Mapping Urban Green and Its Ecosystem Services at Microscale—A Methodological Approach for Climate Adaptation and Biodiversity

Abstract

The current awareness of the high importance of urban green leads to a stronger need for tools to comprehensively represent urban green and its benefits. A common scientific approach is the development of urban ecosystem services (UES) based on remote sensing methods at the city or district level. Urban planning, however, requires fine-grained data that match local management practices. Hence, this study linked local biotope and tree mapping methods to the concept of ecosystem services. The methodology was tested in an inner-city district in SW Germany, comparing publicly accessible areas and non-accessible courtyards. The results provide area-specific [m2] information on the green inventory at the microscale, whereas derived stock and UES indicators form the basis for comparative analyses regarding climate adaptation and biodiversity. In the case study, there are ten times more micro-scale green spaces in private courtyards than in the public space, as well as twice as many trees. The approach transfers a scientific concept into municipal planning practice, enables the quantitative assessment of urban green at the microscale and illustrates the importance for green stock data in private areas to enhance decision support in urban development. Different aspects concerning data collection and data availability are critically discussed.

Editorial: Special Issue “Resource Management in Urban Districts—A Contribution to Sustainable Urban Development”

“…The next five papers (Naber et al 2022 [7], Hörnschemeyer et al 2022 [8], Beier et al 2022 [9], Boehnke et al 2022 [10], and Kugler et al 2022 [11]) show different assessment methods and tools that can be used for resource assessment purposes on a district level (green). In most of the papers, case studies of real urban districts show the application of the developed tools and methods.…”

“…Boehnke et al (2022) [10] developed and described a method to quantify and map private urban green on urban district scale. Based on this, they link local biotope and tree mapping methods to the concept of ecosystem services and use it for comparative analyses.…”

Landscape Ecological Evaluation of Cultural Patterns for the Istanbul Urban Landscape

“…According to Lehmann et al (2014), urban green areas are essential indicators for ecosystem services in urban habitats, when considered spatially and structurally. In addition, they exhibit properties suitable for the evaluation of microclimatic features [24,25].…”