Greening roofs or walls to cool down city areas during summer, to capture storm water, to abate pollution, and to increase human well-being while enhancing biodiversity: nature-based solutions (NBS) refer to the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling societal challenges. Building on and comple- menting traditional biodiversity conservation and management strategies, NBS integrate science, policy, and practice and create biodiversity benefits in terms of diverse, well-managed ecosystems.
ABSTRACT. Understanding the dynamics of urban ecosystem services is a necessary requirement for adequate planning, management, and governance of urban green infrastructure. Through the three-year Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (URBES) research project, we conducted case study and comparative research on urban biodiversity and ecosystem services across seven cities in Europe and the United States. Reviewing > 50 peer-reviewed publications from the project, we present and discuss seven key insights that reflect cumulative findings from the project as well as the state-of-the-art knowledge in urban ecosystem services research. The insights from our review indicate that cross-sectoral, multiscale, interdisciplinary research is beginning to provide a solid scientific foundation for applying the ecosystem services framework in urban areas and land management. Our review offers a foundation for seeking novel, nature-based solutions to emerging urban challenges such as wicked environmental change issues.
Agricultural land abandonment and its impacts on landscape features have been a striking characteristic of many European rural areas over the last decades. Although previous research identified drivers and environmental impacts of abandonment, few described the post-agricultural abandonment trajectories. However, examining the driving forces leading to different post-agricultural abandonment trajectories is key to understand how alternative uses of these lands can be developed to address the environmental, economic, and social challenges faced in these areas. This paper reviews the literature of the different trajectories observed after agricultural abandonment and the related drivers and processes. Based on the literature evidence, we proposed a novel categorisation of different abandonment trajectories, with their drivers and landscape outcomes. In most reported cases, lands transitioned towards semi-natural landscapes and few returned to different agricultural uses after abandonment. The most common driving force of the landscape trajectory was the absence of land management where secondary succession processes led to semi-natural landscapes. Quality and state of these landscapes were variable. Alternative trajectories were essentially driven by institutional and socio-economic drivers within biophysical constraints and opportunities for (re-)afforestation, re-farming, and multifunctional uses of the land after abandonment. While abandoned lands can bring opportunities to respond to biodiversity and other environmental policy goals, the evidence across case studies suggests that adequate resources with institutional and socio-economic incentives are required to stimulate favourable development, mitigate, potential trade-offs, and support land management.
Biodiversity and healthy natural ecosystems, including protected areas in and around cities, provide ecosystem benefits and services that support human health, including reducing flood risk, filtering air pollutants, and providing a reliable supply of clean drinking water. These services help to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases and respiratory disorders, and assist with adaptation to climate change. Access to nature offers many other direct health benefits, including opportunities for physical activity, reduction of developmental disorders and improved mental health. Economic valuations of green spaces in several cities globally have found that nature provides billions of dollars in cost savings for health services. Protected areas are increasingly common in, and around, cities to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, including these benefits for health. Many cities are also launching programmes to enhance the health and environmental benefits of parks, based on a model of Healthy Parks, Healthy People, by Parks Victoria in Australia. Partnerships between conservationists, city planners and health authorities are critical to maximise these benefits. In some places, medical professionals prescribe time in nature, and some cities specify standards for urban green spaces to enhance their health benefits. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide an important global framework for such partnerships from global to local level.
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