Sustainable Urban Development in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Urban Development in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Transport and mobility

Project Summary

Today, more than half of the world’s population live in towns and cities and by the year 2050 about two thirds of our growing world population will be urban. Increased population growth and migration lead to ongoing rapid urbanization which exerts tremendous pressure on our urban environments contributing to a series of environmental and social challenges. Thus, sustainable urban development will be one of society’s key responsibilities in the near future. Sustainable urban development includes various fields such as housing, transport, urban spaces, energy and resources as well as public participation. The last year has shown that many teenagers are interested in sustainable development and climate change. It is the aim of this project to raise further awareness and to help our students develop a deeper understanding for sustainable development and to get to know new concepts for the development of sustainable cities which will help them to outline new strategies for more sustainable and livable cities and to find new ways of integrating sustainable strategies into their everyday life.

Using a well-established network of schools, the project will allow students to experience each other’s urban environments, enter a dialogue with actors and stakeholders and exchange ideas in order to create city spaces and urban infrastructures that are ecologically, economically and socially sustainable and livable. One major asset of this project is the set-up of its participants, which hail from cities and towns with diverse backgrounds. Talsi (LV) functions as a central place in a largely rural environment; Lodi (IT) is a provincial capital affected by inbound and outbound commuting issues; Bochum (DE) used to be an industrial city hit by the closure of major factories and is currently refocusing on the establishment of a services and knowledge-based economy.

Participatiing schools:
• Neues Gymnasium Bochum (Bochum, Germany)
• Talsu 2.vidusskola (Talsi, Latvia)
• Liceo Statale Maffeo Vegio (Lodi, Italy)

Sustainable urban development covers a wide range of fields of intervention. The project will focus on the following five themes:

• Participation
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Mobility
• Urban Spaces
• Energy

Each participating school will host one international project meeting with members from all participating schools and each project meeting will focus on one specific topic of discussion (participation, information and communication technology, urban spaces). The topics energy and mobility will be covered during smaller project events between the transnational meetings. During the project meetings field trips and interviews with experts and local actors will be complemented by preparatory and follow-up in-school workshops in which students will exchange views on different topics and evaluate the insights gained.

With this project we hope to provide our students with an insight in local, national and European decision-making processes as well as on ways in which different institutions can shape future urban development. This should help them to explore possibilities of actively contributing to urban development projects of the students’ own and their host cities. Cooperating with students from different schools, local actors, decision-makers and stakeholder will also help them to improve their communicative skills and intercultural competences. In the long term this project should help promote increased participation in society among students. If our students gain a greater understanding for sustainable urban development and the key challenges connected to it, this might help to raise greater awareness in society. We hope that our students will share their insights with their friends and families and will thus help to implement strategies of sustainable urban development in our society’s everyday life.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81060 Eur

Project Coordinator

Neues Gymnasium Bochum & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Lice Statale Maffeo Vegio
• Talsu 2.vidusskola