Urban ecological networks are defined differently in ecology, urban planning and landscape ecology, but they all have linearity and linkage in common. Early urban representations evolved from the constraints of deep ecological structure in the landscape to built elements that must work around natural linear obstacles-rivers, coastlines, dunes, cliffs, hills and valley swamps. Village commons were linked by roads. The Industrial Revolution led to accelerating urban growth, where the role of open space focussed on public health and transport. The Renaissance, Baroque and Picturesque movements accentuated networks in wooded parks, boulevards and sweeping riverine vistas. These provided a new aesthetic and sense of grandeur in the urban centres of European empires and later their colonies. Grafted onto this visual connectivity has been an awakened ecological understanding of spatial dynamics. The emergent notion of ecological corridor functionality provided support for green linear features, although initially this was based on untested theory. The idea of organisms moving along green highways seemed logical, but only recently has unequivocal empirical evidence emerged that demonstrates this functionality. Nevertheless, the main role of corridors may be to provide habitat rather than to act as connectors of nodal habitats. Most organisms can utilise stepping stones, and these may accommodate desired meta-populations while deterring pest movement. Swale drains and treatment wetlands provide riparian services and serve as biodiversity corridors. However, to most people the obvious function is visual-providing green fingers through what would otherwise be urban grey. The health benefits of these are have been demonstrated to be psychological as much as biophysical.

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This opinion paper discusses urban lawns, the most common part of open green spaces and urban green infrastructures. It highlights both the ecosystem services and also disservices provided by urban lawns based on the authors’ experience of working within interdisciplinary research projects on lawns in different cities of Europe (Germany, Sweden and Russia), New Zealand (Christchurch), USA (Syracuse, NY) and Australia (Perth). It complements this experience with a detailed literature review based on the most recent studies of different biophysical, social, planning and design aspects of lawns. We also used an international workshop as an important part of the research methodology. We argue that although lawns of Europe and the United States of America are now relatively well studied, other parts of the world still underestimate the importance of researching lawns as a complex ecological and social phenomenon. One of the core objectives of this paper is to share a paradigm of nature-based solutions in the context of lawns, which can be an important step towards finding resilient sustainable alternatives for urban green spaces in the time of growing urbanisation, increased urban land use competition, various user demands and related societal challenges of the urban environment. We hypothesise that these solutions may be found in urban ecosystems and various local native plant communities that are rich in species and able to withstand harsh conditions such as heavy trampling and droughts. To support the theoretical hypothesis of the relevance of nature-based solutions for lawns we also suggest and discuss the concept of two natures—different approaches to the vision of urban nature, including the understanding and appreciation of lawns. This will help to increase the awareness of existing local ecological approaches as well as an importance of introducing innovative landscape architecture practices. This article suggests that there is a potential for future transdisciplinary international research that might aid our understanding of lawns in different climatic and socio-cultural conditions as well as develop locally adapted (to environmental conditions, social needs and management policies) and accepted nature-based solutions.

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