Climate Adaptation and Resilience Demonstrated In the MEDiterranean region

In CARDIMED, eBOS will lead the implementation, validation, and demonstration of 4 Nature-based and circular solutions in Nicosia, Cyprus, by collaborating effectively with five other partners of the CARDIMED project: IRIDRA, The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Hydraspis, Gardens Of The Future (GOTF), Nicosia Municipality (MNC).

More specifically, DEMO9 “Gardens of the Future in the heart of Nicosia” will demonstrate an array of circular NBS for urban greening, hydroponic food production, phytoplankton water treatment and public space irrigation, in the public spaces of Nicosia (4 sites in total). EBOS will coordinate the interventions. It will install cameras and use AI-based plant growth monitoring to unobtrusively observe vegetable growth. IRIDRA with the contribution of NTUA will design the halophyte system to treat irrigation water and HYDRASPIS will implement a subsurface rainwater harvesting solution. GOFT will implement communal vertical and hydroponic gardens, and tree planting. Smart vertical hydroponic walls will provide new sources of food in the heart of the city, reducing supply chains, fostering food security and nurturing the human-nature interaction in the city. GOTF will utilise the community space that won the Public Vote Award at the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2022 as a common home for sustainability, to co-design the direction of all DEMO9 NBS and enhance the art of cultivating together the community gardens. MNC will manage alignment and replication.

Nicosia is becoming a front-runner in adaptation capacity to climate change, through initiatives, such as Gardens of the Future. In addition, GOTF is recognised as one of the 1,000 best ideas internationally for climate change. Thus, high interest in replication of DEMO9 interventions is expected, due to high visibility, low cost and effectiveness of the applied solutions that allow scalability. The interventions will contribute to the National Climate and Energy Plan and the Innovation Cyprus strategy (national level) and to a Smart City plan and Nicosia Master plan on a municipal level.

The timeline of DEMO 9 comprises three main phases: (1) The Design, procurement and installation of NBS (Feb 2025) followed by the gradual rolling-out (Aug 2025); (2) The utilization of two annual cycles of DEMO9, the first in August 2026 and the second in August 2027; and (3) the last phase which is about the evaluation of objectives and KPIs (Dec 2028).