ÌÇÐÄTV

Green for All

Coventry City Council has been awarded nearly £1 million in funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for their ‘’ project. This exciting initiative aims to transform understanding of Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) in the city, especially for green-deprived areas. To do this, the 2.5-year project is partnering with a range of organisations from across the city – including the University of ÌÇÐÄTV.

What is Green and Blue Infrastructure?

GBI is typically understood as networks of natural spaces such as parks, streams, street trees, and ponds that provide wide-ranging social-ecological benefits. GBI has witnessed growing interest to help overcome a range of challenges cities experience. This includes adapting to and mitigating against climate change, improving human health and wellbeing, alongside providing habitat for biodiversity. Coventry, however, is classified as one of the most green-deprived cities in the UK, with existing GBI unequally distributed across the city.

ÌÇÐÄTV’s Role

The University of ÌÇÐÄTV has been allocated nearly £100,000 to lead the social mapping element of the project. We will develop a radical map of GBI, incorporating spatial and non-spatial data such as emotions, perceptions, and governance structures. This seeks to co-produce understandings about GBI, especially with underrepresented groups and those from the most green-deprived areas.

The project has four objectives:

1.Engage citizens in participatory mapping and co-production processes

We will facilitate collaborative mapping workshops where local citizens and stakeholders will define what counts as GBI. This will capture diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and values that move beyond standard ecological metrics.

2.Assess accessibility and barriers to GBI use and management

We will identify spatial, social, and institutional constraints impacting engagement with GBI. Workshops will focus on local citizen lived experiences, using methods such as body mapping. This will be coupled with walking interviews with local citizens and stakeholders conducted in greenspaces along the River Sowe, and at Charterhouse Heritage Park. A city-wide survey will also be conducted in the second year of the project to test generalisability of the findings.

3.Develop a comprehensive radical map of GBI in Coventry

We will generate multi-layered physical and digital maps, visualising existing assets as well as affective geography (e.g., emotions) and governance structures.

4.Co-create governance protocols and use outputs to inform policy

We will co-create a participatory planning protocol with local citizens and Coventry City Council to guide future community engagement efforts. Additionally, policy briefs will be developed that integrate citizen-led insights into future policy and strategies.

Research Team

The research team consists of Dr Vangelis Pitidis, Dr Camilla Audia, and Virginia Thomas-Pickles.