Urban Nature Development

Increasing the quality, connectivity and accessibility of nature across urban areas

The delivery phase of the Future Parks Accelerator (FPA) programme built on Birmingham’s work to transform their whole portfolio of urban green spaces. It required the team to explore new ways to significantly improve the quality, connectivity and accessibility of nature across the city. We needed to address any gaps and build on FPA foundations in two key areas: nature on the doorstep of those with little or no provision (‘levelling up’ access to nature and green space in priority neighbourhoods) and urban nature recovery networks across a whole city.

We needed to be creative, ambitious and inclusive designing projects that would help National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Trust, other local authorities and their partners, central government and other funders to understand the key issues, challenges and opportunities when it comes to ‘levelling up’ access to green space and nature and delivering nature-based solutions to climate change in urban areas.

Nature on the Doorstep
This designed and tested how to increase access to nature on the doorstep in priority neighbourhoods – those neighbourhoods or wards with little or no access to green space and nature currently. Street trees, rain gardens, and pocket parks would all be part of the solution, as well as making more space for play and active travel. We were particularly interested in understanding the barriers to doing this and how they can be overcome, the policy changes that are needed and how solutions / approaches can be scaled across the city and replicated in other cities.

We needed to explore and test innovative ways to design, use and care for any new spaces; solutions need to be multidisciplinary and developed by a range of different departments and organisations, so we worked with a broad selection of internal and external delivery partners, and consulting an extensive range of stakeholders, including for example: transport, active travel, highways, engineering, planning, regeneration and housing, utility providers.

The projects also consider the broader context, including implications of new external / government policy such as the proposed planning policy changes, the new Green Infrastructure Standards or the implementation of ELMs.

Outputs included a study which details the feasibility of improving access to green space and nature in grey urban neighbourhoods. It was informed by pilot(s), focused on how to deliver increases in those neighbourhoods with little or no existing provision. It considered the opportunities, challenges and barriers, as well as any policy changes that might be necessary to successfully deliver, scale or replicate this work. The report covers learning gathered from engaging communities and stakeholders.

Urban Nature Recovery Networks
We want to improve the quality, connectedness and accessibility of existing urban nature across the whole city through the development of the urban element of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). The project would design, develop and test how to deliver urban LNRS and demonstrate how nature-based solutions in cities could improve climate resilience, particularly to heat and flooding.

It involved planning what needs to be done to deliver ambitious nature recovery networks, testing creative engagement tools and piloting new interventions. We needed to think long term and to consider the sustainability / resilience of our approach. Maintaining and securing the improvements in quality, connection and access across the ‘urban nature network’. There is a strong link to the innovative funding models that FPA helped to develop such as Habitat Banks (Biodiversity Net Gain) and Charitable Foundations. Other important considerations were how nature recovery networks are embedded in local plans and strategies and the leadership and delivery capability and capacity needed for effective stewardship.

Outputs included a blueprint for how to create, maintain and invest in an urban nature recovery network and guidance for others to follow that is:

Ambitious – unlocking city scale change, with significant investment in nature and green space much more likely in the future as a result.
Pioneering – With their partners the Council are willing and confident to be pioneers locally, and pathfinders for the rest of the UK.
Forward thinking – It demonstrates a commitment to new ideas and innovation in a positive and proactive way, positioning access to urban green space and nature as a long-term foundation for the future wellbeing and prosperity of cities and towns.
Collaborative – Sharing approaches, learning together to enhance understanding of different models and solutions in an open and honest way.
Inclusive – Demonstrates broad, active engagement across society and business to achieve a step change in community participation.

Ultimately it should ensure a greater range of people are able to benefit from access to green space and nature across urban areas.

To look across the whole city in one go would have been beyond the capacity afforded by the FPA programme so East Birmingham was used as the pilot area for this work. This covered 20 wards including 10 of the 14 Red Wards identified in the Environmental Justice Map: https://naturallybirmingham.org/environmental-justice/ with a total population for the 20 wards of 230,000 people making the area for the pilot bigger than many British towns and cities.

The East Birmingham Green Infrastructure Master Plan was one of the outputs from the Urban Nature Development programme. This master plan provides a helicopter or big picture view of the projects the council wants to undertake in the upcoming years allowing Birmingham City Council (BCC) to look not only at individual projects but how these all relate to each other and the wider environment. It not only provides a high level approach but also includes detail when you ‘zoom in’.

Typically, master plans forecast for five to ten years in the future. So, although the City of Nature is a 25year plan, beyond five years it can be difficult to estimate costs and determine the feasibility of projects. Because of this the master plan will be reviewed and updated on a cyclical basis. It is based on our goals, city growth projections, and the state
of our current facilities. It covers everything from small scale improvement projects to new large-scale infrastructure projects.

The Green Infrastructure Master Plan for East Birmingham will provide the blueprint for how to create the biophilic relationship between nature and the city that is needed to deliver the City of Nature Plan. Birmingham’s biophilic city design is described in the City of Nature Plan.