The Sustainable Historic Districts project takes a holistic approach to addressing common challenges in the historic districts of six cities from five EU Mediterranean countries [Lisboa (PT), Valletta (MT), Savona (IT), Ptuj (SI), Nicosia (CY), and Sassari (IT)]. The project partners are working within a shared framework to transform their historic districts towards more sustainable, climate resilient and inclusive ones, through innovative integrated solutions and social change.

This project places sustainable development at the heart of the districts, by taking integrated approaches instead of responding to isolated challenges in a fragmented way. The Sustainable Historic Districts project aims to demonstrate how a collaborative approach to taking integrated action can deliver innovation towards sustainability and climate change mitigation and resilience. This process is tackled and developed through a participatory process with the districts’ stakeholders and local population to assure its effectiveness in the long term.

The project aims to deliver integrated innovative solutions across the areas of:

• mobility & accessibility
• local economic development & tourism
• housing & buildings
• circular systems & nature-based solutions

Through co-ordinated actions across key enablers of change:

• communications & progress monitoring
• community participation
• business models & finance platforms
• urban planning approaches
• governance & partnerships.

The project enables the participating city-district communities to take bolder steps to deliver local transformation through potentially replicable models, in a joint learning process. During the project duration the partners evolved from a Vision to an Agenda and to a Plan for 2020 to change the historic districts, by increasing the robustness of planning and delivery of transformative projects and supporting social systems.