SPIRE Smart Post-In dustrial R egenerative E c osystem (Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions)
UIA Project Proposal • 31 January 2019
Context & Current Challenges Baia Mare is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania. With a population of ca. 147.000 (INS, 2017), and a metropolitan area home to more than 230,000 residents, Baia Mare is the capital of the Maramureș county. As the former mining capital of Romania, its main urban challenge is to re-incorporate its highly polluted brownfields into the productive urban fabric through a strategy capable of integrating: ●
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innovative planning and land-management methodologies and tools to regenerate and bring back to life formerly industrial sites, as well as to re-incorporate and reconnect the Sasar river corridor with the local system of parks and green areas; the mitigation of heavy metal (HM) pollution-related risks, through the re-naturalisation of contaminated land and the start of a long-term phytoremediation process;
● the triggering of new bio-based economic development opportunities; ● the generation of alternatives to fossil fuel to foster sustainable energy transition; ● participatory approaches to co-create and promote environmentally-friendly actions and behaviours. Baia Mare’s industrial past in the mining and metallurgical sector left a legacy of approximately 627 ha of land polluted by heavy metals (up to 5 times the acceptable value) within the municipal boundaries, which is totally disconnected from the urban framework. Following Coman (2006), pollution in Baia Mare led to strong public health consequences: compared to Romanian average life expectancy is reduced by 2,2 years; overall mortality index is 10-15% higher; D2 avitaminosis frequency is 65-95% higher;and the frequence of metabolic diseases caused by Pb is 40-60% higher. Additionally, according to the city’s Integrated Urban Development Strategy (IUDS) and Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), 74,45% of the total housing units in Baia Mare are in need of capital energy refurbishment, also because approx. 55% of the total energy consumption in households is dedicated to ensure thermal comfort. Nonetheless, after the closure of mines and metallurgical industries (the last one in 2012), Baia Mare shifted to a secondary-tertiary profile, becoming one of the most economically evolved cities in the region: e.g. the number of registered enterprises grew by 21.5% (2010-2013, INS), and GDP pro capita in Baia Mare grew by 35% (2010-2015, INS). The challenge is therefore not just environmental: the entire urban ecosystem needs to be revitalized, by proposing a new urban economic development model based on the relevant local intellectual and social capital and on a new understanding and use of urban resources. Renaturing and re-introducing the brownfields into the productive local ecosystem would not only minimise the resuspension of pollutants and their interaction with the population – thus providing better environmental and public health conditions – but it would ultimately further boost the city’s attractiveness and productiveness, towards the full exploitation of Baia Mare’s growth potential.
SPIRE Baia Mare • U IA Proposal • 31 January 2019 Page 2
Overall Objective & Proposed Solutions SPIRE has the ambition of starting a long-term environmental, social and economic redevelopment in Baia Mare, facilitating its transition from Romania’s ex-mining capital to a leader of environmental design and production. It will achieve this through the co-development of new adaptive and productive landscapes, integrated into a circular ecosystem of cascading material and energy value chains. The 1st stage will be dedicated to activation, development and construction of all the resources to be deployed or exploited. Specifically, the focus will be on: ●
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Fostering the participatory process, by activating a critical mass of local stakeholders and creating the SPIRE Hub where all participatory and mentoring initiatives will take place; Surveying the latest applied research on in-situ phytoremediation and its integration in bio-based economies; on standards and KPIs; and performing a multi-dimensional baseline analysis for Baia Mare). This will result in the Remediation Toolkit, a strategic choice catalogue for business models suitable for wide EU-level use, and a conceptual adaptive site management application, as an interactive scoring system; Developing a GIS-based Dynamic Atlas allowing long-term monitoring and planning, and the iLEU: a local token-based value system aimed at rewarding sustainable behaviour and eco-entrepreneurship.
The 2nd stage will be the core of SPIRE’s strategy and will encompass all the activities instrumental to the development of a bio-based circular ecosystem in Baia Mare: ● ● ●
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Co-creation of the final designs for 4 local landscape pilots ; Implementation of renaturing and landscaping actions, and phytoremediation of Pilot Sites 1-3; Deployment of a biomass energy valorization chain, leveraging on short rotation coppice (SRC) used in the phytoremediation process and iLEU-supported community entrepreneurship; Mentoring and Incubation of 3 start-up businesses developing carbon-neutral experimental materials with construction / industrial applications, using 15% of the phytoremediation biomass. The start-ups will be selected via a 2-phase competition involving experts assessment and citizens’ vote through iLEU, and will trigger the emergence of a new circular bio-based economy leveraging on local regenerative (and renewable) resources Incentivization of further adoption of Toolkit NBS by citizens individually.
The final stage will implement a Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the SPIRE value chains. Then, based on the results of phytoremediation and the LCA, SPIRE will further co-develop the Masterplan 2050 for Baia Mare’s Metropolitan Area: the long-term land re-use and bio-economy development strategy re-integrating ca. 650 ha of brownfields at
SPIRE Baia Mare • U IA Proposal • 31 January 2019 Page 3
Metropolitan level and SPIRE-heading the implementation of Positive Energy Districts (PED) and subsequent creation of quality green jobs for the future.
Expected Results SPIRE will generate change in Baia Mare’s local situation under many dimensions. Its different activities are indeed designed to impact in an intertwined, integrated and cross-cutting way the social, environmental, economic, and strategic planning spheres of the city. From the social point of view, SPIRE will stimulate awareness, knowledge and capacities related to environmental sustainability in order to actively engage and involve the citizenry and local stakeholders in the co-creation and embedding of a shared system of values aiming at a shift in the overall behaviour, attitude, and relationships between actors, towards an eco-friendly culture and a widespread collective ownership of SPIRE’s goals and activities. From an environmental point of view, SPIRE will overall reclaim ca. 8 ha of polluted and/or unused public land through an adaptive agenda able to deliver both short and long-term results. Combining landscaping design with the adoption of phytoremediation techniques will not only renature and reconnect such areas with the urban system but also trigger a long-term brownfields’ remediation process and foster a “land-hold” strategy for future development ambitions/goals. Additionally, added value will be generated from the yield of biomass produced on the pilot sites, which will ultimately turn into a reusable resource. From an economic point of view, SPIRE will capitalise on underused local resources in order to stimulate the development of new green-economy activities. This will result in the generation of a bio-based energy supply and the start-up and incubation of new businesses dedicated to the prototyping and production of innovative construction materials, with the ultimate effect of reducing the overall GHG emissions in Baia Mare. Finally, SPIRE experiments will produce a body of empirical evidence upon which to build in order to develop further plans and strategies for higher territorial levels.
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