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EU Horizon 2020 UPSURGE Project

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The UPSURGE project will develop an EU Regenerative Urban Lighthouse focused on regenerating cities through the power of nature.

The EU Horizon 2020 funded project, UPSURGE, is jointly led by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and Belfast City Council’s climate unit (BCC). The project aims to provide a new developmental model for cities to implement nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban space to address the urban challenges such as carbon footprints and air pollution.

There are five cities involved in the project: Belfast (Belfast City Council), Breda (Municipality of Breda), Budapest (Municipality of 18th district of Budapest), Katowice (Katowice City Hall) and Maribor (Regional development agency of Maribor). As the Demonstration Site Work package lead, the research team at QUB are supporting each city to test co-creation processes to design, construct and implement different kinds of locally adapted NBS across multiple demonstration sites.

Belfast’s demonstration site, located in the Belfast City Council-owned Lower Botanic Gardens, will test urban agroecology and re-carbonisation of soil through the establishment of community and research gardens.

Soil contamination has been tested through a soil survey at the site to understand the historical contamination that is present in the underlying soil due to the area’s industrial past and ensure site development plans incorporate appropriate remedial measures to prevent the public from being exposed to this contamination.

Across the duration of the project, sensors and sampling will capture local air and soil quality data. These will be measured against a range of social and environmental Key Performance Indicators to understand the impact of nature-based-solutions in cities.

The project has received funding from the Europe Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101003818.

The EU Horizon 2020 funded project, UPSURGE

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Impact of Research

UPSURGE’s main objective is to build the EU Regenerative Urban Lighthouse as a reference framework offering guided support on how tested and verified NBS can be strategically implemented to significantly improve the multitude of problems faced by cities.

The Lighthouse will be a knowledge and practice-based European framework created on real-life tested NBS practices implemented by different innovative EU cities, research institutions and companies. As the knowledge core of the Lighthouse, the Urban Regenerative Development.

Major grants and funding

ESRC SPACE Project

Publications

Campbell, E., Keeffe, G., Cullen, S., Budhiraja, B. & McKinley, J., 30 Sept 2023. Lessons on co-designing nature-based solutions for urban regeneration and pollution alleviation in the EU Horizon 'UPSURGE' project

McKinley, J.M, Mueller, U., Atkinson, P.M., Ofterdinger, U., Cox, S F., Doherty, R., Fogarty, D., Egozcue, J.J., Pawlowsky-Glahn, V. (2020) Chronic kidney disease of unknown origin is associated with social deprivation and environmental urbanisation in Belfast, UK., Environ Geochem Health.

McKinley, J.M, Mueller, U., Atkinson, P.M., Ofterdinger, U., Jackson, C., Cox, S F., Doherty, R., Fogarty, D., Egozcue, J.J., Pawlowsky-Glahn, V. (2020) Investigating the influence of environmental factors on the incidence of renal disease with compositional data analysis using balances. Applied Computing and Geosciences, vol 6, 100024

McIlwaine, R., Cox, S., Doherty, R., Palmer, S., Ofterdinger, U.,& McKinley, J.M. (2014). Comparison of methods used to calculate typical threshold values for potentially toxic elements in soil. Environmental Geochemistry and Health. Volume 36, pages 953–971

McIlwaine, R., Doherty, R., Cox, S., & Cave, M. (2017). The relationship between historical development and potentially toxic element concentrations in urban soils. Environmental Pollution, 220, 1036–1049

Cox, S., Chelliah, M., McKinley, J.M., Palmer, S., Ofterdinger, U., Young, M., Cave, M.R. & Wragg, J. 2013, 'The importance of solid-phase distribution on the oral bioaccessibility of Ni and Cr in soils overlying Palaeogene basalt lavas, Northern Ireland' Environmental Geochemistry and Health, vol 35, no. 5, pp. 553-567.

Collaborators

QUB staff:

Prof Jennifer McKinley (QUB PI)
Prof Greg Keeffe
Dr Siobhan Cox
Dr Neil Ogle
Dr Rory Doherty
Dr Sean Cullen
Mr Conor Graham, PDRAs
Dr Emma Campbell,
Dr Bakul Budhiraja
PhD student Jennifer Newell

Sustainable Development Goals

UPSURGE is also contributing to several SDGs:

SDG 3: Good health and well-being by increasing access to green spaces that has been demonstrated to improve human health and well-being, and by reducing air pollution thus reducing associated diseases.
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation by promoting restoration of water-related ecosystems through NBS.
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth by developing self-reliant and sustainable business and finance models on NBS and by promoting NBS based development-oriented policies.
SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries by emphaticising inclusiveness, tackling the global and local urban disparities throughout the project with the aim to address equity in societal and environmental challenges.
SDG 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by providing green infrastructure, positive social and cultural changes, engagement space and events, healthier environment.
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production; by helping to implement NBS policies and spreading awareness/knowledge regarding NBS within all the relevant stakeholders.
SDG 13: Climate action through the promotion of NBS implementation towards enhancing the resilience of urban and peri-urban ecosystems.
SDG 15: Life on land; by promoting NBS for restoration of urban and peri-urban degraded land and soil.
SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions by implementing innovative co-creation and citizen engagement mechanisms for integrating citizens in the decision-making and design-to-maintenance process of NBS in urban planning.

Find out more

Keywords associated with the Research: Nature-Based Solutions, Climate change, Sustainability, Air Pollution, Co-Creation, Urban Regeneration

Contact Details / Social Media

Visit the Project website for all news articles / media features: https://www.upsurge-project.eu/

@UPSURGE_H2020

Prof Jennifer McKinley
@mckinley_geojen
Dr Siobhan Cox
@DrSiobhanCox
Bakul Budhiraja
@BakulBudhiraja

Further relevant information

• Jennifer Newell and Postdoctoral Fellows Dr Emma Campbell and Dr Bakul (QUB)
• TedX talk by Siobhan Cox: Reimagining Construction
• Belfast City Council https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/belfastresilience
• Geography, Civil Engineering, Architecture and Centre for GIS and Geomatics at Queen's University Belfast

Project press releases
• Student Research – Investigating Contamination in Urban Soil and Vegetables
• Belfast Research Garden will help tackle pollution and prepare society for climate change
• The importance of urban green and blue space and nature based solutions
• UPSURGE project plans to take shape: https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/featured/UPSURGE-takes-shape.html
• Botanic Gardens set to get £588k scientific research site

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