Three dry years are behind us and have left clear traces in the urban green and the region. What do we need to prepare for? What can I do myself to mitigate the consequences?

Erwin Nolde (Nolde & Partner, part of EdiCitNet) discussed this topic in November with the Head of Water Management in Berlin, a journalist and filmmaker who did the documentary below, the environmental policy spokesman of the green party in Berlin, the environmental policy spokesman of the conservatives and the group manager of Berlin Forests.

Watch the whole discussion here: https://youtu.be/hMDCSRJrQ7Y

Watch the documentary here: https://www.rbb-online.de/doku/a/auf-dem-trockenen.html

Discussion and documentary are both in German.

As part of the technical visits organized by REACT to Tunisian ECSs, 13 members of the Tunisian network had the opportunity to discover the urban compostors designed by the artist and eco-designer, Mr. Lassaad Zouari. The visit was organised on October 2, 2020. Mr. Lassaad has created a cultural centre with an interest in and commitment to sustainable municipal waste management. He advocates for a selective collection of organic waste and its recycling as fertilizer using urban composters of different shapes and capacities and adapted to city life. It enables the produced young leachate and compost to be integrated into a green ECS, thus closing the nutrient loop. Mr. Lassaad had openly shared his vision with us for two hours and presented other creations in favour of sustainable development. The typical behaviour of the Tunisian citizen within the city is integrated in the design of the products in order to increase their lifetime and attractiveness. Mr. Lassaad is organising open trainings and awareness sessions for different visitors and target groups including pupils every Saturday in order to change mentalities and promote the adoption of composting in the city. We thank our host very much and we hope that his urban composter will be used by many Tunisian families and it will be unavoidable for ECSs.

In order to adapt the toolbox to the needs of cities within the project, WP2 (Toolbox for enhancing ECS learning) has strengthened the collaboration with WP5 (Documentation and Monitoring) and WP3 (Living Labs) and with City Teams of Berlin and Montevideo. The topic of the meetings was to discuss how the toolbox could assist Living Labs and FC in data collection and monitoring.
WP2 has proposed an integrative approach for LL monitoring. The main goal is to have all data automatically stored in the EdiCitNet database and have all procedures unified in one online platform: the toolbox web.
Currently, WP2, 3 and 5 are closely collaborating to further develop such proposal.
We will be more than glad to arrange new meetings with all cities and partners that ask for it.

Gardens belong to Berlin. They are greening and refreshing the city, produce healthy food, protect and create fertile soils, are spaces for socializing, sharing, learning and community building. The Berlin allotment gardens started with this more than a hundred years ago and are as popular as ever. Community gardens are rather young, but their number is crowing. Both types of urban gardens get more and more under pressure because of planned constructions. The Forum Stadtgärtnern is an initiative where community gardening and allotment garden activists gather their creativity, knowledge and resources in order to protect and support the diversity of urban gardens in Berlin. The group is organizing debates, addressing papers to politicians and participating in demonstrations and actions in favour to protect urban green, a sustainable urban development and concerning climate change.

Register to our Marketplace to find out more about Forum Stadtgärtnern and other interesting initiatives: www.edicitnet.com/biz/

Friedrichstraße runs in front of our office in Berlin and is one of the most famous shopping streets in the city. Normally it is heavily trafficked, but now the city has implemented a pilot project that turns a section of the street into a strolling mile without cars. Stores and residents in this area can present themselves in so-called “showcases” (glass boxes), and well-known brands such as Rolex or Cartier show their collections and models here.

We as EdiCitNet project and resident of Friedrichstraße also take up this offer, but of course, we do not present products but the Edible City of the Future!  With a raised bed, information posters about the Living Labs in Berlin and visions of the future, we invite everyone to imagine a city next to consumption and car traffic that is edible and combines social, ecological and economic factors.

Join our Network to share your visions and ideas about the Edible City of the Future! www.edicitnet.com/join-the-network/

In order to make the EdiCitNet toolbox web more inclusive and user friendly, ICRA, UL, SEMIDE and BOKU are joining efforts to translate the web into 7 different languages: English, Catalan, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Slovenian and German. The whole web is translated, except the sections that are under
construction.
WP2 would like to include as many languages as possible. Therefore, if you want to see the EdiCitNet toolbox web in your own language, please contact us, we will be very glad to give you guidance on the translation procedure.