Reclaiming Urban Sealed Soils for Ecosystem Services (REUSES)

Sara Di Lonardo Contributors: Valeria Verone James Edwards Adela Beriša This proposal has been compiled by the Bootcamp facilitation and mentoring team based on the work carried out during SoilTribes Bootcamp 1 in Porto. Facilitator: Nadia Nadesan Mentor: Aouefa Amoussouvi (ECSA) Bootcamp coordination: Olivier Schulbaum

Group 1: Soil Democracy in Education

REUSES explores how sealed urban soils can be reclaimed through participatory processes involving schools, municipalities and communities. The challenge evolved from a technical soil-unsealing intervention into a co-designed educational model linking soil regeneration with environmental literacy and civic engagement. The goal is to turn schoolyards and neighbourhood spaces into living laboratories for urban cooling, flood prevention and biodiversity regeneration.

Many European cities are covered by impermeable surfaces such as asphalt and concrete that prevent water infiltration, increase urban heat, and degrade soil ecosystems. REUSES proposes to reclaim sealed soils through participatory urban regeneration processes, starting with schools as key catalysts. The project combines ecological restoration with educational practices, allowing students, teachers, municipalities and community actors to co-design soil-unsealing interventions. Through this approach, soil restoration becomes not only a technical intervention but also a collective learning process that reconnects citizens with the ecological systems beneath urban environments. The project therefore links environmental regeneration with civic education, fostering long-term stewardship of urban soils.

The initiative builds on an existing pilot experience in Ancona (Italy), where an abandoned sealed site has already been partially restored through a soil-unsealing intervention supported by research funding. This pilot provides a concrete foundation for testing the educational and participatory model before replicating it in schools and municipalities across other European cities.

Schools and teachers who integrate soil literacy into educational programs. Students participating in hands-on soil restoration activities. Municipal urban planning offices responsible for public space and land use. NGOs and environmental education organizations such as Legambiente. Universities and scientific experts supporting soil monitoring and research. Parents’ associations and local communities participating in maintenance activities.

The initial project focused primarily on technical soil unsealing, aiming to restore degraded land and produce a guide for replicating the intervention elsewhere. Through the Bootcamp exchanges, the team reframed the project as a participatory learning process, where soil regeneration becomes an educational and civic experience rather than only an engineering intervention. This shift transformed the initiative into a school-based co-design model, combining ecological restoration with environmental literacy and community stewardship. The existing pilot in Ancona provides a concrete starting point for developing this model and documenting its impact.

Sara demonstrated strong openness to feedback throughout the Bootcamp. The team integrated diverse perspectives from contributors with backgrounds in environmental education, architecture, community projects and urban governance. These exchanges helped broaden the scope of the project beyond a technical toolkit toward the development of a structured educational curriculum and participatory methodology for schools. Contributors also helped identify systemic barriers such as bureaucratic procedures, lack of cross-sector coordination and limited community engagement in urban planning processes. As a result, the project now integrates ecological restoration, education and governance innovation into a single framework.

The governance model developed during the Bootcamp emphasises distributed collaboration among different actors. Schools initiate pilot actions and host learning activities. Municipalities and NGOs provide institutional support, resources and authorisations. Students, parents and community members participate in maintenance and monitoring of the regenerated spaces. Data, experiences and lessons learned are shared through a knowledge platform.

Teachers play a particularly important role as gateways for community participation, helping to connect educational institutions with broader civic engagement.

The team identified several systemic tensions shaping the challenge, including increasing climate extremes, limited awareness of soil functions, bureaucratic urban planning processes, and unequal access to environmental knowledge. These factors highlighted the need to connect ecological restoration with education and community engagement.

The group envisions cities where schools and citizens collaborate to regenerate soils, prevent flooding and cool urban environments. Education and environmental empathy are seen as key drivers of long-term ecological stewardship.

Stakeholders identified include teachers, students, municipalities, NGOs, universities and local companies capable of supporting soil restoration activities.

The Ancona soil-unsealing intervention serves as the first practical prototype for testing the model and documenting lessons learned for replication.

The project envisions creating a digital knowledge-sharing hub where experiences, data and case studies on soil restoration can be shared between schools and municipalities. Such a space could support peer learning across the SoilTribes Community of Practice while allowing communities to document and exchange practical knowledge about soil regeneration.

Several outputs are emerging from the Bootcamp process: A participatory soil education model for schools. A co-design methodology linking students, teachers and municipalities. Hands-on workshops for soil unsealing and urban ecological restoration. Educational materials and curriculum modules on soil regeneration and climate adaptation. A concept for a digital knowledge-sharing platform connecting initiatives across cities.

🎭 Creative or Cultural Actions: art events, exhibitions, participatory performances

Several outputs are emerging from the Bootcamp process: A participatory soil education model for schools. A co-design methodology linking students, teachers and municipalities. Hands-on workshops for soil unsealing and urban ecological restoration. Educational materials and curriculum modules on soil regeneration and climate adaptation. A concept for a digital knowledge-sharing platform connecting initiatives across cities.

Additional support is needed to develop the educational curriculum, gather scientific data demonstrating the impact of soil unsealing on urban cooling and flood mitigation, and build a communication strategy capable of mobilizing communities. Given its participatory nature and visible local impact, the project could also explore launching a civic crowdfunding campaign to support pilot interventions in schools, allowing citizens to directly contribute to reclaiming urban soils while raising awareness about the importance of soil ecosystems in cities.