In his song ‘ Concrete Jungle ’, the reggae legend Bob Marley sang wistfully about being trapped in a dense and oppressive urban environment ‘where the living is hardest’, all the while longing for the ‘sweet life’.

Climate change effects combined with pollution, heat waves and overpopulation are amongst the main challenges facing our cities today. To address them, cities are turning to so-called ‘ Nature-based solutions ’ or NBS.

It was one of the worst disasters in the history of the Aegean cities: last summer big forest fires hit the western Turkish province of Izmir. They started on August 18 ravaging the districts of Karabağlar, Menderes and Seferihisar for four days.