Biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban areas for smart adaptation to climate change: “Do you Kyoto”?

Abstract

Kyoto is an old city blessed with beautiful natural and cultural landscapes. With the long history of the various events and responses to them, Kyoto is expected to offer some insight into how to create a sustainable city with resilience relevant to its historical inheritances and biodiversity. In this paper, we attempt to describe some concepts of developments and responses that could mitigate the negative impact of urbanization on its biodiversity and ecosystem services. (1) Modern city planning considering natural amenities as well as old Fengshui geomancy theory could conserve the surrounding mountains. Down-zoning and vistaed view preservation are examples.(2) Inside the city areas, the theory of island biogeography is applicable for biodiversity planning, and the size of the isolated greenery is the most important factor for species richness of all taxonomic groups. However, a single large patch is not always sufficient to conserve as many species as possible. Moreover, the heterogeneity of the environment, which is formed by its design and management, plays an important role in species richness. Japanese gardens and the created wildlife habitat park are good solutions for biodiversity. (3) The nature of rivers and wetland systems has been severely degraded in the urbanization process. However, the excellent Katsura detached palace garden and Oguraike wetland system, which were one-time national monuments with high biodiversity, suggest a smart adaptation to the increasing risk of flooding by climate change: ''Do you Kyoto''?

Urban Governance of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

“…Numerous studies highlight the importance of strong legal protection to avoid ecosystem degradation and maintain or enhance various ecosystem services (Borgström 2009 ;Wang et al 2009 ;Huang et al 2011 ;Morimoto 2011 ;Xu et al 2011 ). There are several approaches to regulating areas of importance for ES , and managing the city as a part of the surrounding landscape (Li et al 2005a ;Xu et al 2011 ), like smart growth policies and zoning (Hutton 2011 ).…”

“…Authorities may set baseline requirements for management of privately owned land (Harman and Low Choy 2011 ), like incorporating tree planting and maintenance in building regulations (Davies et al 2011 ) or include incentives for additional actions (Harman and Low Choy 2011 ). In addition to regulation of non-state land, public authorities can sometimes choose to use established planning codes to acquire private land for safeguarding ecosystem services for the public good (Blaine et al 2006 ;Vejre et al 2010 ;Morimoto 2011 ). Where local planning codes are not strong enough, national and global treaties may also infl uence land use within and outside the cities' jurisdiction (Lucero and Tarlock 2003 ;Asikainen and Jokinen 2009 ).…”

Understanding Sensor Cities: Insights from Technology Giant Company Driven Smart Urbanism Practices

“…Biodiversity conservation, which includes revitalization actions for abandoned urban and industrial areas and the safeguarding of green and urban spaces [24]. Land use optimization, as support for urban agriculture and infrastructure [27].…”

Green infrastructure: innovative use of indigenous ecosystems and knowledge

“…We should learn from traditional, regional knowledge and practices for sustainability plans. Morimoto (2011a) reported insights into creating a sustainable city from historical practices in Kyoto. These are (1) to conserve the surrounding landscape such as mountains, (2) create Japanese gardens for heterogeneity in the habitat to increase biodiversity, (3) use traditional gardens and wetland systems, which can play a role in the intelligent adaptation of landscapes to lower the risk of flooding.…”