Nantes Patrimonia

Hôtel de ville (city council) of Nantes - ©Selbymay, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Status

ongoing

City

Nantes

Main actors

City Government, Community / Citizen Group

Project area

Whole City/Administrative Region

Duration

Ongoing since 2015

A digital platform for the discovery and expression of heritage

The online Nantes Patrimonia platform provides digital tours, articles and interactive cartography, showcasing urban history, daily life, architecture, historical events, and the latest news on Nantes heritage.

Municipal staff and citizens (professionals or amateurs) contribute to the platform by providing testimonies, photos, videos, historical content, anecdotes etc. Proposals are moderated based on a contribution charter.

This case study was contributed from the European-Funded ‘Cultural Heritage in Action’ project.

https://eurocities.eu/projects/#906

For further information about the case study, click here.

Sustainable Development Goals

City information

City

Nantes, France

Size and population development

Nantes is the sixth largest city in France. The city covers an area of 65.2 km2 and in 2017 recorded a population of 303,346 with a population density of 4,819 people per km2.

Population composition

The 2017 data showed that the population of Nantes is comprised of 52.2% female and 47.8% male. The 0-17 age group is recorded at 19.2%, 18-64 at 66.5% and 65+ at 14.4%. 92.1% of the population were born in France and 7.9% come from other countries. Nantes is historically a Catholic city, with one cathedral, two basilicas and approximately 40 churches and 20 chapels. However, since the 1970s, church attendance has waned due of the rise of atheism and secularism. The city is part of the territory of the langues d’oil, a dialect continuum which stretches across northern France and includes standard French. The local dialect in Nantes is Gallo and spoken by some citizens in Upper Brittany. Source: citypopulation.de

Main functions

The city of Nantes is situated at the head of the estuary of the Loire River in north-western France. Nantes has over 100 public parks, gardens and squares covering 220 hectares. Natural green areas cover a further 180 hectares and include the petite Amazonie (a Natura 2000 protected forest) and several woods, meadows and marshes. Green space (public and private) makes up 41 percent of Nantes' area. In 2007, the city adopted an ecological framework to reduce greenhouse gasses and promote energy transition. Three eco-districts were developed to provide affordable, ecological housing and counter urban sprawl by redeveloping neglected areas of the city. In 2013 Nantes received the European Green Capital Award with the European Commission acknowledging the city's efforts to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions, its high-quality and well-managed public transport system and its biodiversity, with 3,366 hectares of green space and several protected Natura 2000 areas.

Main industries / business

The city of Nantes has multiple economic resources that make it the economic hub of the western France. The 5 main sectors of economic activity are: agri-food, engineering, aeronautics, composites, and tourism. The Nantes region is France's largest food producer, and the city has recently become a hub of innovation in food security. Nantes is France's second-largest centre for aeronautics. The European company Airbus produces its fleet's wingboxes and radomes in Nantes, employing about 2,000 people. Nantes is the 7th most touristic French city. Nantes favours mainly the tertiary sector and new technologies to expand its economy, in particular the areas of ICT and health are growing rapidly. Source INSEE (French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies)

Sources for city budget

The City of Nantes draws its budget for public expenditure largely from taxes, federal transfers, fees, fines and operating revenues.

Political structure

Nantes is the préfecture (capital city) of the Loire-Atlantique département and the Pays de la Loire région. It is the residence of a région and département prefect and local representatives of the French government. Nantes is also the meeting place of the region and department councils, two elected political bodies.

Administrative structure

The city is administered by a mayor and council who are elected every six years. The council has 65 councillors. Since 1995 Nantes has been divided into 11 quartiers (neighbourhoods), each with an advisory committee and administrative agents. City-council members are appointed to each quartier to consult with the local committees. The neighbourhood committees, existing primarily to facilitate dialogue between citizens and the local government, meet twice a year.

Background and objectives

The Nantes Patrimonia project uses the Faro Convention as the framework for the city of Nantes’ heritage approach. The Convention entered into force on 1 June 2011.

The Faro Convention emphasizes the important aspects of heritage as they relate to human rights and democracy. It promotes a wider understanding of heritage and its relationship to communities and society. The Convention encourages citizens to recognize that objects and places are not, in themselves, what is important about cultural heritage. They are important because of the meanings and uses that people attach to them and the values they represent.

The Faro Convention is a “framework convention” which defines issues at stake, general objectives and possible fields of intervention for member States to progress. Each State Party can decide on the most convenient means to implement the Convention according to its legal or institutional frameworks, practices and specific experience. Compared to other conventions, the “framework convention” does not create specific obligations for action. It suggests rather than imposes.

Implementation

The portal was built over a four-year period (2015-2019) by professional staff and over 100 citizens.

The main stages include:

1. Preliminary study to collect needs and expectations of future users.

2. Citizen workshops on ‘What does heritage mean to you?’ and creative workshops on future uses of the platform.

3. A study day on ‘Heritage and citizen expression: using the Faro Convention as a basis for the framework of the Nantes heritage approach.

4. Testing of the platform with local citizens.

5. Public meeting held: 'What is Nantes Patrimonia? How and why to contribute?'

6. May 2019: Official launch of version one of Nantes Patrimonia: contributions are sent to the Patrimonia team.

7. September 2020: launch of version two of Nantes Patrimonia: contributions can be uploaded to the platform directly.

8. The City of Nantes archives launched a call for souvenirs from the Covid-19 lockdown period.

Financing and resources

The heritage and archaeology department of the city administration lead the project, with support from the citizen dialogue department and the digital resources department.

12 people worked on the set up of the platform and nine people are involved in its monitoring:

Heritage Department: 1 project manager, 1 digital project manager, 1 webmaster, 1 iconographer, the director of the Nantes archives (+ content editors)
Digital Resources Department + external service provider: 1 project manager, 1 cartography expert + 1 external project manager
Communications Department: 1 community manager

To date the budget for the project is €770,000, including VAT (forecast) for versions one and two (excluding human resources):

data and content management programmes €215,000
technical developments €170,000
ergonomics, graphic design, communication €150,000
preliminary studies and collection €110,000
editorial accompaniment, animations and co-constructions €125,

65% of the budget comes from the municipality, 5% from the state and 30% from European Regional Development Funds.

Results and impacts

The platform is continuously evaluated on visits to the website, number of citizen contributions, sharing on social networks.

As of 01 July 2020:

20,769 visits, averaging 8.15 minutes each
141,556 views of map apps
72% of the articles and tours available on the platform come from citizen contributions

Since the launch, individuals and community groups have come together to create digital tours to help people discover their neighbourhood.

From September 2020, citizens' workshops will evaluate the platform.

Workshop results showed residents wanted reliable moderated data. Users will also be able to contribute to map-tracking or make an online multimedia contribution.

Barriers and challenges

The project challenge was twofold:

Conduct important work on heritage conservation.
Foster citizen participation and access to culture for all by bringing citizens closer to their everyday heritage.

Lessons learned and transferability

Develop an internal working group comprise of the different city departments involved: this is key in learning to speak the same language (in particular with IT colleagues).
Involve heritage associations, universities and local citizens for knowledge sharing.
Use the right technical tools: content management system (Jahia), geographic information system ArcGis (ESRI), database management system (PostgreSQL), electronic document management (Nuxeo)

The City of Nantes has been approached by neighbouring municipalities to extend the platform.

References

Cultural heritage in action | Sharing solutions in european cities and regions

http://www.culturalheritageinaction.eu/culture/Good_practices