The setting up of Project Green, with a budget of €700 million over a period of seven years, offers great hope to those who have been eliciting the need for a more resilient and sustainable built environment. 

A more resilient and sustainable built environment implies designs that maximise economic, social and environmental goals. Resilience and sustainability are not limited to the environmental dimension but are also geared towards enhancing the socio-economic dimension of localities. A socio-economically thriving locality gives a sense of belonging to residents, operators and visitors fostering further investment.

The ‘green’ in Project Green can, ironically, be a potential forma mentis limitation both in the design as well as in the expectations from the selected interventions. The ‘green city’ concept in its purist form often relies on nature-based solutions. However, today’s green should also encompass clean technologies and systems which can make our localities wealthier in all senses.

We must, therefore, guard ourselves and demonstrate an ambition that befits the sustainability challenges of today. Physical development has led to pressures on natural cycles. It is, therefore, paramount to reinforce natural cycles and ecosystem services through robust designs not solely through the planned planting of trees and shrubs but encompassing green and blue infrastructure, mobility and decarbonisation challenges.

Green and blue infrastructure contributes to socio-ecological well-being in terms of recreation, relaxation and various forms of exercise. It improves the air we breathe, harvests water and can also provide for small-scale food production.

It reverses the impact of urbanisation while increasing the aesthetic appeal in the area of intervention taking the form of landscaped areas with high degrees of permeability, rather than the more traditional asphalt and concrete rendering. These provide shading, lower heat gains and manage storm water close to where it is generated.

In dry weather, these spaces can also be used for recreational purposes. We can no longer fail to exploit land parcels by designating only the ground level use but we need to exploit subterranean levels of such spaces for water and waste management while also making them centres of environmental excellence.

Designs also need to coax a new form of sustainable mobility and foster a culture of cleaner energy sources, maximising all forms of interventions that can contribute to decarbonisation.

Greener travel should be sought in the core of the locality, identifying out of town parking spaces complemented by shuttle systems to the locality to enable such a transition.

Project Green can be truly a game changer in good urban governance- Kevin Gatt

Priority should be given to cycling and walking by designating connected pathways that permit convergence to the centres of gravity within the locality. In doing so, we should experiment with initiatives such as the walking school bus which could start the inculcation of a new trend in mobility.

Today’s built environment often presents a sterile space that requires residents to move out of the locality for employment, amenities, leisure and entertainment. This type of infrastructure embellishes localities, making them more attractive to business, creates themed spaces for recreation within the locality and enhances their environmental dimension, thus offsetting the impact of development on natural cycles.

Project Green has the golden opportunity to transform localities into thriving economic,

social and environmental ecosystems. Project Green can be truly a game changer in good urban governance by understanding different stakeholder agendas, mitigating differences and offering equitable solutions which can address prevailing concerns without compromising the principles of sustainability and resilience.

This is not the time for polarising black and white solutions but for different shades of grey to prevail. A participative approach with established and less established actors and communities at the design stage will secure inclusiveness and responsiveness.

The Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure within the Faculty for the Built Environment has been sensitive towards the need to promote learning in this field with students. During the past three years, tutors and students have put forward proposals for a greener San Ġwann, Fgura and Swieqi.

We have studied the reaction of locality stakeholders to a greener and more sustainable San Ġwann as well as the public’s perception towards green buildings and spaces. Our students, the future designers of such spaces, have performed beyond expectations.

Local councils that are invited to sit on student presentations have demonstrated a very warm reception to these proposals. The appetite is there and needs to be satisfied.

The Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure within the Faculty for the Built Environment augurs Project Green every success and puts itself at its disposal for any support it may require.

Kevin Gatt is head of the Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure at the University of Malta.

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