scholarly journals Estimating Air Pollution Removal and Monetary Value for Urban Green Infrastructure Strategies Using Web-Based Applications

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 788
Author(s):  
Alessio Russo ◽  
Wing Tung Chan ◽  
Giuseppe T. Cirella
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollutant Removal ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Pollution Removal

More communities around the world are recognizing the benefits of green infrastructure (GI) and are planting millions of trees to improve air quality and overall well-being in cities. However, there is a need for accurate tools that can measure and value these benefits whilst also informing the community and city managers. In recent years, several online tools have been developed to assess ecosystem services. However, the reliability of such tools depends on the incorporation of local or regional data and site-specific inputs. In this communication, we have reviewed two of the freely available tools (i.e., i-Tree Canopy and the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics) using Bristol City Centre as an example. We have also discussed strengths and weaknesses for their use and, as tree planting strategy tools, explored further developments of such tools in a European context. Results show that both tools can easily calculate ecosystem services such as air pollutant removal and monetary values and at the same time be used to support GI strategies in compact cities. These tools, however, can only be partially utilized for tree planting design as they do not consider soil and root space, nor do they include drawing and painting futures. Our evaluation also highlights major gaps in the current tools, suggesting areas where more research is needed.

scholarly journals Green Infrastructure, Urbanization, and Ecosystem Services: The Main Challenges for Russia’s Largest Cities

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1292
Author(s):  
Oxana Klimanova ◽  
Olga Illarionova ◽  
Karsten Grunewald ◽  
Elena Bukvareva
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Current State ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
High Level

Globally, the process of urbanization is transforming land use and, as a consequence, reducing the efficiency of ecosystem services (ESs), which ensure a healthy and comfortable urban environment. In cities, green infrastructure (GI) is a key source of urban ESs. Russia is a highly urbanized country: 70% of its population live in towns or cities. As cities continue to expand, they are swallowing unsealed lands that support ESs. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis of the current state and recent changes in urban GI in Russia’s 16 largest cities, including a biophysical evaluation of key urban ESs, using remote sensing data and freely available statistics. Our analysis identifies a weak correlation between GI area, ES volume, and favorable climate conditions as well as a stronger correlation between ESs and the increasing rate of urbanization. Considering Russia’s high level of urbanization, the key importance of ESs for the well-being of citizens, and ongoing reductions of urban GI, major revisions to urban planning policy are required. Indicators of urban biodiversity, GI, and ESs should be incorporated into decision-making processes. In particular, it is vital that the accounting and monitoring of GI and ESs are established in all of Russia’s larger cities.

scholarly journals Prioritizing Street Tree Planting Locations to Increase Benefits for All Citizens: Experience From Joliette, Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Sousa-Silva ◽  
Elyssa Cameron ◽  
Alain Paquette
Keyword(s):  
Urban Forest ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Species At Risk ◽  
Social Inequities ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
The City ◽  
Health And Well Being

As the climate continues to warm and the world becomes more urbanized, our reliance on trees and the benefits they provide is rapidly increasing. Many cities worldwide are planting trees to offset rising temperatures, trap pollutants, and enhance environmental and human health and well-being. To maximize the benefits of planting trees and avoid further increasing social inequities, a city needs to prioritize where to establish trees by first identifying those areas of greatest need. This work aims to demonstrate a spatially explicit approach for cities to determine these priority locations to achieve the greatest returns on specific benefits. Criteria for prioritization were developed in tandem with the City of Joliette, Canada, and based on nine indicators: surface temperature, tree density, vegetation cover, resilience, tree size and age, presence of species at risk, land use type, socioeconomic deprivation, and potential for active transportation. The City’s preferences were taken into account when assigning different weights to each indicator. The resulting tree planting priority maps can be used to target street tree plantings to locations where trees are needed most. This approach can be readily applied to other cities as these criteria can be adjusted to accommodate specific tree canopy goals and planning constraints. As cities are looking to expand tree canopy, we hope this work will assist in sustaining and growing their urban forest, enabling it to be more resilient and to keep providing multiple and sustained benefits where they are needed the most.

scholarly journals Temporal Change Detection Analysis of Monroe County, NY tree cover from 2009 to 2017

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Bacchus ◽  
Amanda Walker ◽  
Kaitlin Stack Whitney
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Monroe County ◽  
Change Detection Analysis ◽  
Detection Analysis ◽  
Tree Canopy Cover

Forests provide many ecosystem services which are enjoyed by nearby residing communities. This includes pollution and flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, oxygen production, food, fuel, education, recreation, and aesthetics. These ecosystem services also come from urban and suburban forests. Urban ecosystems, specifically urban green spaces services have been noted to improve human health significantly. Yet urban forests and ecosystem services have not and are not distributed. Understanding where and when forest cover and green spaces are changing can give insight into corresponding changes in services and access within and between communities. Thus, our objective was to complete a temporal analysis of the tree canopy-cover in the city of Rochester, NY was performed to examine change in tree cover and green spaces from 2009-2017. We did this using three-band orthorectified data; red, green, and blue bands and unsupervised and supervised classifications. A stacked-PCA image was created and applied to the change-detection PCA technique. In running the stack PCA analysis band 3 was found to be indicative of change, highlighting the expansion of agriculture as a major drive of change. The stacked PCA change detection technique determined that 8,448,898,967 tons/ha of vegetation was gained during these two time periods. The attempted NDVI change detection indicated that 1.89089353510 tons/ha of vegetation was gained. The NDVI change detection analysis revealed the most vegetation gains occurring in the rural and suburban regions of Monroe County, NY between 2090 and 2017. Given the many benefits of forests and green spaces for health and well-being, we make recommendations for future researchers attempting this kind of assessment for Monroe County and identify local programs that may be mitigating some of the green space disparities in the county.

scholarly journals From City- to Site-Dimension: Assessing the Urban Ecosystem Services of Different Types of Green Infrastructure

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrycia Brzoska ◽  
Aiga Spāģe
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Small Scale Structures

Cities have a wide variety of green infrastructure types, such as parks and gardens. These structures can provide important ecosystem services (ES) with a major impact on human well-being. With respect to urban planning, special consideration must be given to such green infrastructure types when implementing measures to maintain and enhance the quality of life. Therefore, generating knowledge on the urban ES of differently scaled green infrastructure types is important. This systematic literature review provides an overview of existing studies which have explicitly investigated the urban ES of differently spatial-scaled green infrastructure types. By reviewing 76 publications, we confirm rising academic interest in this topic. The most frequently assessed urban ES belong to the category Regulating and Maintenance. Only a few have considered individual small structures such as green roofs or single gardens; green spaces are often aggregated into one, mostly city-wide, object of investigation, with resulting oversimplifications. Moreover, generalizing methods are mostly applied. Simultaneously, many studies have applied methods to evaluate location-specific primary data. More research is needed on small-scale structures, in particular to consider site-, and thus location-specific, parameters in order to successfully implement the ES concept into urban planning and to obtain realistic results for ES assessments.

scholarly journals Influence of Blue-Green and Grey Infrastructure Combinations on Natural and Human-Derived Capital in Urban Drainage Planning

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2571
Author(s):  
Sikhululekile Ncube ◽  
Scott Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Amenity Value ◽  
Sustainable Drainage Systems

The natural capital and ecosystem services concepts describe the multiple benefits people get from nature. Urbanisation has been identified as one of the key factors influencing the decline of natural capital globally. Urbanisation has also been associated with a recent increase in urban flooding incidents in most cities globally. While the understanding of blue-green infrastructure in urban drainage is well established, little is said about its influence on natural capital. This study utilises the Natural Capital Planning Tool, Benefits Evaluation of Sustainable Drainage Systems tool and expert stakeholder interviews to assess the influence of blue-green and grey infrastructure as adaptation pathways in urban drainage, on natural capital and ecosystem services, and to determine how these contribute to other forms of human-derived capital. Key findings show that blue-green options can enhance natural capital and ecosystem services such as amenity value while also contributing to social and human capital. Although the assessed blue-green options contribute to regulating ecosystem services such as floods regulation, their most significant contribution is in cultural ecosystem services, especially amenity value. It is concluded that incorporating blue-green infrastructure in urban drainage adaptive approaches can mitigate natural capital losses and contribute to other forms of capital crucial for human well-being.

scholarly journals Locating trees to mitigate outdoor radiant load of humans in urban areas using a metaheuristic hill climbing algorithm – Introducing TreePlanter v1.0

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Wallenberg ◽  
Fredrik Lindberg ◽  
David Rayner
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Tree Height ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Hill Climbing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Hill Climbing Algorithm ◽  
Tree Characteristics

Abstract. Mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) is a frequently-used measure of outdoor radiant heat conditions. Excessive Tmrt, linked especially to clear and warm days, have negative effect on human well-being. Highest Tmrt on such days is found in sunlit areas, whereas shaded areas have significantly lower values. One way of alleviating high Tmrt is by planting trees to provide shade in exposed areas. To achieve the most efficient mitigation of excessive Tmrt by tree shade with multiple trees requires optimized positioning of the trees, which is a computationally extensive procedure. By utilizing metaheuristics, calculations can be reduced. Here, we present TreePlanter v1.0, which applies a metaheuristic hill climbing algorithm on input raster data of Tmrt and shadow patterns to position trees in complex urban areas. The hill climbing algorithm enables dynamic exploration of the input data to position trees, compared with very computationally demanding brute-force calculations. The results show that the algorithm, in relatively low model runtime, can find positions for several trees simultaneously that lowers Tmrt substantially. TreePlanter can assist in future research on optimization of tree planting in urban areas to increase thermal comfort. The current version can only position trees of equal tree characteristics (tree height, tree canopy and trunk height). Expected developments include positioning of trees with different tree characteristics.

China’s ecosystem services planning: will Shanghai lead the way? A case study from the Baoshan district (Shanghai)

Erdkunde ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-293
Author(s):  
Harald Zepp ◽  
Matthias Falke ◽  
Franziska Günther ◽  
Lars Gruenhagen ◽  
Luis Inostroza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Baoshan District

Ecosystem services (ES) are a fundamental component of well-being and sustainable urban development with tremendous potential to enhance urban planning. Recently, several studies have evaluated the environmental performance of urban plans using the ES approach. To strengthen this science-policy integration, it is still necessary to perform ES assessments within the urban planning practice as well as to collect empirical evidence on the impacts of envisioned planning measures on the supply of ES in urban environments across the world. In this research, we analyzed the state-of-the-art of China’s new environmental governance, which aims to change China’s land use policy and particularly the role of Green Infrastructure (GI) regarding urban planning and ES. We focused on the Shanghai Baoshan district Master Plan as a case study, and analyzed it under the lenses of the supply of ES using the matrix approach. We ascertained the supply of ES as delineated in the ecological network plan for 2035, and developed an evaluation framework based on CICES v5.1 and two expert workshops. Our approach used an integrated preliminary ES-assessment, and evaluated the consequences for the supply of ES in Baoshan district, which is adaptable to varying urban geographies. The results of our assessment show that, if realized as planned, the district will increase the overall supply of ES, especially regulating and cultural services, that play an important role within GI on the urban level. In general, the land use plans should include fine-grained information within building blocks to allow for even better assessing of the spatial structure of the supply of ES

Implications of Urban Sustainability, Socio-Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
José G. Vargas-Hernández ◽  
Karina M. Pallagst
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Infrastructure Design ◽  
Literature Reviews

This chapter aims to analyze the implications that urban sustainability, socio-ecosystems, and ecosystem services have as the bases to design the urban green growth strategies. The method used is the analytic based on the theoretical and conceptual literature reviews on the topics described. Urban sustainability and environmental performance integrates biodiversity and socio-ecosystems for the provision of better quality ecosystem services supported by green infrastructure design into the green projects aimed to achieve economic and environmental benefits. It is concluded that the ecosystem services and human well-being may suffer irreversible severe declines if sustainability is not built based on biodiversity of socio ecosystems, green infrastructure, and natural capital.

Green infrastructure—approach and public health benefits

2018 ◽  
pp. 252-256
Author(s):  
Raffaele Lafortezza ◽  
Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Multiple Services ◽  
Temporal Dimensions

Green infrastructure (GI) planning is becoming a pre-eminent approach for delivering essential goods and services to people while reversing trends such as landscape and habitat fragmentation. By means of sound ecosystems delivering multiple services and benefits, GI can contribute to public health, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. These services and benefits are provided at the local, regional, and national scales, and are therefore closely knit to planning and policymaking at various levels. The Green Infrastructure Framework was conceptualized to incorporate the multifunctional, multiscale, and temporal dimensions of GI and to demonstrate the associations between ecosystem services and human well-being. It stresses biodiversity, social and territorial cohesion, and sustainable development as key contributions of GI, creating the environmental settings for well-being and community health. Adopting the GI approach and its characteristics of connectivity (by connecting ecological and social systems), accessibility, and functionality in urban planning may contribute to healthier societies.

scholarly journals “An interdisciplinary perspective on ecosystem services and human well-being”: results and potentials of German-Russian cooperation within the project

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Diana Dushkova ◽  
Dagmar Haase ◽  
Peer von Döhren ◽  
Olga Chereshnya ◽  
Vladimir Megorsky
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Interdisciplinary Perspective ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
Humboldt University

Programs of international cooperation between universities and scientific centres aim to promote not only the achievements in science and education but also contribute to intercultural understanding, as well as to development of efficient human resources, research and innovation. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of international cooperation in research and higher education between Russia and Germany by examining selected German-Russian projects and their outcomes. In particular, it highlights the experience of summer schools on “An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being”, an annual event started in 2014. It is organized under the umbrella of the German Academic Exchange Service (Program of Eastern Partnership), the International Office and Geography Department of Humboldt University of Berlin and the Faculty of Geography at Lomonosov Moscow State University in strong cooperation with other universities, research centres and NGOs from both countries. The summer school addresses relevant contemporary environmental issues of urbanization with special emphasis on ecosystem services, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions and their importance for well-being of the urban population. In this paper we present our experience from this project by providing the theoretical-methodological aspects of such joint educational and training programs and report outcomes, which emerged from them, thereby highlighting the difficulties and advantages and suggest lines of further development and cooperation. It also highlights how geographical perspective can provide new important and critical insights into the place-based approaches to ecosystem assessment and how it relates to the current trends in human-environmental research.

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