Nature-Based Solutions for City Resilience

Sustainable Ocean Region Program Team/Niterói

Climate change in recent decades has posed new challenges to how cities are planned and managed. The increasing frequency of extreme events, such as heat waves, flash floods, prolonged periods of drought, and rising sea levels, highlights that the traditional urbanization model, based on rigid and poorly adaptable structures, no longer offers adequate responses to current demands. In this scenario, a new approach to urban management is urgently needed, based on systems thinking, capable of integrating mitigation and adaptation strategies, integrating residents as co-protagonists, and reconciling human development with environmental balance.

It is in this context that projects that utilize Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) stand out. These solutions are based on the principle that natural processes can be incorporated into urban dynamics to offer long-term social, economic, and environmental benefits.

Different types of NBS, such as constructed wetlands, bioswales, bioretention and detention basins, river rewilding, urban sponge forests, among others, help urban environments absorb, store, and reuse rainwater, reducing flooding and improving aquifer recharge. Green spaces, linear parks, green roofs, rain gardens, and ecological corridors become strategic elements, while simultaneously promoting population well-being, increasing soil permeability, conserving biodiversity, and contributing to thermal comfort. In this way, ecosystem services—such as climate regulation, air purification, protection of fauna and flora, and the provision of recreational spaces—are continuously enhanced, expanding collective gains.

The proposed workshops seek to explore precisely this transformative potential. Using a fictional city as a starting point, participants will be invited to analyze urban challenges and propose different NBS, exercising creativity and integrated thinking when faced with complex problems. The process will be overseen by the Sustainable PRO team, which will present the fundamental concepts for implementing NBS, including bioengineering techniques, ensuring that the solutions developed are not only technically feasible but also consistent with social and environmental needs.

More than an academic exercise, the workshops aim to awaken a critical and innovative perspective in participants, demonstrating that adapting to climate change depends not only on large-scale engineering projects, but also on small, multiple interventions, inspired by the very logic of nature and the involvement of residents as co-protagonists of the projects. Thus, each proposal will contribute to reinforcing the idea that greener, more permeable, and integrated cities are also more humane cities, prepared to face the climate challenges of the present and future. Bonus: POP Book.

Free

Vacancies: 25 per class (2 classes)

Each participant will receive 1 book about Parque Orla Piratininga as a gift.

Class 1

6.10 – from 2pm to 5pm

Class 2 

7.10 – from 3pm to 6pm

Registration:
Registrations must be made by form available here.

Registration will be open until one day before the workshop starts.

Selection will be made in order of registration.

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (28.09):

10am to 2pm – activity Bixiga River Territory reforests Canudos in Horta Denuzia

10am to 6:30pm – 4th Jewelry Festival in the Jewel Park

11am to 12pm – workshop First Half

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm – workshop CLIMATIVA: Climate Action Plan for Brazilian cities

1pm to 9pm – SP Meeting Forum

IN THE NEXT DAYS (29.09 to 04.10)

September 29th to October 3rd – workshop Embodied landscapes

September 30th and October 2nd – Biomaterials Mini-Workshops at the Living Lab

30.09 – Guided tour of Pantanal Action

10/1 – conference Means of production with Jane Hall

10/1 and 2/2 – session 4 and session 5 of the show Cinema, architecture and society at the cinematheque

01.10 – workshop Between blades and gaps: project models in Glulam

01.10 – workshop Grammars of Nature – architectures of the infinitesimal at the Living Lab

02.10 – movie The Strength of Form – bent lenticular beam in wood at IABsp

02.10 – Amerindian Farms in Oca. Amazonia from the Margins to the Extremes: Labya-Yala of FAU-USP

02.10 – tables Preserving biodiversity in the city + Trees and Thermal Justice

03.10 – tables Housing policies for the homeless population and the experience of the FICA Fund + Innovating the Regularization of Affordable Housing + Cultural facilities in adapted historic buildings

03.10 – Workshop on Designing Wooden Structures with Fiber at IABsp

03.10 – Visit to Morro Grande Park

04.10 – Discussion round with Instituto Cambará and guided tour

04.10 – Film: When Brazil was modern

04.10 – Landscape, Geography, and Refugee Birds. A Reading-Performance by Gian Gigi Spina

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

(Activities and projects are still being added; the site will be complete soon)

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.