Urban green infrastructure as a strategy of climate change mitigation. A case study in northern Spain

Sota, Candela de la; Ruffato-Ferreira, Vera Jane; Ruiz-García, Luis; Álvarez, Sergio

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2018.09.004

Cited by 78 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…plantations, cropland, pastures) can significantly reduce CO 2 , methane, and nitrous oxide emissions, and sequester carbon (Busch et al, 2019; Friedlingstein, Allen, et al, 2019; Girardin et al, in press; Griscom et al, 2017; Lewis, Mitchard, et al, 2019; Roe et al, 2019). Urban green infrastructure is often overlooked, but there is a growing evidence that urban trees can also make a significant contribution to mitigating GHG emissions (Davies et al, 2011; De la Sota et al, 2019; Nowak et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Promise Of Nature‐based Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting the message right on nature‐based solutions to climate change

Seddon

Smith

et al. 2021

Global Change Biology

576

294

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Nature‐based solutions (NbS)—solutions to societal challenges that involve working with nature—have recently gained popularity as an integrated approach that can address climate change and biodiversity loss, while supporting sustainable development. Although well‐designed NbS can deliver multiple benefits for people and nature, much of the recent limelight has been on tree planting for carbon sequestration. There are serious concerns that this is distracting from the need to rapidly phase out use of fossil fuels and protect existing intact ecosystems. There are also concerns that the expansion of forestry framed as a climate change mitigation solution is coming at the cost of carbon rich and biodiverse native ecosystems and local resource rights. Here, we discuss the promise and pitfalls of the NbS framing and its current political traction, and we present recommendations on how to get the message right. We urge policymakers, practitioners and researchers to consider the synergies and trade‐offs associated with NbS and to follow four guiding principles to enable NbS to provide sustainable benefits to society: (1) NbS are not a substitute for the rapid phase out of fossil fuels; (2) NbS involve a wide range of ecosystems on land and in the sea, not just forests; (3) NbS are implemented with the full engagement and consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in a way that respects their cultural and ecological rights; and (4) NbS should be explicitly designed to provide measurable benefits for biodiversity. Only by following these guidelines will we design robust and resilient NbS that address the urgent challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, sustaining nature and people together, now and into the future.

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Section: The Promise Of Nature‐based Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting the message right on nature‐based solutions to climate change

Seddon

Smith

et al. 2021

Global Change Biology

576

294

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show abstract

“…Urban farms can also create jobs and help fight unemployment and poverty [26,61]. Last but not least, vegetation cover provided by urban agricultural sites could improve air quality and decrease the urban heat island effect (UHI), potentially mitigating some of the acute effects of climate change [6,26,62,63].…”

Section: Urban Agriculture and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the ways in which green spaces are increasingly incorporated into private development schemes can lead to "green stealth", a process of spatial exclusion through privatisation of these areas [62]. Finally, while the concept of promoting resilience through ecosystem services and naturebased solutions (including UA) are increasingly well-known, the actual incorporation of these approaches into urban policy and planning is still weak in most parts of the global North [38,53,63,75,83,86], and may be sidelined in favour of hard engineering solutions that might provide more immediate results or direct economic returns [15,59,62,71,79,83,87].…”

Section: Institutional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing City Resilience through Urban Agriculture: Challenges and Solutions in the Global North

Gulyas

Edmondson

2021

Sustainability

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Cities, which now host the majority of the global population, are vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic disturbances, which are likely to increase in number and severity in the near future. Urban agriculture (UA) could help increase the resilience of cities to a range of pressures and acute shocks by improving food security and public health, building social capital, and promoting circular economies. However, comprehensive assessments of its potential are still lacking. Here, we use a systematic review of the literature on UA in the global North to identify factors that determine its success in providing resilience benefits, explore challenges that can limit this, and develop a conceptual model to highlight the ways in which it could be enhanced through research, policy, and practice. We define the success of UA in increasing city resilience as determined by five factors, which in turn depend on the amount of institutional and public support for UA, the presence of a sufficient knowledge base, communication and collaboration among different actors, and resourcefulness in finding alternative ways to use space and other resources efficiently. We close with a discussion of specific directions for research and practice based on the conceptual model developed here.

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“…GI and nature-based solutions are a step towards achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), building resilience, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change (De la Sota et al, 2019; Demuzere et al, 2014; Liu Li & Bergen, 2018; Ronchi et al, 2020). The role of GI in moving towards sustainability becomes important in developing semi-arid cities, particularly at neighbourhood scale (Wang & Kintrea, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Priority Areas for Developing Green Infrastructure in Semi-arid Cities: A Case Study of Tehran

Jamali

Khaledi

Razavian

2021

Environment and Urbanization ASIA

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Urban green infrastructure (GI) approach supports building resilience, mitigating greenhouse gases emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. However, the development and maintenance of GI in semi-arid cities can be hindered by limitations such as available water resources. In this article, we study priority areas for GI development schemes at the neighbourhood scale through a seasonal vulnerability framework with the case study of two urban districts in the semi-arid city of Tehran, Iran. Heat mitigation and stormwater runoff control are considered as the main objectives of GI development. The results show that priority areas have high levels of land surface temperature, impervious surfaces and population density, with a low proportion of vegetation land cover. The necessary GI services vary in different local climate zones (LCZ) during the year. Although heat mitigation is required in both compact and open LCZs, the runoff control service of GI is also needed for neighbourhoods with compact midrise settings. To promote sustainability at the neighbourhood scale, the findings of the study can be used for initiating nature-based solutions and GI development projects.

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Urban green infrastructure as a strategy of climate change mitigation. A case study in northern Spain

Cited by 78 publications

References 43 publications

Getting the message right on nature‐based solutions to climate change

Getting the message right on nature‐based solutions to climate change

Increasing City Resilience through Urban Agriculture: Challenges and Solutions in the Global North

Priority Areas for Developing Green Infrastructure in Semi-arid Cities: A Case Study of Tehran

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