Medellin

Medellín´s has a population of 2.5 millions inhabitants, is the second largest city in Colombia. Also, has particular characteristics due to its geographical location, surrounded by mountains and crossed by the Aburrá River, where the expansion space of the city is limited and generates challenges such as the protection of local ecosystems and the implementation of public spaces.

According to a recent study, each inhabitant has only to 3.6 square meters of public space like: parks, squares and green areas. According to World Health Organization is recommended 10-15 square meters per habitant, that means Medellins has deficit. As a consequences, the city needs to provide to the community bigger and high quality public spaces to the enjoyment and citizen welfare.

The city is settled in the Aburra River basin, a network which has only in Medellin more than 4000 streams, so the management of the water resource is fundamental, as well as, the protection of local ecosystems to prevent risk situations due to the climate change and variability that affects the population of the city.

Related to local ecosystems, Medellín has five protected natural areas, covering a total of 168.81 square kilometers and offers shelter to wildlife, endemic species and some of them have a type of threat category. Futhermore, the city has important projects to increase green areas such as: the planting of 800,000 trees, 30 Green Corridors and the "More Forests for Medellin". These types of projects are focused on controlling the effects of climate change and variability, the heat islands and upgrade the ecosytem services.

 The involvement in URBAN GreenUP is expected to boost the efficiency of the initiatives undertaken by the city.