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•Identification of cultural ecosystem services classes that are assessable with spatial data.•Development of indicators for offered CES in river landscapes.•Display of high and low ...scores on a national and sub-national scale with maps.•Demonstrating the usage for the developed index of environmental panning.
River landscapes offer diverse cultural ecosystem services. Providing more information on the quantity that river landscapes provide in terms of offered cultural ecosystem services could contribute to river landscape planning. Offered cultural ecosystem services are ecosystem contribution that may provide benefits to humans. The aim of this study is to apply an indicator framework for spatially assessing offered cultural ecosystem services in German river landscapes. Our indicator framework ‘CulturAl Ecosystem Services of River landscapes’ (CAESaR) quantifies offered cultural ecosystem services at national and local scale, with adapted sets of sub-indicators with regard to the required level of detail and available spatial data. The indicator framework considers opportunities for water-related and non water-related activities, landscape aesthetic quality, and heritage. Our results show that the highly rated river landscape areas have an above-average proportion of river courses and active floodplains. Historical floodplains provide lower offered cultural ecosystem services scores overall. The land cover classes pasture, broad-leaved forest and water courses receive high offered cultural ecosystem services scores, whereas non-irrigated arable land characterizes river landscapes with low indicator scores. We conclude that the proposed indicator framework proved applicable at various scales and can be transferred to cases with a similar context.
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•Nature-based solutions (NBS) can alleviate societal challenges.•A concise definition for application of NBS in planning research is given.•Landscape planning provides spatial ...information for effective design of NBS.•Governance research may identify barriers and opportunities for NBS implementation.•Research needs concern effectiveness, co-design approaches, and implementation.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) in river landscapes, such as restoring floodplains, can not only decrease flood risks for downstream communities but also provide co-benefits in terms of habitat creation for numerous species and enhanced delivery of diverse ecosystem services. This paper aims to explore how landscape planning and governance research can contribute to the identification, design and implementation of NBS, using the example of water-related challenges in the landscape of the Lahn river in Germany. The objectives are (i) to introduce the NBS concept and to provide a concise definition for application in planning research, (ii) to explore how landscape planning and governance research might support a targeted use and implementation of NBS, and (iii) to propose an agenda for further research and practical experimentation. Our methods include a focused literature review and conceptual framework development. We define NBS as actions that alleviate a well-defined societal challenge (challenge-orientation), employ ecosystem processes of spatial, blue and green infrastructure networks (ecosystem processes utilization), and are embedded within viable governance or business models for implementation (practical viability). Our conceptual framework illustrates the functions of NBS in social-ecological landscape systems, and highlights the complementary contributions of landscape planning and governance research in developing and implementing NBS. Finally, a research and experimentation agenda is proposed, focusing on knowledge gaps in the effectiveness of NBS, useful approaches for informed co-design of NBS, and options for implementation. Insights from this paper can guide further studies and support testing of the NBS concept in practice.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape ...planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning:
Co-define setting
,
Understand challenges
,
Create visions and scenarios
,
Assess potential impacts
,
Develop solution strategies
, and
Realize and monitor
. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely
Place-specificity
,
Evidence base
,
Integration
,
Equity,
and
Transdisciplinarity
. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming.
Defend, Retreat and Attack Petersson, Jesper; Soneryd, Linda
Water alternatives,
2022, Letnik:
5, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper explores the river landscapes and concomitant values resulting from tensions between floodmanagement and visions of a River City. The aim is to contribute to an understanding of the ...management of urbanwaters as valuation practices. We regard valuation practices as co-constitutive of current and future riverlandscapes. Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, is located next to the sea, and the Göta River, Sweden’slargest water system, runs through it. Our empirical focus is on how this city approaches increasing risks of flooding.We explore three approaches that have been formulated in relation to flood management: defend, retreat andattack. We ask how these approaches are applied in the management of Göta River flooding and in the city’s visionof a future Gothenburg that embraces the river as a genuinely positive aspect of urban life. We present the case asa journey that takes us upstream from the river’s sea inlet port and through Gothenburg. During our kilometre bykilometre journey, the river’s appearance shifts. The varied river landscape mirrors the diversity in how its watersare valuated, both historically and in present times. The perception of urban waters is shaped by practices ofvaluation. These valuations are generative. They connect the value of water to other entities, actors, plans, activitiesand buildings, and they are thus key to the river landscapes that will eventually be realised. By way of conclusion,we identify a number of governance challenges that are particularly relevant to urban rivers.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognized as sustainable approaches to address societal challenges. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has benefited by moving away from purely ‘grey’ ...infrastructure measures towards NbS. However, this shift also furthers an increasing trend of reliance on public acceptance to plan, implement and manage DRR measures. In this review, we examine how unique NbS characteristics relate to public acceptance through a comparison with grey measures, and we identify influential acceptance factors related to individuals, society, and DRR measures. Based on the review, we introduce the PA-NbS model that highlights the role of risk perception, trust, competing societal interests, and ecosystem services. Efforts to increase acceptance should focus on providing and promoting awareness of benefits combined with effective communication and collaboration. Further research is required to understand interconnections among identified factors and how they can be leveraged for the success and further uptake of NbS.
Hydro-meteorological risks are a growing issue for societies, economies and environments around the world. An effective, sustainable response to such risks and their future uncertainty requires a ...paradigm shift in our research and practical efforts. In this respect, Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) offer the potential to achieve a more effective and flexible response to hydro-meteorological risks while also enhancing human well-being and biodiversity. The present paper describes a new methodology that incorporates stakeholders’ preferences into a multi-criteria analysis framework, as part of a tool for selecting risk mitigation measures. The methodology has been applied to Tamnava river basin in Serbia and Nangang river basin in Taiwan within the EC-funded RECONECT project. The results highlight the importance of involving stakeholders in the early stages of projects in order to achieve successful implementation of NBSs. The methodology can assist decision-makers in formulating desirable benefits and co-benefits and can enable a systematic and transparent NBSs planning process.
The strategy of reconnecting rivers with their floodplains currently gains popularity because it not only harnesses natural capacities of floodplains but also increases social co-benefits and ...biodiversity. In this paper, we present an example of a successfully implemented nature-based solution (NBS) in the Dijle valley in the centre of Belgium. The research objective is to retrospectively assess cost and benefit differences between a technical solution (storm basins) and an alternative NBS, here the restoration of the alluvial floodplain. The method is a comparative social cost–benefit analysis. The case study analysis reveals similar flood security, lower costs, more ecosystem services benefits and higher biodiversity values associated with the NBS option in comparison to the technical alternative. However, the business case for working with NBS depends substantially on the spatial and socio-ecological context. Chances for successful NBS implementation increase in conditions of sufficient space to retain flood water, when flood water is of sufficient quality, and when economic activity and housing in the floodplain is limited.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) for mitigating climate change are gaining popularity. The number of NBS is increasing, but research gaps still exist at the governance level. The objectives of this paper ...are (i) to give an overview of the implemented NBS for flood risk management and mitigation in Germany, (ii) to identify governance models that are applied, and (iii) to explore the differences between these models. The results of a hierarchical clustering procedure and a qualitative analysis show that while no one-size-fits-all governance model exists, polycentricism is an important commonality between the projects. The study concludes by highlighting the need for further research on traditional governance model reconversion and paradigm changes. We expect the findings to identify what has worked in the past, as well as what is important for the implementation of NBS for flood risk management in future projects.
Decentralized Nature-based Solutions such as Urban Green Infrastructures (UGI) are increasingly promoted to reduce flooding in urban areas. Many studies have shown the effectiveness of flood control ...of UGI at a plot or neighbourhood level. Modelling approaches that extrapolate their flood reducing impact to larger catchment scales are often based on a simplistic assumption of different percentages of UGI implementation. Additionally, such approaches typically do not consider the suitable space for UGI and potential implementation constraints. This study proposes a scenario development and modelling approach for a more realistic upscaling of UGI based on empirical insights from a representative neighbourhood. The results from this study, conducted in the metropolitan area of Costa Rica, show that upscaling the full potential for UGI could significantly reduce surface runoff, peak flows, and flood volumes. In particular, the permeable pavement has the highest potential for flood reducing in public space while cisterns perform best at the property level. These results can guide the formation of policies that promote UGI.
Abstract
The hypothesis that adaptive evolution in cities can occur on both contemporary and microgeographic scales was tested by investigating morphological, genetic and life history traits of ...waterflea Ceriodaphnia cornuta in an urbanized river. After the partial isolation from the Yingtao River by urban construction 16 years ago, the population of C. cornuta in the Shangyi Pond showed a different pattern of genotypic composition. Nuclear microsatellite markers revealed significant population genetic structure of C. cornuta among the Shangyi Pond, the Yingtao River and the Dianshan Lake in the upstream area. Migration analyses demonstrated little gene flow among different waters. In a common garden experiment, the changes in multivariate reaction norms provided evidence of local adaptation to dietary cyanobacteria in the river and lake populations. The results indicated that fragmenting river landscapes with urbanization resulted in the significant genetic differentiation and subsequent adaptive evolution in zooplankton populations on a short temporal and geographical scale.
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