PERFECT was an international green infrastructure partnership led by the TCPA.
The PERFECT project (Planning for Environment and Resource eFficiency in European Cities and Towns) promoted the contribution of green infrastructure to creating resilient and prosperous regions, by transferring good practice and expertise across the project partnership. PERFECT was an Interreg Europe funded project, a European Regional Development Fund programme set up to help regional and local governments throughout Europe deliver better policy.
Visit the PERFECT website
The project started in January 2017; the first phase – the ‘learning’ phase – finished in December 2019, and the second phase – the ‘implementation’ phase – started in January 2020 and ran until December 2021. The first two phases of the project were delivered by a partnership of seven municipalities from seven different EU member states, led by the TCPA.
The project partners were:
- Lead Partner – TCPA, UK
- Partner 2 – Cornwall Council, UK
- Partner 3 – Social Ascention of Somogy Development, Communication and Education Nonprofit Ltd, Hungary
- Partner 4 – Provincial Government of Styria, Department for Environment and Spatial Planning, Austria (not part of project extension)
- Partner 5 – City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (not part of project extension)
- Partner 6 – Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region, Slovenia
- Partner 7 – Bratislava Karlova Ves Municipality, Slovakia
- Partner 8 – Municipality of Ferrara, Italy (not part of project extension)
In September 2021, the project was extended for one more year through Interreg’s ‘call for additional activities’, with five out of the eight partners continuing to be involved. In this final year, the project explored how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the use of green infrastructure and how the recognition that spending time in natural spaces benefitted citizens’ well-being during lockdown could be catalysed by policy changes to deliver more high-quality green infrastructure.
The exchange of experience
Through an extensive programme of workshops, presentations, peer exchanges and study tours partners learnt about the wealth of indisputable evidence that green infrastructure can help to improve people’s health, build resilience to climate change, and have a positive impact on growth and job creation and retention. Partners have been visiting and research good practices across Europe and exchanging experience in order to identify ways in which they can influence policies so as to increase investment in green infrastructure.
Implementation on the ground
In early 2020, each partner finalised their ‘Action Plan’, a document which details how the lessons learnt from the co-operation and how those were used to improve a policy instrument within their region in the second phase of the project.
The final versions of the Action Plans can be viewed here.
Good practices
The PERFECT website contains details of good practices that have been identified by the partners through the project.
The good practices can be found here.
PERFECT (Planning for Environment and Resource eFficiency in European Cities and Towns) was funded by Interreg, an organisation set up to help regional and local governments throughout Europe deliver better policy.
Resources
Expert paper: What does good green infrastructure policy look like?
By Alister J Scott, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Northumbria, and Max Hislop Glasgow and Clyde Valley Green Network Partnership – a paper on developing a policy assessment tool to assess plans, policies and programmes – Jan. 2020
Expert paper: Place-making and green infrastructure
By Fiona Howie, Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association– a paper on the importance of green infrastructure for the delivery of high-quality places – Jan. 2020
Expert paper: Green infrastructure and biodiversity
By Zuzana Hudekova, Bratislava Karlova Ves Municipality – a paper on the importance of maximising the biodiversity of green infrastructure – Jan. 2020
Expert paper: Investment finance for green infrastructure
By Dr Bruce Howard Director, UK Ecosystems Knowledge Network – a paper which examines the potential for diversification and blending of investment finance for green infrastructure and the challenges and opportunities of this – Jan. 2020
Expert paper: Planning for green infrastructure- the green space factor and learning from Europe
By Peter Massini, Green Infrastructure, Greater London Authority and Henry Smith, TCPA – a paper tracking tracks the use of the Green Space Factor as a tool to deliver high-quality places in various cities across Europe – Dec 2018
Expert paper: Health, wealth and happiness
By Erin Gianferrara and Janine Boshoff, eftec – a paper on the relationship between green infrastructure and health – June 2018
Factsheet: Green infrastructure and health
This factsheet outlines the health benefits of green infrastructure.
Factsheet: Green infrastructure and biodiversity
This factsheet highlights the biodiversity benefits of green infrastructure
Factsheet: Green infrastructure and climate change
This factsheet explains how green infrastructure can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Factsheet: Green infrastructure and food
This factsheet highlights how green infrastructure can contribute to food growing opportunities.
Factsheet: Green roofs
This factsheet highlights the benefits and opportunities of green roofs.
Factsheet: Green infrastructure glossary
This factsheet defines key green infrastructure terms and sets out brief summaries of GI actions and interventions that can be undertaken in both urban and rural contexts.
