Keywords
climate-neutral cities
social participation
How to Cite
Abstract
Cities are a key area for taking pro-ecological activities and creating innovative solutions. Through cooperation, innovation, investment and education, they can play an important role in achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Therefore, city districts or their selected spaces function as laboratories of transformative pro-climate solutions. This is due to the instrument, which is called as a urban laboratory (urban lab). The urban lab is an instrument of cooperation between city authorities, residents, entrepreneurs, scientific entities and other stakeholders whose aim is to develop innovative solutions to urban problems, supporting the construction of neutral cities. An urban lab can be defined in many ways – as a physical (office) space where innovative solutions are developed, but it can also be a separate area of the city, e.g. a district or a street. Urban lab can also be a system for creating and testing innovative products and services that are intended to support the sustainable development of the city and improve the quality of life of residents. The essence of this instrument is based on cooperation between city stakeholders in order to develop innovative solutions to urban problems and test them in urban space. The aim of the article is to characterize the use of city laboratories along with examples of good practice. The publication analyzed and defined various forms of urban labs operating in cities around the world. In addition, leading urban labs and selected pro-ecological projects that were implemented in districts of cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam were characterized. The experiences and selected achievements of the Polish precursors of this instrument – Urban Lab Gdynia and Urban Lab Rzeszów – were also recalled. The analyzes and characteristics of the above examples of good practices may be a source of inspiration for other Polish cities that are currently and in the future implementing climate neutrality strategies in their areas. The author’s part of the work is to initiate research on the issues of popularization and ways of using the urban laboratory as an instrument for building climate-neutral cities in Poland.
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