Scientific positioning

Green infrastructure (GI) has been defined as “a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range ecosystem services, while also enhancing biodiversity. Such services include, for example, water purification, improving air quality, providing space for recreation, as well as helping with climate mitigation and adaptation” (EU).

The interests of GI associated with the city in sustainability transitions are numerous, including urban areas with strong industrial and postindustrial heritages, which are the specific focus of this seminar. The greening of these areas is of crucial importance all over the world, as it is an essential lever for forging a new era in the transformation of industrial cities that combines social inclusion, economic competitiveness and environmental responsibility. At the same time the continual growth (and transformation) of urban agglomerations is leading to high densification, the disappearance of green areas and pressure on 
resources, resulting in a deterioration in the quality of urban life. In the specific case of highly industrialized cities, we can add the problem of city-industry cohabitation, which increases the tendency for human exposure to various environmental impacts caused by industrial activities (past and present) and lead to difficulties of social acceptance and possible territorial fragmentation. On the other hand, these territories can be considered strategic from an urban renewal point of view, in terms of employment, of unused or under-used urban spaces such as industrial wastelands and areas undergoing industrial reconversion.

This seminar is focused on international experiences, which provides numerous examples of living laboratories in sustainable industrial cities in the making. Indeed, the context of industrialized cities at international level provides a unique opportunity to better understand this topic of the planning of green infrastructures in different (post) industrialized cities, with different institutional and sociocultural contexts, as well as contrasted geo histories. One of the major trends observed at international level and proposed in this seminar is the development of integrated and innovative green infrastructures at territorial (city or metropolis) scale, with the creation of solutions which combine environmental, social and 
nature-based innovations. 

More specifically this international seminar will focus on two issues:

• International testimonies of industrial territories transformation through integration in social and 
  environmental projects
• Designing green infrastructure at territorial level: innovative methodologies to mitigate environmental issues and foster social acceptability

To this end, this international seminar combines and articulates the points of view of researchers, experts and more generally practitioners involved in the designing, definition and implementation of green 
infrastructures applied to the context of industrial and post-industrial cities.

This seminar benefits from supports from The UsinoVerT Chair and Rouen Normandie Métropole. 

The presentations of the seminar will be published in a book in 2026.