Coupling biogeochemical cycles in urban environments: ecosystem services, green solutions, and misconceptions

Abstract

Urban green space is purported to offset greenhouse‐gas (GHG) emissions, remove air and water pollutants, cool local climate, and improve public health. To use these services, municipalities have focused efforts on designing and implementing ecosystem‐services‐based “green infrastructure” in urban environments. In some cases the environmental benefits of this infrastructure have been well documented, but they are often unclear, unquantified, and/or outweighed by potential costs. Quantifying biogeochemical processes in urban green infrastructure can improve our understanding of urban ecosystem services and disservices (negative or unintended consequences) resulting from designed urban green spaces. Here we propose a framework to integrate biogeochemical processes into designing, implementing, and evaluating the net effectiveness of green infrastructure, and provide examples for GHG mitigation, stormwater runoff mitigation, and improvements in air quality and health.

Potential ecosystem services of urban agriculture: a review

“…Regulation of air quality, local climate and water: Urban green infrastructure has important potential to adapt cities to climate-related impacts (Gaffin et al 2012), for instance through its regulating services which include air quality regulation, local climate regulation and water regulation (Pataki et al 2011). Air quality regulation of urban green depends primarily on the ability of plants to absorb or attract particles and pollutants and this increases with increasing leaf-area-index (LAI).…”

“…Advocates of UA seek consumer support by highlighting the environmental benefits of UA, such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced biodiversity in cities. However, scientific evidence of these services and benefits is very limited as with other urban green infrastructure (Pataki et al 2011; but see Kulak et al 2013). Nonetheless policy makers at various levels are increasingly interested in UA (see e.g.…”

Quantifying the impacts of socio-economic factors on air quality in Chinese cities from 2000 to 2009

“…The ecological functions of green spaces in cities are complex (Pataki et al, 2011). In China, most green spaces in parks are relatively artificial and intensively cultivated (Zhao et al, 2010b).…”

Measurement methods and applications for beneficial and detrimental effects of ecological services

“…Ecosystem services to agriculture include soil formation and fertility, nutrient cycling, soil retention, pollination, pest control, water provision and purification, genetic diversity and climate regulation; ecosystem disservices to agriculture include pest damage, competition for water from other ecosystems, and competition for pollination services (Zhang et al, 2007). The disservices of urban green space include water and energy consumption, greenhouse-gas (GHG) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions (Pataki et al, 2011). The disservices of irrigated urban ecosystems are depletion of scarce water resources and excess runoff which contributes to water pollution and eutrophication (Pataki et al, 2011).…”

“…The disservices of urban green space include water and energy consumption, greenhouse-gas (GHG) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions (Pataki et al, 2011). The disservices of irrigated urban ecosystems are depletion of scarce water resources and excess runoff which contributes to water pollution and eutrophication (Pataki et al, 2011). Escobedo et al (2011) integrated the concepts of ecosystem services (benefits) and disservices (costs) when assessing the efficiency of using urban forests to mitigate pollution.…”