The project Green Urban Resilience: Green Climate Change Adaptation Solutions for Smart and Resilient Cities in BSB has successfully developed the Pathway Planning Guide for Local Policy Makers, a planning tool that provides municipalities across the Black Sea Basin with a common methodology for integrating climate change adaptation and green infrastructure into urban planning.
The Guide also serves as the foundation for the preparation of the first Heat Resilient Strategies for the project's four pilot cities.
Developed by the LANDLAB team in close collaboration with all project partners, the guide offers local authorities a practical, evidence-based framework for addressing the growing challenges posed by urban heat island effects and climate change. It supports municipalities in assessing climate vulnerabilities, identifying priority intervention areas, planning nature-based solutions, and developing effective local strategies to improve urban resilience.
As the first joint methodology specifically designed for the Black Sea Basin region, the guide combines scientific assessment methods, thermal mapping, climate data analysis, stakeholder participation, and practical urban planning approaches. It enables decision-makers to move from climate risk assessment to the implementation of targeted green interventions that help reduce urban heat stress and improve the quality of life for residents.
The methodology was jointly developed through comparative analyses of the project's four pilot cities—Uzunköprü (Türkiye), Sozopol (Bulgaria), Kavala (Greece), and Batumi (Georgia). Despite their diverse climatic conditions, geographical characteristics, urban development patterns, and environmental challenges, the common framework proved adaptable and applicable across different local contexts.
Designed as a transferable and replicable planning instrument, the Pathway Planning Guide can be adopted not only by the participating municipalities but also by local authorities throughout the Black Sea Basin and beyond. Its standardized, step-by-step methodology enables municipalities to assess urban heat island effects, evaluate climate vulnerabilities, identify priority intervention areas, integrate green infrastructure into planning processes, and prepare comprehensive Heat Resilient Strategies without the need to develop new methodologies from scratch.
Beyond the project lifetime, the Pathway Planning Guide is expected to support the integration of climate resilience into municipal climate adaptation plans, urban development strategies, Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans, green infrastructure plans, and spatial planning documents. Through its standardized assessment methodology, stakeholder engagement process, and thermal mapping approach, it offers municipalities a robust and scalable planning framework for future climate adaptation initiatives.
By combining scientific knowledge with practical planning tools and capacity-building activities, the Green Urban Resilience project delivers a valuable resource that has strong potential for replication and long-term institutional use across the Black Sea Basin, contributing to more resilient, sustainable, and climate-adaptive cities.