Technology in support of nature-based solutions requires understanding everyday experiences

Abstract

Nature-based solutions that incorporate "smart" technologies to enhance ecosystem services delivery may change the way people experience urban nature in their everyday lives. We lay out a conceptual basis for considering such changes and their social impacts. Cities are increasingly recognized as complex social-ecological-technological systems in which sustainability and climate resilience require environmental function to be paired with innovative technology. Smart technologies for real-time monitoring and autonomous operation promise innovations in urban landscape management. However, this promise can be fully realized only with adequate consideration of social impacts. Drawing on literature in landscape studies, environmental psychology, behavioral economics, public health, and aesthetics, we initiate a discussion connecting everyday experiences of urban nature with the social impacts of smart nature-based solutions and with local communities' support for their implementation. We describe what makes pleasant everyday experiences of urban nature and their related well-being benefits and social and cultural values, and we elucidate how these experiences depend on perceivable landscape characteristics that are only sometimes directly linked to environmental functions. Then, based on this literature, we speculate about how adopting smart technologies to manage nature-based solutions may noticeably change the landscape in novel ways and have unintended negative impacts on everyday experiences of urban nature. We illustrate this with an example: smart stormwater management of retention ponds. We conclude that the risk of degraded everyday experiences of nature must be considered and addressed in the development of smart nature-based solutions. If pleasant everyday experiences are ensured through appropriate design, smart nature-based solutions may not only realize societal co-benefits, but also gain acceptance and continued support from the public for the whole set of ecosystem services they deliver.

Spending Time in Nature: The Overlooked Health Behavior

“…Nature and technology are often opposing forces. [82][83][84][85][86] In our modern "always connected" society, however, technology may now be useful for helping us re-engage with nature. The NatureScore TM and Na-tureDose TM tools have been created to help assist in that effort by attempting to quantify nature in a reliable, scalable, and accessible way.…”

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

“…However, adding technology to decision-making processes also introduces novel challenges compared to more classical governance approaches (Gulsrud et al 2018 ; Toxopeus et al 2020 ; Li and Nassauer 2021 ). Therefore, IT cannot be regarded as a solution per se, but as an extension to current approaches with the goal of increasing connections in society (Møller et al 2019 ).…”

“…NbS in cities have social (users and managers), ecological (the green and blue structures providing or embedding specific NbS) and increasingly often technological dimensions (e.g., built components or sensors for monitoring) (Li and Nassauer 2021 ). The social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) they form challenge current governance and engineering approaches (Dhakal and Chevalier 2016 ).…”

Digital placemaking, health & wellbeing and nature-based solutions: A systematic review and practice model

“…These innovative and integrative tools could bridge the gaps and limitations of NBS while supporting decision-making and governance (César de Lima Araújo et al, 2021). Smart technologies applied to NBS are proven to facilitate the management and awareness of these practices, but it is also crucial to address their potential risks ( Li and Nassauer, 2021).…”