Mapping Green Dublin exemplifies how communities can be provided with and use scientific data to develop local and strategic recommendations and projects and engage more equally with policymakers.
The aim of Mapping Green Dublin (MGD), funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2019-2021 was to develop a co-creation approach to enhance the green infrastructure of an inner-city neighbourhood in Dublin that has a deficit of green spaces. The objectives of MGD are fourfold:
- To identify the current extent of green infrastructure within Dublin city;
- To develop ways of presenting this information effectively to the communities within the chosen area so they can use it to develop their own greening knowledge and ideas;
- To work with communities to explore greening strengths, deficits and opportunities for appropriate future greening within their neighborhoods, and subsequently to proto-type some projects;
- To present community greening recommendations and projects to local policy makers/practitioners and identify pathways of action for community-led neighbourhood greening.
We focused our co-creation approach on an area of Dublin that corresponds loosely with the postcode area of Dublin 8, an east-west area extending along the Liffey from the Liberties in the city centre to Inchicore.
While this neighbourhood was the immediate focus of our study, the methodologies adopted can be applied in any neighbourhood looking to develop alternative and inclusive approaches to urban greening.
Mapping Green Dublin 