions, helping raise public awareness of greener and more climate-resilient cities. At the final stop, Esat Hal, participants attended a presentation introducing the project and providing information on practical small-scale NbS applications in urban environments. The tour also demonstrated how cycling can support participatory urban observation. Moving through the city at a slower pace allowed participants to notice environmental details that are often overlooked in everyday travel. By combining sustainable mobility with ecological awareness, the activity encouraged participants to reconsider familiar streets as spaces with potential for climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation.

On 11 October 2026, the Nature Conservation Centre (DKM), in collaboration with the Ankara City Council Cycling Assembly, organised a NbS Bike Tour as part of project. The tour brought together cyclists and citizens interested in urban sustainability to explore how Ankara's streets, green spaces and public areas could become more climate-resilient.