Delivering a Climate Resilient City through City-University Partnership: Glasgow as a Living Lab Accelerating Novel Transformation (GALLANT)

GALLANT's vision is to develop whole-systems solutions for a just and sustainable transition delivered at the city scale.

Corporate and political leaders are committing to carbon neutrality locally and globally, often without detailed strategies in place or coordination. This will likely lead to delays and suboptimal outcomes when we need rapid, impactful transformation. Cities are increasingly seen as drivers of a carbon neutral future (e.g., Carbon Neutral City Alliance) because through shared policy and knowledge exchange it is possible for successful action in one city to be adopted by others, creating scalable and rapid change.

Glasgow is a model city to lead innovation because it has the UK's most ambitious carbon neutrality target of 2030; has challenging social and environmental inequities that will need to co-benefit from proposed solutions; and is due to host COP26 in 2021.

Making meaningful, lasting change requires a commitment to the environment that embeds sustainability across major policy decisions and empowers communities as stewards of their local places. In GALLANT, we seek to work with local partners and communities to transform the city into a thriving place for people and nature.

Our overarching goal is to implement a systems-based science approach to solve five environmental problems that will accelerate Glasgow's ability to adapt to and manage climate change. The approach integrates natural science and social science disciplines, putting data at the heart of decision-making. We will create the Glasgow Living Lab, delivering a framework that will be readily deployable to solve emerging environmental problems that show how academic, public and private sectors can act together to make progress.

The five environmental solutions that we have prioritised with Glasgow City Council are:

1. Working to transform urban river-edge land-use governance to create functional floodplains and new accessible green spaces for community use.

2. Working to deliver biodiversity benefits from green infrastructure throughout Glasgow, restoring and connecting habitats using nature-based solutions, and matching ecosystem service demand with provision.

3. Working to turn vacant, derelict, and polluted land into spaces for carbon sequestration and pollution remediation that can be returned to communities in line with local needs. 4. Working to make the most of current and planned infrastructure by understanding community perceptions of active and

safe travel, use these to increase inclusive urban active travel and mobility improving air quality and reducing CO2 emissions . 5. Working to maximise the value of Glasgow green-blue-grey spaces as a Smart Local Energy System that bring heat to some of the most deprived areas of Glasgow.