The Life Pact project is an ambitious project that stands for People-driven: Adapting Cities for Tomorrow.
It is about the ability of cities to deploy and improve nature-based solutions (NBS) that can help them adapt to climate change. The project is funded by the European Commission’s LIFE programme and is implemented in Leuven (Belgium), Madrid (Spain) and Krakow (Poland). A partnership was created between the City of Leuven, the city of Krakow, the city of Madrid, Zorg Leuven, Leuven 2030, KU Leuven, Democratic Society, Dark Matter Labs and University Politecna de Madrid.
The aim of the project is to develop and test an integrated approach to urban climate change adaptation (CCA) that relies on the efforts of multiple stakeholders, including local government, citizens, universities and private actors, to more effectively implement NBS. The city to encourage residents to also soften and green their gardens and driveway.
After an initial workshop on the possibilities in gardens and driveways, the garden rangers were called in to give residents free advice. During a garden visit, residents are inspired and informed about how they can make their garden more biodiverse and climate-adaptive.
Residents are also financially supported eg. when planting a tree in the front garden or placing a rain barrel. Group visits were also promoted to facilitate collaborations with neighbors. In order to bundle all these actions and support in a communicative way and to stimulate residents even more, the neighborhood challenges were set up. This form of "gamification" is a collaboration with KU Leuven and aims to encourage citizens to take action in the gardens and driveways.
Specifically, 3 challenges were formulated: green your garden, remove pavement and collect rainwater from roofs. The more actions they register, the more stars and rewards they can earn for the district. With one achieved star we send a food truck during their neighborhood party and with 3 achieved stars we organize garden concerts in the neighborhood.
