As cities worldwide face challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and rising urban heat, a new vision is gaining momentum .Rewilding Urban Spaces and creating Regenerative and Rewilded Cities. These forward-thinking urban environments not only reduce environmental harm but actively restore ecosystems, support biodiversity, and bring nature back into the heart of communities. By prioritizing sustainable design and ecological restoration, Rewilding Urban Spaces paves the way for healthier people, stronger environments, and a more resilient future.
What Is a Regenerative City?
Unlike traditional sustainable cities that focus on reducing harm, regenerative cities go a step further, they aim to improve the environment. This means:
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Producing clean energy
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Restoring water cycles
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Building soil health
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Capturing more carbon than they emit
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Supporting biodiversity within the urban landscape
Instead of simply minimizing the city’s footprint, regenerative urbanism asks: How can cities heal the damage already done?
Rewilding: Letting Nature Take the Lead
Rewilding in cities involves reintroducing native plants and animals, reconnecting green corridors, and letting ecosystems regenerate with minimal human interference. This approach embraces natural processes like:
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Allowing meadows and wetlands to grow naturally
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Reintroducing pollinators and urban wildlife
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Creating green roofs and living walls
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Removing concrete to allow soil to breathe
It’s about working with nature, not against it an essential principle in the vision of Regenerative and Rewilded Cities.
Why It Matters Now
Modern urban planning has often favored efficiency and control, but this has limited the growth of Regenerative and Rewilded Cities and led to major challenges:
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Heatwaves intensified by urban heat islands
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Flash floods due to sealed surfaces
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Mental health issues linked to lack of green space
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Loss of species and ecological imbalance
Regenerative and rewilded approaches provide a holistic response, not just solving problems, but changing the system itself.
Inspiring Examples
Several cities are already leading the way:
Singapore
Often called a “City in a Garden” with its focus on integrating tropical forests and biodiversity into urban space.
Barcelona’s green corridors
Show how Regenerative and Rewilded Cities can reconnect people with nature while improving biodiversity.
London’s Thames River
Is seeing the return of seals, seahorses, and even sharks,thanks to improved water quality and habitat restoration.
Benefits Beyond the Environment
The beauty of regenerative and rewilded urbanism is that everyone wins:
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People get cleaner air, reduced stress, and improved wellbeing.
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Communities build resilience to climate shocks like flooding and drought.
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Cities become more attractive, livable, and economically vibrant.
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Nature finally gets the space to thrive, even within urban borders.
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How Can We Support This Shift?
Whether you’re a planner, policymaker, designer, or resident, you can play a role in supporting Regenerative and Rewilded Cities.
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Advocate for green infrastructure and ecological zoning
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Support local biodiversity projects
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Choose native plants in gardens and balconies
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Participate in citizen science and rewilding initiatives
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Conclusion
Regenerative and Rewilded Cities represent a bold reimagining of the urban future—where human progress and natural systems are not in conflict but in harmony. By embracing these approaches, we don’t just create greener spaces,we foster healthier societies, stronger ecosystems, and more resilient cities.
The transformation won’t happen overnight, but every pocket park, restored stream, and rooftop garden brings us closer. The city of the future isn’t just built, it’s grown, nurtured, and alive.
Urban healing starts with nature, let’s make space for it to return through regenerative and rewilded cities.
The 10th edition of the international Conference on Urban Planning and Architectural Design for Sustainable Development (UPADSD) will take place in collaboration with Università degli Studi di Firenze from October 21st to 23rd, 2025.
This conference will showcase modern methods in sustainable urban planning and architectural development, presenting innovative research from global contributors. Researchers, professionals, academics, and practitioners are invited to join us in Florence for this significant gathering.