Description
Conserving and restoring green infrastructure can enhance the health and quality of life in urban areas by enhancing the provision of ecosystem services that are critically important for human health and well-being, including air purification, run-off mitigation, carbon sequestration, urban cooling, and recreational opportunities. The European Commission has recently adopted a Green Infrastructure Strategy to promote ecosystem services in urban and rural areas and green infrastructure is also considered a key step in implementing the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy. Although research on ecosystems services has grown over recent years, ecosystem services in urban areas are still among the less understood. The overall aim of this project is to foster synergies between research initiatives in Norway and Spain examining the contributions of ecosystem services and biodiversity to human health and well-being in urban. The project will assess various ways through which urban ecosystems services can enhance urban sustainability, human health, and quality of life and identify economic costs and socio‐cultural impacts that can derive from the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity in cities. It is expected to benefit the institutions involved in the project and the scientific community working on urban ecosystem services The project will promote collaboration between research institutions in Norway and Spain through sharing and integration of knowledge and data on ecosystem services. Project promoter, Autonomous University of Madrid, has broad experience in the assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and processes underlying the delivery of ecosystem services. Donor partner, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) has broad expertise in ecological economics.
Summary of project results
Achieving sustainable, resilient and livable cities stands among the greatest challenges of the 21st century. One of the most promising strategies to counterbalance these trends in the investment in green infrastructure, understood as “a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services”. Restoring green infrastructure in urban landscapes broadens the spectrum of potential ecosystem services increasing urban biodiversity and the quality of life of cities’ inhabitants while decreasing cities’ vulnerability to climate and other environmental change by enhancing resilience to buffer disturbance. A critically important component of urban green infrastructure which importance is expected to increase during coming years are urban gardens. The ecosystem service approach helps to addresses relationships between humans and their ecological environments. Assessing and valuing the ecosystem functions and services of urban gardens and acknowledging the ecological, social and economic values attached to them increases the visibility of traditional and emerging urban gardens──which in many places are under strong development pressure ──as important components of urban green infrastructure in cities. The scientific activity extended over the whole duration of the project, the peaks of activity took place during the four short research stays and a joints workshop jointly organized by the beneficiary and his hosts at UAM an UAB. The first research stay work focused on the classification, characterization and assessment of ecosystem services along urban-rural gradients. The second research stay work focused on the coordination of methodological guidelines for the integrated assessment, valuation and mapping of ecosystem services in urban areas. The third research was to coordinate and supervise the analysis of data related to the assessment and valuation of ecosystem services provided by urban gardens, with a focus on the diversity of ecosystem services provided by urban gardens and perceived importance by ecosystem services beneficiaries. The fourth research stay focused in coordinating and supervising the analysis of data related to the assessment and valuation of ecosystem services in urban areas using multicriteria analysis. Project results include several publication in international journals, workshops and others.
Summary of bilateral results
The results obtained from the project include four publications in international journal with indexed impact factor (of which one published, two are accepted pending revisions and one is submitted), ten presentations, at international or national conferences, workshops, seminars or symposiums, which increases visibility of project, results and partnership. The project has certainly created an important added value by i) strengthening and deepening existing collaboration; ii) creating new connections among researchers of the institutions, and iii) upgrading individual collaboration between researchers into formal collaboration between institutions of Spain and Norway. Two events organized during the research stays in Spain have particular importance in terms of cooperation with decision makers, wider cooperation in the sector, and dissemination of knowledge and expertise. First, on the 7th of July 2015, the beneficiary attended a workshop hosted by the principal investigador of the project at UAM, José González Novoa, titled “Evaluación de los flujos de servicios de los ecosistemas en gradientes rural-urbanos: aplicabilidad a la planificación socio-ecológica del territorio”. This workhop was attended by researchers of several institutions and reserach groups that conduct research on the sector, including Laboratorio de Socio-Ecosistemas (LabSES) de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Basque Centre for Climate Change, Fundación González-Bernáldez and EUROPARC. Second, on the 15th of October 2015, the beneficiary attended a workshop organized by himself in cooperation with his hosts at ICTA-UAB and the Diputació de Barcelona and the projects ‘OpenNESS’ and ‘Sitxell’, aimed at discussing how the ecosystem services approach can be best implemented and operationalizaed in urban decision making and planning. The workshop was well attended by decision makers, planners and other important stakeholders in the sector, including Diputació de Barcelona, Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya, Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona, Espais Verds i Biodiversitat, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Planejament urbà, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona Regional, CREAF, ICO, CTFC, Agència d’Ecologia Urbana de Barcelona, FEDENATUR, Unió de Pagesos, Minuartia, and Agència Catalana de l’Aigua.