Nature-Based Solutions through Blue-Green Infrastructure as Measure of Adaptation, Resilience and Liveability to Climate Change: Case Study City Lab Saltillo, Mexico

Abstract

The impacts of the current urbanization and climate change challenges are well documented, as well as, the role of cities and the urgent action that needs to take place at the local level, especially in small and middle-sized cities. As extreme climatic events unfold, there is a need to identify the potential and the strategies that can help municipalities steer urban planning on a more sustainable and resilient track to reach the global climate goals within the next decade. Now more than ever, Nature-based solutions (NbS) such as Blue-green infrastructure(BGI) are proving to be a feasible alternative for cities to adapt their urban environment in response to climate change, while simultaneously obtaining economic, environmental, and social co-benefits. Anticipating climate challenges in cities makes it vital to change today's traditional urban planning into initiatives that consider greener solutions like BGI. However, some implementation barriers such as the lack of stakeholders' involvement to navigate and co-create a more resilient and adaptive city environment, make difficult the transition. As part of the Morgenstadt Global Smart Cities Initiative (MGI), financed by the German Government through the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the city of Saltillo located in the Northeast region of Mexico is paving the path towards sustainable urban planning through the City Lab project. In the first phase, the City Lab consisted of an integrated urban analysis, stakeholder engagement, and the co-creation of a roadmap of solutions by experts and local actors to tackle the city’s urban challenges. The City Lab process allowed anchoring the identified measures in the planning documents of Saltillo, ensuring the implementation of the roadmap in the long term. Simultaneously, it opened up spaces for co-creation and community engagement valuable to understand the city´s local environment and identify its potential. In the second phase of the City Lab, the implementation of a pilot project based on BGI addressed the most pressing problems of the city such as pluvial floods, water scarcity, and depletion of aquifers. In this regard, the stakeholders were actively involved in analyzing, planning, formulating, developing, implementing, testing, evaluating, and maintaining the pilot project to cope with climate impacts and contribute to sustainable urban development in the short, medium and long term. In this paper, special attention will be given to the process of pilot project implementation, showing the efforts that the City Lab Saltillo is undertaking to implement BGI techniques such as rain gardens, infiltration basins, permeable pavement, and vegetation in a public and urban space as an adaptation measure in response to climate change. This effort is reshaping the city's discourse, shifting the role of urban planning, and highlighting climate action as a shared responsibility among the public, private, academic, and civil society