Climate Resilience through Blue and Green Corridors in Lezha Municipality

This research paper builds on the analytical work conducted by the Doctoral Candidate, initiated on November 2021, during the International PhD Workshop between Polis and Ferrara Universities as well as based on his previous experience with Renewable Energy projects and Evaluation of Ecosystem Services conducted by the candidate under the “Green Lungs for Our Cities” project (link), supported by the EU Delegation in Albania. Given the climate and ecological disturbed balance in urban areas, future planning exercises shall be oriented towards climate neutral and decarbonized cities. Urban and territorial strategies nowadays seek to explore and determine the appropriate instruments for that Nature Based Solutions NBS and Ecosystem Based Solution EBS are enabled to decrease the deterioration of human impact on all the ecological networks. Moreover the Sofia Declaration (Regional Cooperation Council, 2020), an instrument that factorizes the EU Green Deal for Western Balkans indicates precisely that one of 5 key development sectors should be Biodiversity preservation and joint management. Ecological networks including here the hydrology, green areas, geography, climatic conditions, energy metabolisms, transport infrastructure and industrial interactions can coexist in harmony if they are extracted form the ideology of approaching them as separate networks within a linear approach. One can always affect the other therefore “Between them there is no contradiction, but only profound opposition: to be resolved projectually” (Dardi, 2009) . Main objective of this research is to initially seek and determine an adequate relationship between ecosystem services provided by Green, Blue and Natural networks within the urban areas of Koder Marlekaj, Lezhe-Shengjin axis to further connecting them throughout a potential Ecological Corridor that would allow the terrestrial biodiversity of Kune-Vain-Tale protected area access high territory in cases of wildfire, flooding or other extreme-climatic events. Such intervention will pose a new systemic approach towards problems and issues, which are caused mainly by a rigid and linear approach from nowadays Urban Planning and Decision- making practices at a local and national leve. The purpose of this research paper is threefold: (i) to verify the biodiversity preservation potential of a new ecological corridor between high- land and lagoon, (ii) in terlink the mix of urban-energy-ecology nexus within a specific case study whereas ne urban planning tools, (iii) propose relevant measures to increase the resilience of the Lezha-Shengjin territory with regard to Climate Change implications.