Nature in the City Annual Event 2025

On the 10th and 11th of December 2025 the Urban School will host the first annual event of the  project "Nature in the City" focusing on nature-based solutions (NBS) and climate adaptation in cities. The event will bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and stakeholders from various disciplines to explore the complex relationship between cities and nature in the context of climate  change. 
The event is organized by the Urban School in collaboration with the Atelier interdisciplinaire de  recherches sur l'environnement (AIRE) and the Institute for the Arts and Creation at Sciences Po.  The conference is funded by the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.  

PANEL 1: Competing Theorisation of Urban Nature in Marginal Spaces

• Joe Mulligan and Mathews Wakhungu (Kounkuey Design Initiative and KTH Royal Institute of Technology), “Rivers and People - new future and foresight methods for tackling competing land uses and politics in hazardous riverine neighbourhoods”
• Dasha Moschonas and Bruna Ferreira Montuori (University College London), “Co-creation of knowledge for capturing uncertain and dynamic environmental practices in Nairobi and Dares Salaam”
• Ana Polgar (University of British Columbia “Mapping the Gaps: Nature-based Solutions and Climate Risk in Rapidly Urbanizing Watersheds”

Chair: Eric Verdeil (Sciences Po, CERI)

PANEL 2: Competing Theorisation of Urban Nature in Marginal Spaces (II)

• Maike Hamann (University of Exeter), “Negotiating informality and urban resilience: Implications for equity”
• Erich Wolff and Loan Diep (Utrecht University, New York University), “Exploring urban nature ‘at the edge’: comparing concepts of nature-based solutions in marginal spaces between policy and practice in Brazil”
• Jordana Ramalho, Bruna Ferreira Montuori and Pascale Hofmann (University College London), “Lexicons of Nature-based Solutions: Insights from nature-people initiatives in East African informal settlements”
• Rita Lambert (University College London), “Environmental Justice and the Politics of Containment in Marginalised Territories”

Chair: Alvaro Artigas Pereira (Sciences Po, CEE)

PANEL 3: The Nexus Between Environmental Risk and Urban Informality and Discontinuous and Fragmented Climate Adaptation Governance 

• Noah Valentin Weichgrebe and Ruchira Paul (University of Cambridge, Cities Forum), “Informality as an Asset: Strengthening Climate Resilience in Municipal Waste Systems in Manila”
• Luana Braz Villanova (University of Vale do Paraiba & Trinity College Dublin), “Environmental Justice and Participatory Governance in Urban Nature-Based Solutions: Critical Reflections from Brazil to the Global South”
• Hillary Birch (York University), “The two waters are not the same: governing water quality between fragmentation and consolidation in Lusaka, Zambia”

Chair: Patrick le Galès (Sciences Po, CEE) 

PANEL 4: Discontinuous and Fragmented Climate Adaptation Governance

• Pascale Hofmann, Joe Mulligan and Jordana Ramalho (University College London), “Coping with climate change at the margins: gendered and intersectional experiences of community-led climate action in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi”
• Georgina Andre (SUEZ Consulting), “From fragmented governance to actionable frameworks: mainstreaming nature-based solutions for climate adaptation in Kenyan secondary cities”
  Elena Marie Ensenado (Erasmus University Rotterdam), “From policy experimentation to institutional mainstreaming: tracing the pathways of nature-based solutions in cities”

Chair: Roberto Rodriguez (Sciences Po, LIEPP) 

PANEL 5: Environmental Justice: Knowledge and Power in Climate Action

• Janneke Den Dekker-Arlain, Danick Trouwloo, Katinka Wijsman and Niki Frantzeskaki (Utrecht university), “Towards a decolonial praxis for nature-based solutions: scenario planning to cultivate alternative decolonial nature futures in Curaçao”
• Rita Lambert and Pascale Hofmann (University College London), “Imagining Bio-Urban Justice: Learning from Bogotá’s Transformative Practices”
• Melandri Steenkamp, Ernita van Wyk, Bongiwe Simka, Mulesa Lumina and Angela van der Berg (ICLEI Africa), “Addressing human rights in urban natural asset governance in two West African Cities: a legal and practice perspective”
• Miquel Rossello Xamena (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), ”Houses That Do Not Exist: A Participatory Planning Framework for Tourism-Driven Informalities in the Mediterranean”

Chair: Agnès Deboulet (Université Paris 8)

ROUNDTABLE: From Research to Action: Translating Urban Nature Knowledge into Equitable Climate Policy

• Marie Hanagata (OECD)
• Julie Greenwalt (Cities Alliance)
• Anna Walnycki (IIED)
• Niki Frantzeskaki (Utrecht University)
• Vicente Ugalde (Colmex)

Chair: Francesca Ferlicca (Sciences Po, Urban School)