UNION OF THE BALTIC CITIES SUSTAINABLE CITIES COMMISSION

12 - 14 OCTOBER 2016 MEETING AGENDA

”Focusing on Natura 2000 and Integrated Storm Water Management”

Photo: www.visit..lv

MEETING AGENDA

Time and location: Wednesday 12 October – Friday 14 October 2016 in Jelgava Meeting venue: City of Jelgava, Human Resource and Competence Development Centre of Zemgale region, Svetes street 33

Wednesday 12th of October 2016

Arrivals 19.00 Get – Together Dinner at Jelgava Holy Trinity Church Tower Akademijas str.1

Thursday 13th of October 2016

08.30 – 09.00 Registration & coffee

09.00 – 09.45 Opening of the meeting Jurijs Strods, deputy Chairman of Jelgava City Council Daiga Vilkaste, Director of Nature Protection Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Björn Grönholm, Head of Secretariat, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission

09.45 – 11.00 EU requirements for the project’s assessment in Natura 2000 sites, Valts Vilnitis, representative of the environmental consultation company ELLE Natura 2000 sites in the urban areas in Latvia, Lucija Kursite, representative of the environmental consultation company ELLE

11.00 – 11.20 Coffee break

11.20 – 12.30 Practical examples on the project in Natura 2000 sites, located in the urban areas:

1) Life projects in Natura 2000 sites supporting sustainable development in cities, Ben Jepsen, NEEMO, the Coordination team; 2) Restoration and public access of urban coastal meadow complex in the Natura 2000 site in Pärnu town, Estonia, Bert Holm, Estonian Environmental Board 3) City of Pori, Finland, Seppo Salonen, Planning Manager, Environmental Agency

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 16.30 Visiting Jelgava Natura 2000 site (a walk in the area, tower visit)

16.30 – 18.00 Development project – Construction of the bridge crossing Natura 2000 site in Jelgava Representative of the Jelgava City Council, Lucija Kursite, representative of the environmental consulting company ELLE Discussion

19.30 Dinner on the Boat

Friday 14th of October 2016

09.00 – 9.30 News from the UBC (with coffee & tea) Björn Grönholm, Head of Secretariat, UBC Sustainable Cities Commission Book the date for the next UBC SCC Meeting 2017 Mervi Vallinkoski, Landscape Architect, City of Jyväskylä

09.30 – 10.30 Introduction to iWater - Integrated Storm Water Management project Pekka Salminen, Environmental Planner, Environmental Division, City of Turku Open up the discussion for the Intergrated Storm Water Management and green infrastructure in the urban planning Nika Kotovica, City of , Lessons learned from the iWater Summer Schools

10.30 –12.30 Interactive storm water work shop – Learn from colleagues Cities present their storm water challenges and solutions and share comments and recommendations. What are the key issues and challenges of storm water management? What are the values and benefits of green areas in storm water management and urban planning (e.g. economic,, recreational, attractivity)? Cities are welcomed to present and get feedback to storm water management in their own city. Please send your materials to [email protected] by 7th October. The preparation requires only brief description of the challenge/solution/area (e.g. 5-10 bullet points) and visual materials (e.g. printed photos and a map of the area).

Experiences from the cities: City of Jelgava, Zanna Barkovska, Engineer of hydrotechnical constructions Municipality, Ilze Tijone, Head of Development and City Planning City of Jyväskylä, Mervi Vallinkoski, Landscape Architect City of Lahti, Juhani Järveläinen, Water Resources Engineer

12.30 – 13.00 Conclusions End of the meeting

13.00 Lunch Afternoon Departures

NATURA 2000 AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

How does your city apply Article 6 of the Habitats Directive? What kind of issues have you faced when starting a project/plan including a Natura 2000 site? How has your city benefited from having a Natura 2000 site in your region?

Natura 2000 is a network of sites selected to ensure the long-term survival of Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats. The legal framework of Natura 2000 net- work is based on two EU Directives, the Habitats Directive (1992) and the Birds Directive (1979), providing guidelines for site conservation. Natura 2000 does not exclude human activity on the sites, rather it represents a model of humans working with the nature rather than against it. But often, misunderstandings and conflicts with stakeholders still arise during the urban plan- ning process regarding Natura 2000 sites – transparent permitting processes and communica- tion is therefore important for reaching dual goals: ensuring the well-being of the Natura 2000 sites and developing the city in sustainable means.

Information about Jelgava´s Natura 2000 area:

Since 2004, the nature reserve that spans over 352 ha has been listed as a Natura 2000 site, a part of the European specially protected nature area network. The nature reserve is also listed as an Important Bird Area to recognize its im- portance as a birds nesting site. All of this demon- strates the importance of the site as birds nesting grounds and a site of rare plant species.

The nature reserve hosts one of the last natural or minimally altered floodplain meadows with a high biological and ecological value. Three habitat types listed in Annex I of the Habitats Di- rective are found in the nature reserve. So far, 27 specially protected plant and animal species are found in the nature reserve.

INTEGRATED STORM WATER MANAGEMENT AND URBAN PLANNING

What kind of Storm Water solutions and challenges does your city have? How to get the most of today´s urban planning methods to improve your city´s storm water management? Is it possible to combine Natura 2000 and storm water management?

iWater - Integrated Storm Water Management project

Due to the climate change, the cities of the Baltic Sea Region face more fre- quent and intense storms and rainfall which often result in excessive flooding, storm water runoff and soil erosion in the urban areas. iWater - Integrated Storm Water Management project aims to improve urban planning in the cit- ies of the Baltic Sea Region via developing integrated storm water management (ISWM) system. During years 2015–2018, common guidelines and tools of integrated storm wa- ter management will be developed in the partnering cities with the involvement of local stake- holder and interest groups.

iWATER partners are: City of Riga (Latvia), City of Jelgava (Latvia), Municipality of Söderhamn (Sweden), Municipality of Gävle (Sweden), City of Tartu (Estonia), City of Helsinki (Finland), City of Turku (Finland), Aalto University (Finland), and Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission.

iWater is funded by the EU´s Central Baltic Programme 2014–2020.

Green Area Factor The Green Area Factor (GAF) is one of the main tools presented in the iWater project. Its goal is to mitigate the effects of construction by maintaining a sufficient level of green infrastructure while enhancing the quality of remaining vegetation. Thus, the green factor method improves the city’s prerequisites for adapting to climate change by promoting the green efficiency of the vegetation on the plots and the conservation of sufficient green structure. Vegetation mitigates the risk of flooding, reserves carbon dioxide, cools down the heat islands of built environments and increases the pleasantness and beneficial health-effects of the urban spaces. The method can support the land use planning process, and it is intended particularly for city planners, landscape architects and garden designers.

• Read more about developing the Green Factor method from this report by the City of Helsinki - Developing the City of Helsinki Green Factor Method • For more information about the iWater project: www.integratedstormwater.eu