Co-designing social-ecologically integrated urban stream restoration in Central Europe

This research presents the results of a series of co-design workshops on socio-ecological urban stream restoration conducted during the Interreg Central Europe project ReBioClim (Restoring urban streams to promote biodiversity, climate adaptation, and improve quality of life in cities). In addition to the findings, the paper describes the data preparation and analysis process that led to identifying a set of socio-ecologically integrated design principles across different urban stream contexts. At a glance, this study addresses the question “What socio-ecological integration design principles for urban stream restoration emerge from co-design workshops involving various local stakeholders in Central Europe?”. We collected data in Dresden (Germany), Senica (Slovakia), and Poznań (Poland), each case with different conditions and capacities. To ensure dataset homogeneity, we applied a common methodology across all cases for data collection and qualitative and quantitative analysis. We documented, digitised, and analysed all data types using summary statistics or qualitative data analysis tools. This analysis provides insights into the participants’ perceptions of the urban stream site and their preferences for potential restoration measures. It concludes with central themes in stream restoration and a set of design principles and strategies that have both social and ecological footprints. Key themes and priorities include enhancing landscapes that enhance recreational opportunities and quality of public space, improving accessibility in and around the waterfronts, restoring biodiversity and native habitats, improving water quality and fostering community engagement.