Anastasia Panori

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) are central to urban climate-neutrality strategies, but their implementation still lags behind policy ambition. One reason is that most NBS benefits are public goods and rarely generate direct revenue, so we know far less about the institutional and financial conditions needed to deliver them than about their ecological performance. This paper develops a business model framework linking NBS interventions to financing and governance configurations, applying established NBS typologies and the Pestoff Triangle of state, market, and community provision to thirteen interventions across eleven sites in the Railway District of Thessaloniki, Greece. The interventions are organised into five business model categories: public space greening, private space upgrades, public–private hybrids, building retrofits, and renewable energy. Their financing logic is shaped less by intervention type than by ownership structure and stakeholder configuration. To address this gap, we followed category-specific blended finance strategies combining grants, private investment, regulatory incentives, and community resources, underpinned by stewardship-oriented governance. The findings suggest that scaling NBSs depends less on technical readiness than on institutional capacity to match financing and governance to local ownership and stakeholder contexts, offering a pathway from climate-neutrality strategy to implementable urban regeneration.

1. The green and digital transitions have become defining challenges for the European regions. These parallel transformations are reshaping economic structures, employment geographies and demograph...

Spatial mobility of people between regions is critically shaped by socioeconomic landscapes, influencing and being influenced by regional characteristics, especially amid the on-going green and digital transitions. However, this is often studied through the lens of a single mobility type, overlooking the diverse factors driving different forms of movement. This study examines the distinct impacts of regional characteristics on seven types of mobility-permanent migration, long-term and short-term student mobility, seasonal work, long-distance and cross-border commuting, and multilocal living arrangements-across European regions. By integrating data from the Labor Force Survey, Erasmus + , and Twitter, we show how regional characteristics have different effects regarding each mobility type influenced by unique combinations of economic, environmental, and social factors. These differences underscore the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach in addressing interregional spatial mobility, highlight the need for policies tailored both to specific types of mobility and regional characteristics. Considering these insights, we present avenues for targeted policy recommendations towards enhancing regional attractiveness and supporting balanced territorial development.

Societies are undergoing a “twin transition”, in which digitalisation and decarbonisation unfold together and reshape existing inequalities. Yet we still lack a systematic overview of how research on digital, green and explicitly “twin” transitions conceptualises inequality and where major blind spots remain. This paper presents a large scale bibliometric analysis explicitly centred on inequality across the digital and green transitions, as well as the emerging field of the twin transition. We combine an author direct-citation network with keyword co-occurrence analysis and a cross-cutting analytical framework that distinguishes four key dimensions of inequality: (i) domains, (ii) mechanisms, (iii) social stratifiers and (iv) spatial scales. Using this framework, we show that work on digital inequalities has consolidated into a relatively coherent field, while green-inequality research is dispersed across environmental justice, energy poverty, climate vulnerability and urban sustainability, and explicitly twin-focused work remains nascent. The analysis reveals a strong emphasis on access and skills, with much less attention to exposure to harms, unequal costs and burdens, displacement, and procedural and recognitional justice. Intersectional stratifiers such as race, gender and migration status, as well as Global South perspectives, are unevenly represented across communities. Overall, the literature on the twin transition is itself marked by structural asymmetries that risk reproducing narrow understandings of inequality. We argue that advancing a just and equitable twin transition requires stronger conceptual bridges between green and digital inequality research, more intersectional and multi-scalar analysis, and closer dialogue between bibliometric mapping and policy-oriented work.

This article investigates how individual attitudes toward the green and digital transitions, collectively referred to as the twin transition, and expressions of regional left‐behindness shape EU interregional migration intentions across different life domains. The study disaggregates migration intentions by motive, work, education, quality of life, and retirement, to better understand the interplay between personal values and regional structural conditions. The findings reveal that while traditional socio‐demographic characteristics remain strong predictors of work‐related migration intentions, green and digital attitudes significantly influence relocation intentions for education and quality‐of‐life reasons. Notably, individuals with strong green values are more likely to express intentions to move for quality‐of‐life reasons. Rural areas, in this case, are aligned with ecological lifestyles, whereas digital attitudes correlate with urban settlement preferences and, for retirees, confidence in relocating to digitally connected rural regions. Expressions of regional left‐behindness, such as economic decline, demographic ageing, and weak connectivity, act as structural push factors that differentially affect migration intentions. The analysis suggests that twin transition values function as behavioural primers which, combined with structural push or pull factors, guide individual intentions and reveal how unequal capacities to adapt to digital and green transitions shape migration intentions.

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) offer a promising framework for addressing urban environmental challenges while also enhancing social and economic resilience. As cities seek to achieve carbon neutrality, the integration of NBSs with renewable energy sources (RESs) presents both an opportunity and a challenge, requiring an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative planning strategy. This study aims to explore potential ways of achieving synergies between NBSs and RESs to contribute to urban resilience and climate neutrality. Focusing on the railway station district in western Thessaloniki (Greece), this research is situated within the ReGenWest project, part of the EU Cities Mission. This study develops a comprehensive, well-structured framework for integrating NBSs and RESs, drawing on principles of urban planning and energy systems to address the area’s specific spatial and ecological characteristics. Using the diverse typologies of open spaces in the district as a foundation, this research analyzes the potential for combining NBSs with RESs, such as green roofs with photovoltaic panels, solar-powered lighting, and solar parking shaders, while assessing the resulting impacts on ecosystem services. The findings reveal consistent benefits for cultural and regulatory services across all interventions, with provisioning and supporting services varying according to the specific solution applied. In addition, this study identifies larger-scale opportunities for integration, including the incorporation of NBSs and RESs into green and blue corridors and metropolitan mobility infrastructures and the development of virtual power plants to enable smart, decentralized energy management. A critical component of the proposed strategy is the implementation of an environmental monitoring system that combines hardware installation, real-time data collection and visualization, and citizen participation. Aligning NBS–RES integration with Positive Energy Districts is another aspect that is stressed in this paper, as achieving carbon neutrality demands broader systemic transformations. This approach supports iterative, adaptive planning processes that enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of NBS–RES integration in urban regeneration efforts.