This presentation explores how claims for transformative adaptation toward more equitable and sustainable societies can be assessed. We build on a theoretical framework describing transformative adaptation as it manifests across four core elements of the public-sector adaptation lifecycle: vision, planning, institutional frameworks, and interventions. For each element, we identify characteristics that can help track adaptation as transformative. Our purpose is to identify how governance systems can constrain or support transformative choices and thus enable targeted interventions. We demonstrate and test the usefulness of the framework with reference to three case studies of nature-based solutions (NBS): river restoration (Germany), forest conservation (China), and landslide risk reduction (Italy). Building on a desktop study and open-ended interviews, our analysis adds evidence to the view that transformation is not an abrupt system change, but a dynamic complex process that evolves over time. While each of the NBS cases fails to fulfill all the transformation characteristics, there are important transformative elements in their visions, planning, and interventions. There is a deficit, however, in the transformation of institutional frameworks. The cases show institutional commonalities in multi-scale and cross- sectoral (polycentric) collaboration as well as innovative processes for inclusive stakeholder engagement; yet, these arrangements are ad hoc, short-term, dependent on local champions, and lacking the permanency needed for upscaling. For the public sector, this result highlights the potential for establishing cross-competing priorities among agencies, cross-sectoral formal mechanisms, new dedicated institutions, as well as programmatic and regulatory mainstreaming.

How to cite: Scolobig, A., Linnerooth-Bayer, J., Pelling, M., Martin, J., Deubelli, T., Liu, W., and Oen, A.: Transformative Adaptation through Nature-Based Solutions: A Comparative Case Study Analysis in China, Italy and Germany, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16076, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16076, 2023.

Implementing Nature-based Solutions (NBS) will be crucial in the context of the urban environment, as the global share of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to urban areas is - according to the latest IPCC report - increasing. In 2020, urban emissions were estimated at 29 GtCO2-eq. These emissions represent 67-72% of the global share. In that sense, NBS can play an important role. On the one hand, by reducing emissions, and on the other hand, by adapting the environment to the consequences of climate change, such as making the urban environment more resilient to the heat island effect and the increased risk of flooding.

Although investments in NBS infrastructures are considered a cost-effective way to achieve future societal and environmental benefits, the current public spending in Flanders (Belgium) still needs to be increased. As a result, the gap between investments and the societal need for NBS is growing. In contrast to the limited public spending, the private capital seeking for investments is abundant. Yet, the potential to invest private capital in NBS is not fully exploited. NBS projects typically have sizeable upfront costs and diffuse and long-term societal benefits that are not easily captured in steady cash flows. In order to attract private investments to NBS, new business models and alternative financing mechanisms are needed.

This research focuses on land value capture instruments as an alternative financing mechanism for NBS. The interest in this topic, and especially in developer obligations as an alternative financing instrument, has recently grown exponentially among scholars. The developer obligations are related to permits for additional buildings/constructions. In Flanders, however, the legal preconditions imply that the developer’s obligation must have a direct link with the project. This leaves little room for using (incomes from) developer obligations in a non-site-specific way. Although, those additional buildings and the associated sealing of soil, have a clear link with its heat island effect in the cities. Mitigating measures such as cooling nature, forestry, and water surfaces in and near the cities are therefore of vital importance in this era of climate change. 

In this research, the legal context in Flanders will be assessed through in-depth doctrinal legal research. By illustration, the legal framework will be applied to the Stiemervalley NBS case in Genk.

How to cite: Van Esbroeck, C.: Developer obligations as an alternative financing instrument for Nature-based Solutions in Flemish cities: an urban planning law perspective, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17085, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17085, 2023.

As the body of research surrounding the benefits of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) grows, questions regarding how and where UGI is implemented in regards to vulnerable populations require more investigation. Although US cities and municipalities have begun to examine the environmental justice implications of UGI placement, the spatial aggregation and connectivity characteristics of urban ecosystems in vulnerable areas aren’t always considered when making these decisions.  Evidence suggests that connectivity of UGI can influence the ecosystem services UGI provides, but currently research into the differences in UGI connectivity between vulnerable and non-vulnerable populations is sparse. Understanding this relationship can help to better inform decisionmakers on how to effectively address discrepancies in UGI implementation while minimizing the expenditure of municipal resources.

In this case study of Washington, DC, we explore relationships between metrics of ecosystem connectivity derived from high spatial resolution (1m) land cover maps and components of the US Center for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index.  These relationships are analyzed using PCA to uncover correlations between commonly used indicators of social vulnerability and the spatial patterns of land cover in a major US city.

How to cite: Havens, Z., Macko, S., and Mogensen, L.: Discerning relationships between urban ecosystem connectivity and social vulnerability in a major US city, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-13851, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13851, 2023.

Nature-based solutions are increasingly promoted in regional and national policies as actions to address societal challenges and promote climate change mitigation and adaptation while leading to co-benefits to human well-being and biodiversity. However, several challenges limit the mainstreaming of nature-based solutions in decision-making. Through the presentation of case studies from the island state of Malta, we analyse the (a) use of urban ecosystem service assessment to prioritise nature-based solutions based on existing distributional patterns, (b) recent case-studies of nature-based solutions implementation, and (c) barriers and enablers to mainstreaming nature-based solutions in decision-making. We show how urban ecosystem service assessments can support greening strategies by identifying the most effective nature-based solutions that can play a redistributive role by addressing existing inequalities in ecosystem services supply within cities. Our results also indicate that while nature-based solutions were used to address multiple societal challenges, including tackling drought and heat risk, low place aesthetic value, low green infrastructure availability, and biodiversity and knowledge loss, several gaps in practice remain. We show how nature-based solutions uptake has been more strongly associated with the environmental sector, and social and economic benefits, such as green job creation, social cohesion and ownership by communities, were less often identified in the analysed case-studies. We also show how current bottlenecks, including knowledge gaps regarding the scope, cost-effectiveness and benefits arising from nature-based solutions, and limited practical experience, act as barriers to implementation while the arising public relations, adoption of interdisciplinary approaches involving multiple stakeholders, and the availability of regional guidelines were considered as key enablers. Drawing on these case-studies, we present recent collaborative work aiming at addressing some of the gaps in knowledge and practice, while engaging with communities to co-create nature-based solutions and evaluating the impacts of implementation.

How to cite: Balzan, M.: Planning effective and multifunctional nature-based solutions: insights from the case-study of Malta, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7092, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7092, 2023.

Climate change and environmental degradation are severely affecting marine and coastal systems and the innumerable ecosystem goods and services on which people rely. As result, biodiversity loss and reductions in ecosystem functioning have been recorded across marine and terrestrial systems. A transformative change in the way we adapt to climate change is needed, centered around preserving and restoring nature. Nature-based Solutions (NbS), an umbrella term for conservation, restoration and other management measures (e.g., regulation law implementation), offer an opportunity to transform climate adaptation pathways while providing environmental and societal benefits. They can act as risk reduction measures and address ecological, political, societal, economic issues at multi-level from individual targeted local interventions to collective regional upscaling.

To facilitate the adoption of evidence-informed NbS responding to environmental targets as posed by relevant EU acquis (e.g., Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and specific contexts, in the frame of the MaCoBioS project, a harmonized modeling framework has been developed. It brings together risk assessment approaches, NbS suitability mapping and a decision-support system guiding the selection of most appropriate NbS in marine and coastal ecosystems. In particular, following a progressive analytical process, Machine Learning techniques and GIS are exploited to recognize risk-prone areas against the combined effect of human and climate-related pressures, while identifying suitable areas for marine-coastal NbS implementation today and into the future. Drawing on this, the designed decision-support system offers a portfolio of potential actionable interventions based on a variety of factors (e.g., from ecological to socio-economic) that will need to be considered during NbS planning and implementation. It allows practitioners an overview of NbS approaches that are best suited to addressing societal challenges, also linked to climate-related risks, thereby potentially helping to achieve value for money from the often-limited resources available for environmental conservation and management.

Overall, the proposed multi-stage analytical framework aims to provide evidence-based guidance on the inter-relations between climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services, offering a basis for strategic discussions and better alignment of marine-coastal NbS with respect to societal challenges. Its adoption by marine-coastal managers can facilitate an effective pathway towards NbS adoption that enhances the adaptation and resilience capacity of marine-coastal ecosystems.

How to cite: Furlan, E., Allegri, E., Simeoni, C., Simide, R., Perez, G., O'Leary, B., Fonseca, C., Critto, A., and Marcomini, A.: A multi-stage analytical framework for the integration of Nature-based Solutions into climate risk management and adaptation, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14076, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14076, 2023.

In this talk, we will present an innovative French program on Biodiversity and Nature Based Solutions, SOLU-BIOD, driven by the CNRS and INRAe. This is an ambitious (>44 Mio€), long term (9 years) transformative (systemic) program, part of an investment plan of the French Government, which will address the challenges of implementing innovative NbS by tackling three main issues:

(i) an organizational challenge: SOLU-BIOD will structure in France the community of research and practice on NbS in an unprecedented way by making possible highly inter- and transdisciplinary research;  (ii) scientific challenges: SOLU-BIOD will enable highly innovative research, in particular on the roles of biodiversity facets (in particular genetic diversity and evolutionary potential) for NbS; the importance of social processes (legislation frameworks, social norms, financing and governance systems) underlying NbS; the approaches and criteria to assess the effectiveness of NbS with the necessity to go beyond a case-by-case approach; and the creation of models and development of scenarios to design and assess NbS for the forthcoming decades. These scientific challenges will be addressed for four priority cases of NbS, namely NbS based on protected area networks, NbS in agricultural/natural mosaics, urban NbS and coastal NbS; (iii) a knowledge transfer, education and training challenge: SOLU-BIOD will profoundly change access to data and scientific knowledge and capacity building on NbS, through rethinking higher education and academic and continuing training and creating unprecedented access to expertise on these types of solutions in French territories. We will present more particularly the national network of living labs on NbS established by SOLU-BIOD and the research conducted therein.

How to cite: Hossaert, M. and Le Roux, X.: Revising our way to program and support research to tackle the scientific issues of nature-based solutions: the case of France institutions, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16964, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16964, 2023.

Climate change-related phenomena are putting an enormous strain on cities’ infrastructure, human livelihoods, public health and citizens well-being. This, together with the increase in urban growth and urbanization, results in an expansion of urban hazards - including water scarcity, disease transmission and consequent social issues.

To address this complexity in an urban design context we introduce a Systemic Design (SyD) framework for Multifunctional Nature-based Solutions (NBS) to rethink and contribute to the planet’s health and people’s quality of life. The SyD approach focuses on context knowledge creation (environmental, climatic, social…) that includes perspectives from the point of view of multiple stakeholders, maps its key features, and analyses alternatives for exploiting different design options. Exploratory or suitability modelling supports all these steps.

The examples here presented are part of the multidisciplinary project euPOLIS focused on climate change adaptation and on enhancement of public health and citizen’s well-being through the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS). Although diversity of the size and the scale of presented case studies, the systematic baseline analysis have revealed that there are several shared conditions, such as an immediate need for improvement of existing green spaces, mitigation of direct and indirect UHI effect and refinement of maintenance systems.

A mapping of the local features, and variety of specific spatial and social conditions in public spaces studied in euPOLIS’s Cities (Belgrade, Gladsaxe, Lodz and Pireas) gives synthetic prospects to better understand the potential effectiveness of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) solutions (design options) in relation to their wider ecosystem and citizens’ concerns.  This leads to a systematic assessment of possible future scenarios of different scales (local, urban, regional…) and allows an examination of possible steps to better define locally specific variables, evaluation and validation of benefits to reduce existing vulnerability, and to improve community’s liveability.  The systemic design approach allows to explore the main drivers of urban development, climate change mitigation and urban resilience. In this way, it also supports decisions for further planning stages and anticipates actions for the management of the multifaceted hazards of the entire urban system.

How to cite: Boskovic, S., Puchol-Salort, P., Mijic, A., and Maksimovic, C.: Systemic design approach for climate change adaptation and enhancement of public health and wellbeing, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6288, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6288, 2023.

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer multiple and diverse benefits for both nature and society as they could simultaneously address a spectrum of environmental, social, and economic aspects. The need to upscale urban environments via NBS has resulted in an ever-increasing demand for structured methodologies and easy-to-implement urban design tools to facilitate their adaptation in standard urban policies and modern practices. Within this context, an innovative multi-dimensional, indicator-based NBS assessment framework for enabling a first-order site-specific selection of NBS has been developed herein. The proposed two-step simple, yet systematic, methodological framework enables urban planners to rank a set of candidate NBS, considered for a site of interest, on the basis of multi-dimensional measurable criteria, instead of founding their decision on a purely subjective interpretation of the potential NBS benefits in view of past good practices.

The first step of the proposed methodology exploits readily available data and expert knowledge to eventually deliver an initial site screening through estimating appropriate indicators that monitor site performance in a set of concerns associated with the following categories: (a) Public Health and Well Being, (b) Urban, (c) Environment, (d) Social, and (e) Economic. In particular, urban planners initially perform a qualitative site assessment to evaluate site performance across a list of concerns, representing critical issues identified within each of the aforementioned categories, that could potentially be mitigated via NBS interventions. Although the severity assessment of a particular concern (e.g. air quality, overweight population) is offered in a descriptive form (i.e. High/Moderate/Low/Not a problem/Not a concern), specific thresholds are recommended for each concern to guide stakeholders’ decisions with regards to the transition from one severity state to the other. The second step involves assessing the capacity for each of the NBS identified for the site of interest to mitigate the most pressing site-specific concerns. This NBS impact assessment, likewise the site screening, is performed in a qualitative manner. Hence, based on available literature, past experience and expert opinion, urban planners specify whether a specific NBS could have a Direct/Indirect/No mitigating impact on a particular site concern.

Following the input phase, the information related to the severity of the concerns (step 1) is convolved with the ability of an NBS to impact them (step 2) to produce a ranked list of the site-specific candidate NBS on the basis of their efficiency to address the most pressing site concerns. To facilitate this, a score is assigned to each of the qualitative descriptions in both steps. Through multiplying the two step scores per concern and then summing them, a total score per NBS is computed reflecting the overall NBS site-specific score. Supplementary factors could be accommodated by the proposed framework, to account for other aspects that are likely to affect NBS selection, e.g. budget or other constraints.

The proposed innovative methodology is also offered in the form of an online application, to serve as a decision-assisting tool for undertaking a first-order NBS selection and consequently prioritising further investigation and detailed modelling to appropriate interventions prior to their implementation.

How to cite: Baki, S., Kazantzi, A., and Makropoulos, C.: NBS efficiency-informed urban upscaling methodology: the euPOLIS approach, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17125, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17125, 2023.

The UK has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, and the government plans to triple current tree planting rates over the next 25 years. This commitment brings up many questions – Where should the trees be planted? If they displace agriculture, where should the displaced food come from, and how should farmers be compensated? And how will future UK woodlands fare in a changing climate?

We are developing a suite of models to address the multifaceted implications of land use change in the UK. The aim is to empower decision makers to understand policy options that would lead to a desired outcome – for example tree planting incentives to maximize greenhouse gas removal. A core component of this modelling framework is forest carbon storage and its sensitivity to climate, CO₂, and management. Using km-scale climate forcing from an ensemble of projections, we model forest carbon with JULES, which typically represents the land surface in the UK/Hadley Centre climate models. We include developments to represent forest demography, multiple species, and management. Future climate in the UK is projected to be warmer with drier summers and wetter winters. Therefore, both drought and flooding are concerns for planning future land use.

This study highlights both the mitigation and adaptation potential of UK woodlands, focusing on a case study of locations illustrative of the climate change patterns seen in UKCP18 projections produced by the UK Met Office. We evaluate the potential for carbon removal, as well as impacts of the new woodlands on water resources (runoff and soil water retention) and local surface temperatures. Although higher CO₂ levels are expected to enhance growth, the potential for warmer and drier summers pose regional threats to future UK woodlands, even in high mitigation scenarios.

How to cite: Harper, A. B., Argles, A., Cox, P., Betts, R., Robertson, E., and Bateman, I.: Future forest growth in the UK – a case study of supporting land use decisions for net zero, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15939, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15939, 2023.

Climate change is projected to become limiting for cocoa production which can increase drastically the pressure on forest land as cocoa is already now a major driver for deforestation in Cameroon. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of climate risks that are associated to cocoa production and change in suitability is key for future resilient land use planning.  The nature based solution agroforestry is a common and promising strategy in the face of climate change impacts on cocoa production due to the reduction of heat stress by providing shade and its various co-benefits, as for instance the diversification of income. Crop suitability models are used in assessing the impact of climate change on season-long crop production potential and provide important information for projections of production rates. In this study, we developed an approach to assess the vulnerability of cocoa production in agroforestry systems under climate change considering common fruit tree species (Dacryodes edulis and Mangifera indica) in cocoa plantations in Cameroon. We simulated first the general suitability for cocoa under current and projected climate change and then compared the suitability under an emulated agroforestry system. We considered various climatic parameters such as monthly temperature, mean monthly precipitation, number of hot nights and days, (consecutive) dry months as well as further soil parameters such as pH. Farmers and expert’s opinion were considered through interviews and focus groups to complete and improve data availability on further socio-economic factors that might affect future suitability and productivity within agroforestry systems. We modelled future climate projections with Global Climate Models covering the time period 2015-2100 under the two climate change scenarios SSP1-RCP2.6 and SSP3-RCP7.0. Our results show an important shift of suitable areas and considerable decrease of suitability especially for the fruit trees which should be considered in adaptation planning to ensure future viable production.

How to cite: Gloy, N., Romanovska, P., Chemura, A., and Gornott, C.: Future climatic suitability of cocoa agroforestry systems with common fruit trees in Cameroon, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3139, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3139, 2023.

In the state of Brandenburg in eastern Germany, land use is increasingly affected by long-lasting soil moisture deficits in the vegetation period. Therefore, it is important to take measures to improve water retention at the landscape level to delay and mitigate the effects of droughts.

As a first step, we developed a catalog of possible measures that can be implemented on agricultural land, in forests, settlements, and nature reserves in our study area, a 1900 km² county in Brandenburg. Our objective was then to quantify their bio-physical efficacy. The distribution of land surface temperature (LST), which we derived from Landsat thermal images from the vegetation seasons of 2013 to 2020, served as a proxy for environmental conditions that favor water retention. We modeled LST as a function of several parameters of the physical environment such as land cover, forest and crop type. In addition, we incorporated an antecedent moisture index and potential evapotranspiration at time of satellite overpass into the model. With the help of meteorological time series from climate projections, we can thus check to what extent the model results could change in the future.

In this contribution, we will present the modeling framework and results. The model predictions provide a ranking of measures in terms of their effectiveness both within and between land use classes. In agricultural landscapes, for example, the conversion of cropland to forest and, albeit to a lesser extent, to permanent grassland is much more efficient than organic fertilization, agroforestry, or the cultivation of permanent crops. Finally, we discuss possible approaches to using the results for practical recommendations despite the various uncertainties (data and model uncertainty, uncertainty of climate projection data).

How to cite: Zimmermann, B., Kruber, S., and Hildmann, C.: Effectiveness of climate change adaptation measures in a drought-prone area, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7179, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7179, 2023.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) involve using natural systems such as wetlands, forests, and rivers restoration, to address challenges related to water, such as flooding, water scarcity, and water quality. Groundwater circulations and processes play a critical role in these natural systems. The solutions applied at the surface will have qualitative and quantitative impacts on groundwater, in this case, we propose the term NBS-GW (nature based solutions on groundwater). Therefore, the impact of the NBS on the groundwater systems should be assessed.

The evaluation of NBS implemented with the objective of sustainable management of groundwater poses particular challenges related to the specificities of aquifers, invisible due to their underground location, whose functioning is complex and highly dependent on the geological context. Many factors influence the hydrogeological effects of a NBS-GW, including the climate, the topography of the watershed, the geology, but also the characteristics of the ecosystems concerned.

The recharge of the aquifers allows to store water during times of plenty, and then it can be released gradually during times of drought providing sustainable base flow in the rivers, helping to mitigate the effects of water scarcity. Moreover, groundwater systems can act as a buffer against flooding by absorbing excess water during heavy rainfall events. NBS can have negative impact if not designed and implemented based on hydrogeological considerations. The benefits of NBS-GW can be maximized by combining different solutions and tailoring them to the specific conditions of a given area.

This work aims to define the criteria to assess the effectiveness of different NBS in terms of their ability to recharge aquifers and improve water quality. NBS-GW can be distinguished according to the type of environment/ecosystem on which the solution acts, by preserving it, by improving its functioning, or by creating a new ecosystem. At the scale of a hydrogeological watershed, we will then distinguish between the solutions implemented (1) in agro-forestry environments, (2) in urban and peri-urban environments, or (3) aimed at aquatic environments.

A review of the scientific literature was carried out in order to characterize the hydrogeological effects of NBS-GW by major type of environment (agro-forestry, urban, aquatic), and to identify the main factors of variation of these effects.

These indicators of hydrogeological effects and efficiency could contribute to the list of NBS impact indicators recommended by the European Commission, which currently do not take groundwater into account.

How to cite: Selles, A., Herivaux, C., Le Coent, P., and Marechal, J.-C.: Criteria for assessing the impact of nature-based solutions on groundwater systems, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16784, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16784, 2023.

The intensified accumulation of greenhouse gasses has led to rapid changes in global temperature trends and climate. In urban areas, this issue may also be exacerbated by the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. There is an extensive body of studies investigating the effectiveness of nature-based solutions in addressing these concerns. The majority of investigations have been conducted in evaluating the performance of urban greenspaces on cooling the environment since greenspaces can provide significant urban cooling via shade provision, evapotranspiration, and increased albedo. However, there remain some technical constraints for currently widely used methods for quantifying the cooling effect of greenspace. For example, although remote sensing techniques can provide spatially representative temperature observations over large areas from regional to global scales, satellite thermal sensors possess relatively low-spatial resolution. Therefore, this study proposes an effective temperature downscaling method to assess the cooling effect of urban greenspaces based on the high-resolution temperature data. A total of five sites among typical urban communities in a highly-density city/country - Singapore were selected as study areas. The temperature downscaling algorithm proposed in this research combines predictions of both the geographically weighted regression (GWR) and the neural network. Results show that the hybrid temperature downscaling method outperforms the conventional downscaling method on whole territories of study regions. The cooling effect of greenspace improves with both increments in the area and the intensity of greenspace (indicated by the green plot ratio; GnPR) with R² of 0.12 and 0.24, respectively. The characteristics of the urban built environment can also affect the cooling effect of greenspace with the R² between the cooling effect and the sky view factor (SVF) ranging from 0.10 to 0.22 among the sites. Based on the high-resolution cooling performance of greenspace, our research offered some interesting findings: (1) small greenspace with low canopy density (e.g., small patches of grassland) may deliver higher temperature than the temperature of surroundings, thus becoming local heat islands. (2) In sites characterized by relatively high SVF, greenspace is less effective in urban cooling with an increase of openness. This suggests the effect of wind in dense high-rise urban built environments. These findings may assist in better planning of urban greenspaces to increase their cooling effects among different urban communities. The model developed in this study can also be used in other studies to study the influences of potential driving factors on the cooling performance of urban greenspace or other types of nature-based solutions at the regional level.

How to cite: Jia, S. and Weng, Q.: Planning of Urban Greenspace for Cooling Singapore: Modeling the Cooling Effects of Greenspace and Urban Morphology, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11790, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11790, 2023.

Climate change impacts are affecting and will continue to widely affect particularly urban areas and their dwellers. These impacts not only come with economic losses, but also directly threaten the health of urban dwellers, as well as the functionality of urban ecosystems in terms of providing ecosystem services (EES) and ensuring habitats for threatened biodiversity. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are approaches that can tackle many of these impacts by mimicking natural processes.

In this case, the euPOLIS project, aims at creating cities-for-healthy-people by introducing NBS as a common practice in the urban planning methodologies, to locally improve thermal comfort, enhance biodiversity, mitigate pollution, improve climate resilience, provide open areas that stimulate social exchange and inclusivity, and much more, all contributing to enhancing public health and wellbeing (PH&WB) of citizens. By selecting 4 front-runner cities acting as demo-cases in different biogeographical and climatic regions, NBS are designed and tailored to each urban environment characteristics and problems. An innovative urban planning methodology that actively engage citizens is firstly developed, then tested and finally put into practice in all FR cities and resulting into a set of NBS interventions which aim to enhance the outdoor environmental conditions of the sites, supporting and promoting increased physical activity of citizens (as a precursor for health and well-being enhancements) and providing ground for socio-cultural and business improvements. These NBSs are then, implemented and constructed on each site, and carefully monitored before, under and after construction in order to measure their expected impacts.

The monitoring phase is based on an exhaustive data collection approach of different variables (environmental, social, public health and well-being, urban), which together with the posterior data analysis are expected to be important research tools and methodologies allowing to withdraw evidence-based conclusions of the NBS impacts. Different approaches to monitor NBS will be used, such as biodiversity surveys and environmental modelling, that in combination with in-situ sensors and satellite imagery and will provide insights about the environmental status of the site. In addition, the use of wearables together with health apps will help to determine the effects on PH & WB of citizens. Finally, questionaries on-site along with other qualitative methods will help to shed light on the enhanced social and economic conditions. NBS implemented in the project sites will therefore cover a multi-disciplinary consortium, actively engage citizens for consultation in all phases of the project and have a strong focus on PH & WB with the assessment of multiple co-benefits the solutions can provide. The enhanced EES by the newly introduced NBS, are expected to revitalize the urban ecosystems, protect local biodiversity and by doing so, regenerate the economic, social, cultural aspects of the site. Finally, this process is expected to directly/indirectly improve PH & WB in the demonstration sites.

The euPOLIS Project is on-going and expected to finish by August 2024, when the results and conclusions of the developed urban planning methodologies and NBS impacts on PH&WB will be shared, discussed and potentially scaled-up in other urban environments impacted by climate change. 

How to cite: Randelović, A., Figueras, A., Seidelin, F., Briggs, L., and Stanić, F.: Nature-based Solutions (NBS) at work and monitoring their performance – the innovative research case of the EU-funded project euPOLIS, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17063, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17063, 2023.

The loss of coastal wetlands in the last decades has been dominated by human-induced pressures and sea-level rise. Still, wetlands restoration has gained political momentum (e.g., the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030) as means of coastal protection, while supporting nature values and its biodiversity, addressing causes and consequences of climate change and securing ecosystem services for human well-being. Assessing the success of ecological restoration projects is thus critical to support the use of restoration actions as a natural enhancement of ecosystem health and to improve current restoration practices. Though there is plenty of information about seagrass transplant and restoration, less is known about salt marsh restoration.

We conducted a salt marsh vegetation transplant experiment in a rewilded wetland in the Ria Formosa coastal lagoon (South Portugal). This study aimed to (1) advance knowledge on the facilitation of pioneer salt marsh species colonization and development in rewilded wetlands, and (2) monitor the evolution of flora biodiversity and phytosociology over time. Two pioneer and perennial halophyte species, the Spartina maritima and the Sarcocornia perennis, were transplanted from a natural donor place into a rewilded marsh. Biodegradable 3D BESE-elements® were implemented to facilitate the salt marsh plant establishment, sedimentation process, and natural recovery process. Data collected include ecological datasets, sediment characteristics, and hydrodynamics.

Early results from the transplant experiment show that, four months later, S. maritima has successfully adapted to the restored area, while several transplants of S. perennis did not survive after this period. S. maritima leaves length increased on average >30% since the transplant was implemented. The elevation gradient, sediment geochemistry in the transplanted area, and probably the timing of the transplants were found to be determinants for S. perennis survival.  The preliminary results of this study highlight the importance of considering the bio-physical interactions in salt marsh restoration projects, and the use of environmental indicators to evaluate wetland-based solutions performances.

How to cite: Carneiro, I., Carrasco, A. R., Didderen, K., and Sousa, A. I.: Preliminary results of salt marsh transplants in rewilded coastal wetlands, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15449, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15449, 2023.

How to cite: Hülsen, S., Kropf, C. M., and McDonald, R.: Nature-based Solutions for disaster risk reduction - How many people do coastal ecosystems protect from tropical cyclones globally?, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17166, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17166, 2023.