The Sustainable City: Nature-Based Solutions for Professionals

Cities are where the climate and nature crisis is felt first, and where it can be solved fastest. This sustainable urban planning course gives you the knowledge, examples and tools to make it happen in your own work.

Heatwaves, flooded streets, dry summers, disappearing wildlife and rising energy costs: city professionals deal with them every day. At the same time, new rules like the EU Nature Restoration Law ask cities to protect and increase their green space and tree cover. Many professionals know that things must change, but not always how, or how to convince colleagues, managers and residents.

In this course, you learn how to plan and design greener, climate-proof and liveable cities, with nature and climate adaptation as the common thread. Every lesson combines clear background with real-world cases, from Copenhagen (Denmark), Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Barcelona (Spain) to Medellín (Colombia), Cape Town (South Africa), Singapore and Melbourne (Australia), and four practical tasks for your own city, district or project. Whether you’re an ecologist who wants to get nature into plans and projects, a policy officer who needs to turn targets into action, or a developer who wants to build greener: everything is explained in plain language, with sources you can check and quote.

You will learn:

• what a sustainable city really is, and which goals, frameworks and laws shape your work
• how nature-based solutions, green infrastructure and urban trees make cities cooler, healthier and richer in wildlife
• how to design for urban biodiversity, from ecological corridors to nature-inclusive buildings
• how to deal with heavy rain, heat and drought, with sponge city ideas and a climate stress test
• how energy, mobility and circular building fit into one integrated approach
• how to make sure the green city is a fair city, and how to involve residents
• how to build a business case, find funding, use policy tools and measure results

This course is for you if:

• you are an ecologist, policy officer or other green professional working on towns and cities
• you are a project developer, planner or architect who wants to understand nature and climate adaptation
• you want to bring nature and climate adaptation into your projects, but need practical tools and convincing examples
• you want an overview of the whole field, not just one topic
• you want sources and cases you can use straight away in reports, plans and meetings

Included: 8 chapters, 32 in-depth text lessons with 59 real-world cases, a course summary, a course workbook in Excel with 85 worksheets that you fill in lesson by lesson, 9 extra tools and templates (calculators, planners and printable overviews), and a certificate of completion. Study time: about 70 hours. At the end, you have your own sustainable city action plan for a real place you work on.