The potential of implementing superblocks for multifunctional street use in cities

Eggimann, Sven

doi:10.1038/s41893-022-00855-2

Cited by 47 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Our results are a reminder that cities can deliver highly beneficial NBS at large scale using existing municipal land, if they are able to navigate the politics and practicalities of the required land use changes. Establishing evidence-based narratives of benefit can help ensure that these required costs and trade-offs are recognised as worthwhileparticularly as cities reconsider their priorities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic 119 . By quantifying the significant ecosystem service benefits in our case study city, we hope to push the discourse towards a new and positive point of focus: measuring what we stand to gain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking

et al. 2022

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Nature-based solutions (NBS) are recognised as a means to address challenges such as heatwaves, flooding and biodiversity loss. Delivering these benefits at scale will require large areas of scarce urban land to be converted into green space. Here we show an approach by which cities can make substantial progress towards their sustainability targets using NBS, by converting redundant street parking into biodiverse green space. We demonstrate that up to half of street parking in our case study municipality (The City of Melbourne) could be accommodated in garages within 200 m, freeing up large areas for greening. Our modelling projects significant benefits in terms of tree canopy over, stormwater and ecological connectivity. These would represent strong progress towards a number of the city’s ambitious NBS targets. As many cities allocate extensive areas to both street parking and off-street garages, this approach to freeing up space for nature in cities is widely applicable.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking

et al. 2022

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“…Urban design can further support eco-evolutionary feedback by implementing a modular approach , which acknowledges the significance of differential selection pressures and the emergence of local adaptations [143,144]. Modular landscape design enhances population stability and robustness by buffering against perturbations and providing semi-independent compartments that can sustain different species and ecological interactions [138,145,146].…”

Section: Towards Urban Eco-evolutionary Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cities of the Anthropocene: urban sustainability in an eco-evolutionary perspective

Alberti

2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Cities across the globe are driving systemic change in social and ecological systems by accelerating the rates of interactions and intensifying the links between human activities and Earth's ecosystems, thereby expanding the scale and influence of human activities on fundamental processes that sustain life. Increasing evidence shows that cities not only alter biodiversity, they change the genetic makeup of many populations, including animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms. Urban-driven rapid evolution in species traits might have significant effects on socially relevant ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, pollination, water and air purification and food production. Despite increasing evidence that cities are causing rapid evolutionary change, current urban sustainability strategies often overlook these dynamics. The dominant perspectives that guide these strategies are essentially static, focusing on preserving biodiversity in its present state or restoring it to pre-urban conditions. This paper provides a systemic overview of the socio-eco-evolutionary transition associated with global urbanization. Using examples of observed changes in species traits that play a significant role in maintaining ecosystem function and resilience, I propose that these evolutionary changes significantly impact urban sustainability. Incorporating an eco-evolutionary perspective into urban sustainability science and planning is crucial for effectively reimagining the cities of the Anthropocene. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis’.

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“…These advice for practitioners are in line with authors who emphasise the importance of avoiding one-way guidelines 41 and consider urban biocultural pluralism and heterogeneity 53 . Scaling up from plot morphologies to neighbourhood urban form involves additional land take due to road networks, which could be minimised according to super-block 54 or fractal development 55 . Since another major concern of acceptance of urban form and perceived density is building height 56 , our results show that mid-rise buildings can easily achieve high values of PG.…”

Section: Sustainability and Applicability Scopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the sustainable urbanism paradox: tipping points for the operational reconciliation of dense and green morphologies.

Boutreux,

Bourgeois,

Bellec

et al. 2023

Preprint

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To improve living conditions of biodiversity and humans, urban forms must reconcile density with vegetation to meet the dual challenge of sustainability and liveability. This sustainable urbanism paradox is a dilemma for practitioners and researchers, stressing the crucial need for comprehensive analyses. Multi-family residential (MFR) housing could achieve balanced density-greening, proximity ecosystem services and people-biodiversity interactions, but meeting such objectives relies on finding balanced morphologies and metrics at the operational scale. Based on a systemic approach of 11,593 MFR plots in the Lyon metropolitan area (France), we identified critical tipping points in morphology and greening. Density explained 6% of plot greening, while open space ratio and open space greening explained 94%. Open space ratio >0.5 was found to be a tipping point to achieve sustainable green supply. Operational morphologies balancing density and greening were modelled and illustrated across building heights, providing guidelines for emerging regulatory tools in sustainable urban planning.

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The potential of implementing superblocks for multifunctional street use in cities

Cited by 47 publications

References 43 publications

Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking

Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking

Cities of the Anthropocene: urban sustainability in an eco-evolutionary perspective

Addressing the sustainable urbanism paradox: tipping points for the operational reconciliation of dense and green morphologies.

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