Lille European Metropolis encompasses almost 180 business parks, spread across the whole territory of the metropolis. Most of the parks were built in the 1970s and today host in total almost 12,000 companies and 105,000 employees. Lille European Metropolis is politically committed to a more sustainable management of its business parks, yet also practically through its involvement as an active partner in IB-Green.
Lille European Metropolis decided to focus part of its work in the IB-Green project on one industrial park: “Ravennes-les-Francs”, located northwest of Lille between the main cities of Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing. The 32 years-old park, which was built in 1991 mainly for industrial use, covers 71 hectares, hosts 82 organisations and 1,475 employees. Its typical Flemish urbanisation with dense, dark red bricks and sealed surfaces creates a very intense urban heat island, which impacts the living conditions of the inhabitants settled in the park’s very densely populated neighbouring areas well as the ones of people working in the park every day.
An analysis led on the park showed that the park is vulnerable to flooding in private as well as public spaces. The IBP is also not only lacking biodiversity but also has a hostile environment for biodiversity to develop, despite being located near major green and blue corridors. Further studies will be conducted to analyse the heat stress effect in the project with on-site temperature measures and other climate factors.
The modernisation works on Ravennes-les-Francs aims to face these challenges in and around the park: For example, the activities planned should mitigate heat stress by turning sealed surfaces into green areas with major evapotranspiration and cooling effect. At the same time, the risk of flooding will be mitigated by retaining more rainwater in the soil and in green areas. Additionally, the following measures will be implemented in the public space of the municipality Tourcoing, specifically in one street located in the IBP of Ravennes-les-Francs : More green surfaces will be made possible instead of the former sealed pavements, and nature based solutions for water management such as water management “pits” (or green ditches) set up. New permeable materials for surfaces will be tried our where pavement/asphalt cannot be entirely removed and trees will be planted wherever possible. Nonetheless, there are certain limits or constraints to the implementation of these nature-based solutions by the specific activities that take place in the IBPs. For instance heavy loads transportation and trucks need space and suitable roads.
The measures will be implemented by June 2026 according to plan. They will be the first step of a major transformation for IBP Ravennes-les-Francs: The new street should act as a flagship project, encouraging replication of the measures in other streets and private spaces.
Contact at Lille European Metropolis:
- Roxane Billion-Prunier, rbillionprunier@lillemetropole.fr
- Marine Laborde, mlaborde@lillemetropole.fr