Environmental and Urban Planning

Europe's environmental and climate ambitions will be won or lost in its cities and regions. Land use, infrastructure, green space, mobility and the built environment all shape how sustainable and how resilient a place can be. SoReCC works at this intersection, helping partners embed environmental intelligence and resilience thinking into the way places are planned and managed.

Our network combines environmental research, engineering and the social sciences to treat planning as more than a technical exercise. We look at how planning decisions affect ecosystems, resource use and the quality of daily life, and how nature based solutions, biodiversity and clean water provision can be integrated into the urban fabric rather than treated as afterthoughts. We are interested in places that are not only low carbon but genuinely liveable.

SoReCC supports the assessment of environmental impact, the design of sustainable planning frameworks and the engagement of the communities affected by them. We help partners align project outputs with regulatory and policy requirements, and we ensure that local knowledge feeds into the design process through structured co-creation. This makes us a strong fit for living lab, demonstration and citizen engagement work packages.

Our work supports the European Green Deal, the New European Bauhaus, the Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and the Horizon Europe clusters on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment and on Climate, Energy and Mobility. It contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 11, 15 and 6.

SoReCC offers the capacity to connect environmental science, planning practice and community voice, helping projects deliver places that are sustainable, resilient and fit for the people who live in them.