The European project TRANS-lighthouses explores how to design and realise Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to create fair and sustainable social and ecological solutions.
The role of the City of Brussels?
In Laeken, TRANS-lighthouses places citizen participation at the heart of its initiatives. By closely collaborating with residents, social housing agencies, schools, and local associations, the project aims to improve water management through the co-creation of Integrated Rainwater Management (IRM) solutions. These efforts address local environmental challenges such as flood risks and the urban heat effect while also strengthening social bonds and territorial resilience for the benefit of Laeken residents.
To achieve this, Brussels is working on:
- Citizen participation: participatory mapping and co-creation events that allow residents to propose solutions tailored to their neighborhood's needs.
- Co-creation of NBS: development of rain gardens, depaving of concrete areas, creation of green spaces, and water management systems based on community-driven ideas through participatory construction projects.
Participation in Verregat
In Verregat, a neighbourhood in northern Laeken, the City of Brussels is offering a citizen participation process to work with residents to implement integrated rainwater management solutions that will help reduce flooding in the city.
With its many green spaces, this neighbourhood is an ideal place to develop better rainwater management and improve the environment for residents.
Several activities are being organised to put rainwater management at the heart of the neighbourhood, in partnership with the social housing company Comensia. Residents learned about the challenges of water management by visiting the Sewer Museum and took part in several walks and workshops to rethink the neighbourhood.
For example, the joint assessment carried out in the neighbourhood identified areas in the Verregat Park where the addition of swales would allow for better water infiltration, which was quickly implemented by the Green Spaces Service of the City of Brussels.
These walks also made it possible to organise the first participatory projects in the gardens of certain residents to disconnect their roofs from the sewerage system, with the support of grants offered by the City of Brussels.
More info about the European project?
TRANS-lighthouses integrates a network of 'lighthouses' located in urban, rural, coastal, and forested areas. These 'lighthouses' serve as a metaphor to describe a set of local governance tools and instruments, integrated into multi-stakeholder networks.
Each lighthouse consists of Living Knowledge Labs, case studies, pilot projects, and international partners that aim to enhance the contributions of NBS while achieving ecological, social, and economic goals.
The External siteTRANS-lighthouses project consortium brings together research and innovation organisations, policymakers, and civil society organisations, with 19 European partners from 10 countries.
This project, funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program, runs from May 2023 to October 2026. All official project information and results are available here under grant number 101084628:
Why TRANS-lighthouses?
TRANS-lighthouses is an acronym for:
- T - Transformative: unlocking the full potential of NBS with communities.
- R - Reflexive: based on critical analysis and thorough evaluation.
- A - Activist: aiming for socio-economic and political changes.
- N - Networked: acting collectively across borders, disciplines, and sectors.
- S - Solutions: offering multidimensional and nature-based governance models.
Lighthouses: highlighting fair and equitable environmental practices to make our cities more resilient.
Contact and information?
Together, let's transform Laeken: depave, green, improve water management, and co-create a more sustainable future!
Would you like to realise a project related to water and/or the environment in Laeken? See the practical info tab.
Or join one of the activities of the City of Brussels:
External siteTRANS-lighthouses - Verregat quarter (in French and Dutch)
