Cities are facing a broad range of social and environmental challenges due to the current pressure of global urbanization. Nature-based solutions aim to utilize green infrastructure to improve people’s health and wellbeing. The design of urban environments must embrace the individual ideals of citizens and stakeholders which can only be achieved if effective methods of communication, involvement, and feedback are ensured. Such a procedure creates trust during its implementation, helping to take ownership and stewardship of processes and sites. This systematic literature review explores the current state of the art regarding citizen and stakeholder participation in nature-based solutions (NBS). The search on the SCOPUS database identified 142 papers in total that met the inclusion criteria. The participation analysis was separated in two areas: (a) analysis of perceptions, preferences, and perspectives of citizens and stakeholders, and (b) analysis of the participation process, including challenges and opportunities, motivations, methods and frameworks, and collaborative governance. The results revealed that stakeholder and citizen participation or collaboration in nature-based solutions is increasingly recognized as promising; however, research in several related domains is still lacking.

The cities of today present requirements that are dissimilar to those of the past. There are cities where the industrial and service sectors are in decline, and there are other cities that are just beginning their journey into the technological and industrial sectors. In general, the political and social realms have been restructured in terms of economics, which has resulted in an entirely different shape to the primitive structures of civilization. As people begin to understand the dynamic nature of landscapes, they stop seeing landscapes as a static scene. Sustainable cities must be simultaneously economically viable, socially just, politically well managed and ecologically sustainable to maximize human comfort. The present research suggests a multi-disciplinary approach for attaining a holistic understanding of urban environmental quality and human well-being in relation to sustainable urban development.

There is a growing interest in post-industrial landscape redevelopment and public participation in urban planning process. This study examined the public preference on post-industrial land transformation projects. A semi-qualitative methodology was used throughout the application of a questionnaire and interviews. Data on public perception of post-industrial landscape that incorporates significant environmental, cultural and historic assets were collected from 450 residents. Results illustrate that community attitudes to brownfield regeneration projects are positive. Urban growth should consider the redevelopment of derelict and/or abandoned areas instead of consuming new green areas. The results illustrated that, according to public perception, the most important aspect in the redevelopment of the study area is the creation of multifunctional areas, and that this aspect is statistically related with touristic activities, mobility and accessibility, use of renewable energies, environmental education, economic redevelopment, and safety/security. The researchers suggest that coupling the information gathered throughout the public preference process with the intrinsic characteristics of each landscape is helpful in understanding community expectations in order to inform urban regeneration projects that consider the economic, environmental and cultural functions of sites.

The Alqueva reservoir created the largest artificial lake of Western Europe in 2010. Since then, the region has faced challenges due to land-use changes that may increase the risk of erosion and shorten the lifetime of the reservoir, increasing the need to promote land management sustainability. This paper investigates the aspect of seasonality of soil erosion using a comprehensive methodology that integrates the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) approach, geographic information systems, geostatistics, and remote-sensing. An experimental agro-silvo pastoral area (typical land-use) was used for the RUSLE factors update. The study confirmed the effect of seasonality on soil erosion rates under Mediterranean conditions. The highest rainfall erosivity values occurred during the autumn season (433.6 MJ mm ha(-1) h(-1)), when vegetation cover is reduced after the long dry season. As a result, the autumn season showed the highest predicted erosion (9.9 t ha(-1)), contributing 65 % of the total annual erosion. The predicted soil erosion for winter was low (1.1 t ha(-1)) despite the high rainfall erosivity during that season (196.6 MJ mm ha(-1) h(-1)). The predicted annual soil loss was 15.1 t ha(-1), and the sediment amount delivery was 4,314 × 10(3) kg. Knowledge of seasonal variation would be essential to outline sustainable land management practices. This model will be integrated with World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies methods to support decision-making in that watershed, and it will involve collaboration with both local people and governmental institutions.

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