Ecosystem Services in Urban Landscapes

Transcription

1 Ecosystem Services in Urban Landscapes Thomas Elmqvist Department of Systems Ecology Stockholm Resilience Centre Stockholm University SWEDEN 3/30/ Human history will ever more become urban history... 1

2 Knowledge gap Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) - the world s largest assessment of ecosystems treated urban ecosystems only in one chapter. World Development Report, World Bank (2009) the world s largest assessment of urbanization omitted reference to ecosystems Urbanization creating new types of landscapes Historical time Yesterday Today Carl Folke, Science Director 2

3 Urbanization creating new types of landscapes Central and northern Belgium composed of highly urbanized areas and Natura 2000 areas only. Source: European Environment Agency 2007 Urbanization Interactions with biodiversity and ecosystems Today 25% of the world s protected areas are within 17 km of an urban area - in 10 years 15 km (McDonald et al. 2008) Urban sprawl is rapidly transforming and endangering critical habitats of global value e.g. in the Atlantic Forest Region of Brazil, the Cape of South Africa and coastal Central America But... Urbanization in some areas result in reduced pressure on rural land an considerable regrowth and increase in biodiversity Cities may also be very rich in biodiversity and a remarkable amount of native species diversity is known to exist in and around large cities, such as Singapore, Canberra, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Berlin, New Delhi and Stockholm 3

4 Urban landscapes as social-ecological systems Biophysical, social, economic drivers Global Urban ecosystems Knowledge Urban institutions and Practice Management 4

5 Cities and Biodiversity Species number often increases with log number of human inhabitants, and that relationship is stronger than the correlation with city area. The age of the city also affects the species richness; large, older cities have more plant species than large, younger cities. 3/30/2010 (Reviewed in Elmqvist et al. 2008) Diversity and wealth Hope et al

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7 Ecosystem services Carbon sinks Water filtration Climate regulation Pollination Food production Seed dispersal 3/30/2010 Urban ecosystem services Cultural Services Aesthetics information / Amenity Opportunities for recreation and tourism Information for cognitive development Educational opportunities Art opportunities Spiritual experiences Provisioning Services Food Water Health Mental health, stress reduction Community building Respiratory relief Exercise opportunity (obesity, body tone help) Raw materials Ornamental resources Urban genotypes (TEEB 2010) 7

8 Regulating services Air quality Climate regulation Moderation of extreme natural events Waste treatment / water purification Erosion control Biological control against invasive pests, which often start in urban areas Pollination help parks, home gardens & allotments, urban agriculture Habitat Maintenance of genetic diversity, generally Urban genotype availability presence of populations tolerant of heat stress, air and soil pollution, and fragmentation. These will be increasingly valuable as the source of material in a time of climate warming. Landscape linkages TEEB (2010) Ecosystem services in urban landscapes Examples: Air quality: Parks may reduce air pollution with up to 85% Spiritual, aestethic Food Environmental quality: Vegetation significantly reduce Urban Heat Island effect Recreation Health: Doubling of the no. of street trees results in a 25% reduction of asthma among children (New York) Climate regulation Nutrient cycling Pollination Green area accessibility strongly linked to reduced obseity and increase in indicators of health (UK and USA) 8

9 Ecosystems Ipsen 2002 Urban Landscapes - turning Innovations into Sustainable Development, turning Challenges into Opportunities 9

10 Volume Drivers of urban change Innovation, R&D e.g. total employment, household energy consumption Infrastructure Population size Bettancourt et al PNAS Urban areas leading innovation Cities are hubs for human and financial capital: large opportunities for innovative experiments and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce the effects of climate change and increase human well-being in urban landscapes large opportunities for building innovative management and governance schemes, e.g. urban commons reconnecting people to nature and reconnecting people through nature 10

11 Urban Climate Change Challenges Sea level rise and frequencies of storms estimates vary, >1 m sea level rise projected at the end of the 21st century, increase in category 5 storms Urban heat waves heat stress and respiratory distress likely from extreme temperatures Peaks in storm water run-off greater extremes projected in individual rainfall events (IPCC 2007) Some of the world s most vulnerable cities to sea level rise 11

12 New Orleans September 2005 Photo credit: Associated Press source: USGS Large-scale restoration in southern Louisiana Wetland/water conversions 1932-present 12

13 Cities in an Era of Climate Change Ecosystems as a: low cost low maintenance low carbon part of solutions to urban climate change adpation Innovative uses of urban ecosystems for reducing vulnerability and building resilience Reduce Urban Heat Island Effect Reduce flooding and storm water peaks Reduce carbon footprint through urban vertical farming Facing up to rising sea levels (UK 2010) Conventional strategies too costly Innovative use of ecosystems Hull ICE

14 An increase of green area with 10% may contribute to a decrease of ambient air temperature with 3 0 C Vancouver Exhibition Centre / Namn Namn, Institution eller liknande Vegetation helps cool buildings / Namn Namn, Institution eller liknande Namba Park, Osaka 14

15 Vegetation and green roofs reduce peak water flows / Namn Namn, Institution eller liknande Barbican London New ways of construction - add green area / Namn Namn, Institution eller liknande Fukuoka Japan 15

16 Urban Vertical Farming Reduce use of fossil fuel (production and transport) Crop production possible during most of the year, low losses due to wheather Re-use of water - eliminates agricultural runoff (world s greatest source of pollution) Reduce pesticide use Energy generated through methane production Return farmland in some areas to generate multiple ecosystem services Cities and climate change REDD+ In New York City, trees currently store about 1.35 million tons of carbon valued at $24.9 million. In addition, trees remove over 42,000 tons of carbon each year. 16

17 New arena for innovative collaboration ecology social science economics architecture urban landscape design New campus at Stockholm University / Namn Namn, Institution eller liknande 17

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19 WorldExpo in Shanghai Better City-Better life (May-October) 2010 Global City Summit on Biodiversity in Nagoya in conjunction with the 10 th Conference of the parties of CBD (October) Thank you 19