At Belfast Healthy Cities, we believe that learning from others is key to creating a healthier, more sustainable Belfast. Our Healthy Explorer Bursary Award provides individuals with the opportunity to visit WHO European Healthy Cities, gaining first-hand insights into innovative approaches to public health, urban design, and tackling health inequalities.
This year, Amy from Climate NI and James from Paul Hogarth Company were selected as our bursary recipients, each embarking on study visits to learn from cities leading the way in climate resilience, active travel, and community well-being.
Amy travelled to Copenhagen, Malmö, and Horsens, exploring how these cities use nature-based solutions to combat climate change and integrate green spaces into urban planning. James visited Türkiye, focusing on health and community development initiatives.
Through their blogs, Amy and James shared their experiences, key learnings, and how these insights can be applied in Belfast’s journey as a WHO Healthy City. Read on for their reflections and discover what knowledge they brought back to Belfast.
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Exploring place-based climate solutions to reduce climate change risks to health and wellbeing in Denmark – By Amy Bell, Climate Northern Ireland
I had the pleasure of visiting Denmark in October 2024 as part of Belfast Healthy Cities explorer bursary. I organised this trip with the aim of exploring how cities are improving their understanding of health and wellbeing risks from climate change and best practice examples of climate adaptation measures they are implementing. As Denmark has a number of cities in the WHO Healthy Cities Network, I decided to visit Copenhagen for the majority of my trip, with a day visiting a smaller city called Horsens.
Due to the nature of the project I decided that a mix of meetings and site visits would work best. The start of the week involved most of my meetings where we discussed the risks to Copenhagen and Horsens from climate change, the solutions they have implemented and are planning for the future and the challenges they face trying to improve the resilience of each city. I met with professionals working in health and climate change adaptation sectors as well as those running similar networks to my work in Climate Northern Ireland. Instead of getting into the detail of each meeting here I’ll focus on the adaptation solutions and case studies I found particularly interesting.
Copenhagen – Cloudbursts, climate action and co-benefits
Climate change poses a significant risk to the health and wellbeing of Copenhagen’s citizens. It is projected that over the next 100 years Copenhagen will experience 30% more rainfall, more cloudburst events and approximately 1m increase in sea levels. In 2011, Copenhagen experienced a cloudburst event which raised the importance of flooding and climate change for the municipalities, citizens and politicians. Following a meeting, they kindly took me on a site visit to Enghaveparken. At first this appears as a normal city park with sports courts, a pond and rose garden with areas for local residents to relax and enjoy the green space. Looking more closely you see that it is essentially a large basin designed so that rainwater flows into it and a surrounding wall acts as a dyke to create a 22,000m3 capacity water reservoir which can manage a 100-year rainfall event. Ultimately protecting the city and improving the health and wellbeing of its citizens from the devastating impacts of flooding.
The City of Copenhagen created a climate adaptation strategy which became the starting point for the first climate resilient neighbourhood in an area called Østerbro. This was a densely built-up residential area with few green spaces but has now been transformed. They have been working on how to handle rainwater in day-to-day life as well as during heavy rainfall events. Instead of seeing rain as a problem they are using it as a resource to make urban spaces greener and more enjoyable to live in. Various solutions have been implemented here including permeable surfaces, parklets, and open spaces with educational signs for people to learn about the interventions, as well a rooftop farm. This was an interesting area to explore and consider how a demonstrator sites like this could work in Belfast.
Copenhagen’s first climate resilient neighbourhood. An underutilised space has been transformed into an urban park with trees, space for recreation and play parks. All contributing to improved health and wellbeing while also reducing the risk from climate impacts. A network of pipes, canals and rainwater beds create a storm-water protection system.
Nature-based solutions for sea level rise and flooding in Horsens
I hopped on a train for a few hours to get to Horsens which is a beautiful, quaint place and with a more rural feel compared to Copenhagen. I met with the climate adaptation team in Horsens Municipality. When Jacob showed me their flood risk map, I could visualise the similarities between Horsens and Belfast despite Horsens being smaller in size. The geography of low-lying reclaimed land with lots of hard surfaces, as well as the coastal locations – Horsens by a fjord and Belfast on the Lough – have a role to play in how each of these cities are increasingly at risk from river and surface flooding and rising sea levels.
In Horsens a lot of the land is less than 1.5m above sea level so it has flooded on many occasions. Three streams flow through the city and out into the fjord so the whole catchment must be considered is their risk assessment. This also means that Horsens has been at risk from co-incident events where storm surges from the fjord and heavy rainfall causes flooding where the water has nowhere to escape.
Horsens harbour has recently been redeveloped with housing, recreation and retail in mind. These are built on a height and protected up to 2.6m above sea level.
To overcome some of these challenges, they have built a large sluice gate which means they can manage the flow of water by holding water back so it becomes a reservoir and then slowly releasing it when the river and surrounding park can handle the extra water. I also got to see a new housing development and kindergarten located in an area near a wetland outside the city centre. They have enhanced sustainability by using nature-based solutions so there are no pipes or sewers. The intention is to invite water to the surface and use it as a resource as a way to manage flood risk. Horsens Municipality is clearly exploring and implementing actions that have benefits for people and the environment while also having to consider how to develop the city and harbour area at the same time.
Overall, I have learned a lot about how cities are managing climate risks and the co-benefits of climate adaptation on health and wellbeing. Through the various site visits, presentations and meetings I have gained experience I can bring back and use this to support and inspire projects within Belfast but also across Northern Ireland.
“Bestøvning mikro handling” – not a direct translation but I loved this phrase that I learned during a lovely conversation in Horsens – it is the pollination of small actions, we don’t know if all these small actions are going to change the world, but lets try.
Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped me make this trip the experience it was – the Belfast Healthy Cities team for selecting me for the bursary, Northern Ireland Environment Link for supporting this trip and of course everyone in Copenhagen and Horsens for sharing your knowledge, expertise and for welcoming me into your work.
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Greening the City – Lessons for Belfast from Türkiye by James Hennessey
What can Belfast learn from Türkiye about greening the city? This article summarises the findings of a 4 day study trip to Bursa and Izmir in October 2024, made possible by the Belfast Healthy Cities Explorer Bursary. Türkiye is a long-established participant in the WHO European Healthy Cities programme with 151 municipalities that are members of its National Network.
Izmir and Bursa, the third and fourth largest cities in Türkiye, have been working hard to develop green spaces both large and small. They aim to improve environmental quality, provide for their rapidly growing populations and respond to the climate crisis. In fact, the country finds itself on the front line of climate impacts from drought and wildfires to flooding, all further complicated by its susceptibility to earthquakes.
Despite such challenges, and our obvious geographic and cultural differences, the visit provided a wealth of inspiration and lessons of relevance to Belfast and beyond. These can be broadly summarised as follows:
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all those who hosted me so warmly on this special trip to Türkiye, including the municipalities of Bursa and Izmir and Bursa Technical University. In Belfast we may be at the opposite corners of the continent, but together we have many opportunities to share our learnings and experiences of green the city together.
James Hennessey PhD, CMLI, AssocRTPI is a Chartered Landscape Architect and qualified Urban Designer based in Belfast.
James applied to the 2024 Healthy Explorer Bursary Award in July 2024, and visited his chosen cities in October 2024. We were pleased to announce that he became a Belfast Healthy Cities board member in January 2025.