Nine ambitious local governments will join stakeholders from seven European cities in kicking off a new city collaboration programme as part of the Smart Mature Resilience (SMR) project at a Stakeholder Dialogue in Thessaloniki (Greece) on 7 November 2017.

The event will see participating cities sharing and exchanging local government policies and tools for strategically building city resilience. European cities are facing increasingly frequent and intense hazards and risks as climate change and changing social demographics place their critical infrastructures under increasing pressure. Sharing good practices can help them plan ahead for known and unknown shocks and stresses.

As part of the SMR project, three so-called "Tier 1" cities, Glasgow (UK), Kristiansand (Norway) and Donostia/San Sebastian (Spain), have co-developed a suite of tools to support them and other cities in planning, budgeting and identifying replicable policies towards their resilience goals. A second group of "Tier 2" cities, Bristol (UK), Riga (Latvia), Rome (Italy) and Vejle (Denmark), has been closely observing and providing feedback on this process.

At the one-day Stakeholder Dialogue, these cities will share their knowledge of these tools and contextualise them in terms of real policies to a new group of "Tier 3" cities including Amman (Jordan), Athens (Greece), Greater Manchester (UK), Malaga (Spain), Malmච(Sweden), Reykjavik (Iceland), Stirling (UK) and Thessaloniki (Greece). The event will be officially opened by the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris.

Research as part of SMR has found that cities and their critical infrastructure are interdependent, and that cities can help further boost their own resilience by supporting and fostering resilience in other cities. SMR is supporting the potential for replication by working towards international standards in city resilience management.

The first CEN workshop initiated by SMR, spearheaded by German standardisation organisation DIN, CEN WS/88 - Functional Specification for a Resilience Information Portal is underway. Two further envisaged CEN Workshop Agreements, City Resilience Development - Maturity Model and City Resilience Development - Operational Guidance, will kick off in Thessaloniki on 8 November, following the Stakeholder Dialogue. To join the standardization processes, please contact rene.lindner@din.de.

For further information, visit the project website.Image copyright: sourced from Flickr more   5 October 2017 Deadline approaches for European Green Leaf AwardThe application deadline for the European Green Leaf Award is fast approaching, with the submission period set to close on 18 October.

To celebrate the tenth year of the European Green Capital competition, the European Commission will, for the first time, award a financial prize of €75,000 to the winner of the European Green Leaf 2019 title.

The European Green Leaf Award, established in 2015, commends the work of smaller cities in driving environmental change. Previous winners include Mollet del Vallà¨s (Spain), Torres Vedras (Portugal), and Galway (Ireland).

The award is open to all towns and cities across Europe with a population of between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. The evaluation process consists of two-stages. First, an international independent expert panel assesses each city's application, selecting a shortlist for the second stage of the competition. Applicants are then assessed based on six topic areas.

For information on the entry criteria and to submit an application, visit the European Green Capital website.Image copyright: EGCA & EGLA Awards Ceremony, Essen, 2017 by "Rupert Oberhà¤user" more

» Publication Date: 09/10/2017

» Source: Iclei Europe

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