a picture of Alesund
Ålesund, Norway

Famous for its Art Nouveau architecture, Ålesund is located on the Norwegian coast where mountains and 'fjords' meet the ocean.

A picture of Bruges

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, the capital of West Flanders, is distinguished by its canals, cobbled streets and medieval buildings.

A photo of Rimini
Rimini, Italy

Located on Italy's Adriatic coastline, Rimini is home to both wide beaches and a proud history. 

A photo of Burgas
Burgas, Bulgaria

An important industrial, transport, cultural and tourist centre, the City of Burgas is touching the Black Sea and its surrounding lakes constitute the largest group of lakes in Bulgaria.

a photo of Izmir
Izmir, Turkey

Inhabited for up to 8.000 years, the city of Izmir is today home to a dynamic population of 4 million. 

A photo of Rijeka
Rijeka, Croatia

A city of rich history and dynamic present, Rijeka is one of the crown jewels of the Adriatic Sea.

A photo of Pisek
Pisek (Czechia)

Nestled on both sides of the RIver Otava, the bridge crossing it to bind Pisek together is the oldest in Czechia. 

A photo of Constanta
Constanța, Romania

Located on the the Black Sea coast, Constanța's receives a significant number of visitors enjoying its waterfront each year. 

A photo of Cascais
Cascais, Portugal

Facing the Atlantic Ocean, Cascais is home to flower-filled cobblestone streets, beautiful white houses, and, of course, great beaches.

Integrated urban planning for climate neutrality

The Re-Value partnership consists of nine European waterfront cities and selected European organisations that will seek to make the urban transition irresistible for citizens and professional stakeholders. This will be done by demonstrating how climate neutrality and urban quality can be aligned, by re-valuing the cities’ connection to their waterfronts, strengthening co-benefits and mitigating potential adverse impacts.

The cities will work with long-term Territorial Transformation Plans (TTP) combined with specific area-based Waterfront Pilots.

Ålesund (Norway), Bruges (Belgium), Burgas (Bulgaria), and Rimini (Italy)  will demonstrate full-scale how integrated urban planning and design can be optimally deployed to achieve climate neutrality and significantly reduce GHG emissions by 2030.

In addition, Cascais (Portugal), Constanța (Romania), Izmir (Turkey), Písek (Czechia), and Rijeka (Croatia) will learn, replicate and develop their own participatory story-building, data-driven scenarios and financial and partnership models on integrated urban planning and design to accelerate their journeys to climate neutrality.

The partnership is coordinated by Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and is funded by the European Union's Research and innovation funding programme 'Horizon Europe'. It will be running continously until December 2026.

Systemic Challenges

Aligned with the Cities Mission, Re-Value focuses on six systemic challenges of urban planning and design

  • Systemic changes in governance, regulatory structures, advocacy
  • Societal and spatial quality
  • Financial and circular value chains
  • Data-driven co-creation, digital twins
  • Energy and mobility
  • Nature-based solutions

The work will be supported by three Innovation Cycles, focusing on:

  1. Aligning climate neutrality and urban quality, using participatory story-building to identify co-benefits
  2. Co-creating data-driven transition scenarios, empowering cities to use better data / data better
  3. De-risking investments, through value-based financial and partnership models to enable the cities to document and capture different values in urban complexity, and to synthesise them into a holistic approach towards climate neutrality.

Supported by this approach, the nine Re-Value Cities will fine-tune, share and test a Portfolio of Urban Design and Planning Methods in the project’s Community of Practice and Peer-to-Peer Programme.

This landing page will be transformed into a fully fledged website in May 2022. Until then, stay tuned by following us on Social Media.

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The Informed Cities Newsletter shares and discusses activities and results of governance and social innovation research and will include key news and outputs of Re-Value. It is published approximately four times per year and addresses a variety of timely topics, including Sustainable Mobility, ICT/Smart City, Rural-Urban Linkages, Cultural Heritage, Governance, Social Innovation, Social Justice, and more.

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The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the project and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.