London National Park City: Integrating Natural & Cultural Heritage to Build Metropolitan Resilience

London National Park City: Integrating Natural and Cultural Heritage to Build Metropolitan Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

London was designated as a ‘National Park City’ in 2019, with the ambition to ‘turn London into a more liveable, workable and sustainable city’, emphasising the importance of the relationship between environmental stewardship and socio-economic inclusion in the metropolitan area. As a concept explicitly associated with non-urban, natural environments, imported into urban and metropolitan policy discourse, it recognises the interdependency between the urban and the natural in the context of the climate crisis. This workshop presented by London National Park City and the London Hub of Heritopolis will explore progress in developing the potential of London’s National Park City designation in two key areas: as a policy tool to mobilise the ‘power of nature’ in the context of climate change and localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals; and in articulating integrated conceptualisations and knowledge of urban-natural culture and heritage in the metropolis, both with comparative reference to relevant metropolitan comparators.

Speakers will include Mark Cridge (LNPC), David English (Historic England), Guy Mannes-Abbott (UCL/ Heygate Community Forest), Clare Melhuish (UCL), Alan Smithies (GLA Design Heritage and Environment), Paul Powlesland (Lawyers for Nature), David Simon (RHUL). Comparative cases will include the Paris Bioregion (Eric Huybrechts, l’Institut Paris Region), Tel Aviv Garden City (Els Verbakel, Bezalel Academy), and Rio de Janeiro Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site (Daniel Athias de Almeida, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). There will also be dedicated discussion sessions.

The workshop represents one of four Heritopolis events in preparation for World Urban Forum 12 in Cairo, 2024, focused on addressing the two priorities adopted by UN-Habitat, Localising the SDGs and Climate Change. The London Hub of Heritopolis comprises UCL (Urban Lab), RHUL, Historic England, and GLA.