Temernik River Park

Challenge

The Temernik is a small river that crosses Rostov-on-Don. For decades it worked, in practice, as a drain.

To change this, a non-profit was created: ANO Park Temernik. It is a coalition of business, experts and the public. Its aim is to rehabilitate the river and turn its banks into a city-wide ecological park, working alongside the regional programme for the ecological recovery of the Temernik basin.

What was done

Mihail Veklenko was a co-founder of the non-profit and a member of its core team.

• Strategy and economics. He was responsible for how real estate and the economy around the river would work, and what the riverside spaces would hold: parks, new buildings, cycling and walking routes, places to rest. He also worked on how to involve business and the city, so that the river is cleaned and opened to people.
• Events and partners. Mihail organised the first forum “Small Rivers in Big Cities” on 5–6 October 2018 at Don State Technical University. It included sessions on river rehabilitation and on bringing riverside areas back into the city, and a festival, “Rostov-on-Temernik”. He then prepared the concept of a second conference with participants from the BRICS countries for 2019.

International part: Recife ↔ Rostov-on-Don

Recife in Brazil faced a similar problem with the Capibaribe river — and answered it with a 15 km linear park, developed by the city together with INCITI, a research institute of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). The aim was for the Temernik initiative to learn directly from that experience.

• Moscow Urban Forum, 2017. Urban Factory was a co-organiser of the session “Aqua est vita: the role of the river in the modern megalopolis” (the forum itself is organised by the Moscow Urban Forum directorate). Mihail brought two speakers: Prof. Circe Monteiro, head of INCITI, who presented the Capibaribe Park project, and Swami Jyothirmayah (The Art of Living Foundation).
• Prof. Monteiro’s visit to Rostov-on-Don, 2018. Urban Factory organised the whole programme: a public lecture on the Capibaribe linear park in Moscow; a talk at the forum in Rostov-on-Don; a walk and tree planting by the Temernik; a working meeting with ANO Park Temernik; meetings with Rostov universities on student exchange, joint research and training.
• Forum “Small Rivers in Big Cities”, 5–6 October 2018. Prof. Monteiro shared how Recife built its park step by step — small public spaces, each finished on its own, joined into one green corridor.
• Memorandum, October 2018. ANO Park Temernik and INCITI/UFPE signed a memorandum of cooperation.

Result

Mihail stood at the start of the non-profit and of its First Mile direction. In 2019 he organised the work to launch the first section of a linear park along the Temernik. It runs for about 1–1.5 km, from the bridge at Vavilova and Sheboldaeva streets to the city zoo. The non-profit became the main public driver of this section.

The First Mile opened in spring 2023.

Numbers

• About 1–1.5 km — the First Mile of the linear park
• 15 km — the Capibaribe park in Recife, the reference for the partnership
• 2 days — the first “Small Rivers in Big Cities” forum, October 2018