From Flood Resilience to Value-Driven Action: Reimagining Human–Nature Relationships in a Coastal Living Lab

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Abstract
This paper explores the behavioural change process initiated within the Gdańsk Coastal City Living Lab (CCLL)—a site-based effort, initiated under the H2020 SCORE project and significantly deepened through the Horizon Europe PRO-CLIMATE project—through the lens of transforming human–nature relationships for sustainable urban biodiversity conservation. While SCORE established the technical baseline for Nature-based Solutions (NbSs), PRO-CLIMATE provides the critical behavioural framework to ensure these solutions are socially adopted and sustained. Located in a flood-prone coastal city, the Gdańsk CCLL addresses the critical need for nature-based solutions (NbSs) in minimizing the negative impacts of climate change, particularly pluvial flooding. At the heart of this initiative is a participatory change process facilitated by local Change Agents in collaboration with key stakeholders across water management, local government, academia, and civil society. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from social science, the paper uses the Nature Futures Framework to analyse how conservation actions are influenced by the relational, intrinsic, and instrumental values that stakeholders and residents attach to nature. The paper situates these values in the Gdańsk context and examines how they shape motivations and willingness to engage in urban NbS, such as green roofs, retention parks, and rainwater gardens. The study presents qualitative findings from stakeholder engagement workshops, Change Agents’ reflections, and support mechanisms from behavioural change experts. It evaluates how behavioural change was facilitated through shared vision building, feedback loops, and trust-based relationships, and how barriers were negotiated. A key contribution of the paper is the exploration of how bottom-up and top-down processes intersect in urban adaptation strategies and how behavioural change frameworks can be designed to institutionalise sustainable human–nature interactions in urban governance. The Gdańsk case offers transferable insights for other cities facing climate vulnerabilities while striving to embed biodiversity conservation into everyday practice.
Funding Information
  • European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (101137967)
  • European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (101003534)

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