JUST Nature series: Episode #6 - Bolzano & Merano
with Silvia Tomasi, Eurac Research & Ruth Lochmann, City of Merano
This episode is part of our special JUSTNature podcast series exploring how European cities are implementing Nature-based Solutions through co-creation and local partnerships.
In this conversation, we are joined by Silvia Tomasi from Eurac Research and Ruth Lochmann from the City of Merano. Together, they share the story behind two South Tyrolean cities: Bolzano and Merano, and how participatory processes helped shape projects responding to urban heat islands, air pollution, and the need for more inclusive green spaces.
From experimental green roofs to edible public gardens and tree canopy mapping, this episode explores how local governments, researchers, and residents can rethink urban nature together.
Two Alpine Cities Facing a Common Challenge
Bolzano and Merano are both located in South Tyrol, in Northern Italy, within the Alpine basin. Despite being surrounded by mountains and greenery, both cities are increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change: rising temperatures, stronger heatwaves, urban heat islands, and air pollution.
Merano, known for its gardens and historic trees, faces growing pressure from urban densification and real estate development. Bolzano, especially its industrial southern district, struggles with excessive heat, concrete-heavy landscapes, and poor air quality.
Through the European project JUSTNature, both cities began experimenting with Nature-based Solutions not only as technical interventions, but also as social and participatory processes.
Merano: Protecting Trees and Creating a “Garden for All”
For Ruth Lochmann and the City of Merano, one of the most valuable resources already existed: the city’s extensive tree heritage. Some trees are over 100 years old and play a crucial role in cooling the city and regulating the local microclimate. Yet many are threatened by construction pressure and urban densification.
To better protect this urban forest, the city developed a large-scale tree inventory using LiDAR scanning technology. Through aerial mapping and data analysis, Merano was able to identify and monitor thousands of trees across the city. This also helped develop a tree canopy cover index, an increasingly important indicator in European climate adaptation policies.
But JUSTNature was not only about monitoring. It also became an opportunity to rethink what public green spaces could look like.
The result was the Garden for All: a co-created public garden designed together with residents through workshops and participatory activities. Rather than creating ornamental greenery aimed mainly at tourists, the city wanted to create a place responding to everyday needs.
The workshops revealed unexpected desires. Citizens did not only ask for trees, they asked for berry bushes, edible plants, shared vegetable gardens, access to water, and spaces to cool down during heatwaves.
A public raised-bed vegetable garden was installed, despite concerns from the administration that it would be vandalized or neglected. The opposite happened. Neighbours began taking care of the garden themselves, replacing plants and maintaining the space collectively.
“It’s the main attraction point actually,” Ruth explains in the episode. “People are coming by just to look if something could be harvested.”
Bolzano: Greening the Industrial City
While Merano focused on gardens and trees, Bolzano experimented with greening one of the hottest and most concrete-dominated parts of the city: the industrial district.
Silvia Tomasi explains that the area suffers simultaneously from thermal injustice and air pollution, particularly due to traffic and industrial activities.
One of the first interventions was the installation of a solar green roof on top of a municipal building. Beyond adding greenery, the objective was to begin creating ecological corridors between rooftops throughout the district.
A second intervention focused on street-level transformation through the greening of an international bus stop area. Concrete surfaces were removed and replaced with vegetation, drainage systems, trees, and shrubs to improve stormwater management while cooling the surrounding environment.
The interventions may appear small individually, but they were conceived as part of a broader systemic approach to climate adaptation and urban planning.
Participation as a Process of Learning
One of the strongest messages throughout the episode is that participation itself evolved over time.
The first workshops mainly attracted experts and institutional actors. Later, the teams realised they needed to rethink their methods to better include everyday residents, migrants, elderly people, and children.
In Merano, workshops transformed into more open and accessible “fair-like” formats with interactive stands, visual tools, stickers, maps, and even LEGO-building activities. The methods became intentionally less verbal to accommodate both German and Italian speakers, as well as participants less comfortable with the local languages.
The process also challenged traditional planning approaches. Some decisions requested by residents did not necessarily make technical sense from a landscape architecture perspective, such as preserving a dying tree because children had become emotionally attached to it. Yet the project teams chose to respect these wishes in order to maintain trust and credibility in the participatory process.
As Ruth reflects:
“As planners, we need to be a little bit more humble and trust residents in their expertise of living the place.”
Beyond the Project: Lasting Legacies
Although the JUSTNature project is coming to an end, many of its impacts continue.
In Merano, the experiences from the Garden for All have already begun influencing future public green projects. The city also developed a new Ecological Functionality Index, a pioneering regulation in Italy requiring large construction projects to integrate Nature-based Solutions such as green roofs, trees, wildflower meadows, or biodiversity-supporting infrastructure.
Guidelines explaining this system were developed for planners and are now publicly available:
- Guidelines for the design of private green areas in Merano
- Guidelines for the ecological management of private gardens in Merano
In Bolzano, the project helped activate a growing network of stakeholders interested in replicating green roofs and expanding Nature-based Solutions across the city.
For Silvia, one of the biggest achievements is that these conversations and collaborations continue beyond the project itself:
“It’s not just staying within JUSTNature anymore.”
What Can Other Cities Learn?
The episode closes with reflections that feel highly relevant beyond South Tyrol.
Participation takes time. Trust takes patience. Cities need to create spaces where residents genuinely influence decisions, not only symbolically, but concretely!
And perhaps most importantly, Nature-based Solutions should not remain isolated pilot projects. Their real potential emerges when they begin influencing policies, planning cultures, and everyday relationships between people and urban nature.
Whether through a public vegetable garden, a tree inventory, or a green roof, the message remains the same: small interventions can spark much larger transitions.
The JUSTNature project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101003757.
Host and writer: Fanny Téoule
Guests: Silvia Tomasi & Ruth Lochmann
Audio editor: Karl Dickinson
Music composer: Jenny Nedosekina
Graphic designer: Julia Micklewright
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