This study, begun in 2009, will continue until 2011. Its aim is to show the present role of nature within the dense city and how this role could be reinforced, improved and transformed to be able to regulate the negative effects of the city on the environment and to sustainably improve the quality of urban life. This document is a progress report.
The first part is a progress study note summarising the ecological, cultural, social and climatic challenges played by the role of nature in the city. It states the objectives and study method and concludes by proposing action in three areas to improve the place given to nature in the city: regulatory action permitting the introduction of qualitative elements in urbanism documents, action in existing public and private non constructed spaces, action for a better integration of nature within development projects.
The second part is made up of a book of maps collected and made to appreciated Paris' natural heritage, its qualities and role, as much from an ecological point of view as socially.
The third part consists of a summary of results from various surveys carried out by the Department of Green Spaces and the Environment - Direction des Espaces Verts et de l'Environnement (DEVE) over the last ten years on social uses and practices in Parisian public gardens.
The fourth part is made up of reports from the first series of workshops aimed at establishing portraits of the different spaces which make up the natural heritage of Paris, the Seine, the green belt (with at its heart the circular ring road the -Boulevard Périphérique-, the circular railway -Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture- .
