EURESFO 2024: Unleashing Urban Resilience in Valencia

The European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) conference was held between 26-28 June 2024 with the participation of Soma Oláh, represented by the József and Erzsébet Tóth Endowed Hydrogeology Chair; the Climate Change Multidisciplinary National Laboratory project RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00014 and the ClimEx-PE 2023-1.2.2-HE_PARTNERSÉG-2023-00005 project. The event was hosted by Valencia, EU Green Capital 2024, as part of the Valencia Cities Climate Week.

On the first day of the event, panel discussions were held on diverse topics such as the legal regulation of urban blue-green infrastructure, financing of climate change adaptation projects at municipal level, and social background of climate-neutral cities.

The second day started with presentations of innovative urban blue-green infrastructure solutions already available on the market. This was followed by interesting workshops. Nature-based urban water management, promoting social engagement in climate adaptation, and the development of an effective multi-level decision-making framework for water resilience were among the topics covered in the workshops.

The final event of EURESFO was a field trip to the l’Albufera National Park and to the Turia Gardens of Valencia.

The conference provided an excellent opportunity to learn about best practices of blue-green infrastructure and urban water management. In addition, it was a great platform to promote the innovative Nature-based managed aquifer recharge (NaBa-MAR®) to potential users (municipalities, water sector actors).