Stuttgart: GreenerSites & AMIIGA

Clustering workshop and site visit on soil & groundwater remediation - brownfield regeneration in practice

Remediation of soil and groundwater pollution is a topic of key importance for both projects. As AMIIGA partner City of Stuttgart has currently several interesting projects in practical implementation, a team from the GreenerSites project took the opportunity for a study visit.

On Thursday, May 17th and Friday, 18th May 2018, eight colleagues from Municipality of Solec Kujawski, City of Venice and Venice Port Authority participated in the study visit in Stuttgart, welcomed by responsible staff of the AMIIGA partner City of Stuttgart.

The AMIIGA concept based on the results of the former project MAGPlan is a great example of a framework approach how to deal with the affected areas and detect pollutants. During the meeting at the premises of Amt für Liegenschaften und Wohnen participants were first presented with a general overview of the environmental interventions carried out by the City of Stuttgart in the sites visited later. The cases were presented through the support of slides and video and were considered from different points of view: environmental aspects, municipal social housing policy, economic aspects, social aspects, invitation to public tender, collaboration with private investors.  All the presentations were followed up by questions and answers and by lively discussions. The discussion became a fruitful exchange of experiences in relation to the environmental issues at stake.

It is significant that all the planned activities involve residents, who are aware of the threat. The council cooperates closely with citizens, as in the Schoch Site, where neighbours were involved in the project. Teamwork matters. Various departments responsible for different tasks closely cooperate with each other in order to reach the goal. Collaboration between different departments and working with team groups with real power to decide what to do was identified as a key aspect to reach big results in finding solutions.

During the meeting different learning methodologies have been used:

• Presentation and Films: gave a rapid and clear explanation on the areas involved in remediation processes
  
• Discussion: gave the chance to compare different points of view and experiences
  
• Question time: useful to clarify some aspects emerged during presentations and films
  
• Site visits: very useful moments to see directly how legislation and work method apply to the real field work.
  

The site visits demonstrated in practice how remediation works are done; this provided the opportunity to meet and speak with workers and technicians, both in private and public sites, who explained critical aspects and the remediation methodology they were applying.

Attendants agree that such kind of study visits provide a unique opportunity for capacity building and know-how exchange.