SYMP 12 - Nature-based Solutions for Cities: The promise, peril, and opportunity for resilience and equity through urban ecological infrastructure

Organizer(s)

• TM

  Timon McPhearson

  Urban Systems Lab, The New School, New York, United States

Co-organizer(s)

• NK

  Nadja Kabisch

  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
• NF

  Niki Frantzeskaki

  Utrecht University, Netherlands

Moderator(s)

• TM

  Timon McPhearson

  Urban Systems Lab, The New School, New York, United States

Cities concentrate people, infrastructure, and economic activity, creating vulnerabilities and risks to damaging impacts of climate change, extreme weather events, and other social and economic shocks. These hazards are increasing worldwide and thus rapid investments to shift current trajectories from vulnerable to resilient ones are paramount. Though traditional hard engineered strategies will still be required, there is an urgent need to harness the role of nature-based strategies to support climate change adaptation and resilience. Nature-based solutions (NBS) provide multiple benefits including for flood protection, air and water quality regulation, and urban cooling while contributing to climate change mitigation and sustaining or enhancing biodiversity. Yet despite increasing adoption of NBS, key questions remain for how to scale up and equitably advance NBS, particularly for vulnerable communities in urban areas to avoid severe social and economic consequences of near and longer-term climate change.



Drawing from research and diverse global contributions to a new book, “Nature-based Solutions in Cities” this session will discuss the current state of the art in advancing NBS in, with and for cities and how urban ecological research can improve mainstreaming of NBS for urban resilience and equity. This session will focus on discussing how NBS can be better managed, planned, and engaged with, and to answer questions of NBS for what and for whom? How far are we from a nature-based urbanism? Paul Cosio and co-author Zoe Hamstead will discuss effective NBS types for urban heat and air pollution mitigation, and in particular, through people-centered experiences with NBS as an integrated social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) to address heat and air hazards. Lauren McPhillips et al. will explore examples of NBS to manage water resources, particularly highlighting hybrid ecological-technological examples explicitly engineered to manage stormwater such as wetlands or parks. Scott Maclvor and co-authors will examine the importance of biodiversity for nature-based solutions, highlighting two major components of urban green infrastructure that gain in importance with changing climate: street trees and green roofs. Finally, Anne Guerry and colleagues will highlight recent theories and practices of valuation--in both monetary and non-monetary terms--of nature-based solutions in cities.

Our goal is to provide examples of emerging NBS strategies from the global south and north contexts, and provide a synthesis of key knowledge and learning for advancing the science of NBS in cities and set the stage for a rich discussion of the research and practice frontiers for next-generation NBS.

Presentations:

• 1:30 PM – 1:50 PM EDT

  Nature-based solutions and biodiversity – synergies, trade-offs, and ways forward
  

  Presenting Author: J. Scott MacIvor – Biological Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto

  Co-author: Sonja Knapp – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
• 1:50 PM – 2:10 PM EDT

  Nature-based solutions as critical urban infrastructure for water resilience
  

  Presenting Author: Jason Sauer – School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University

  Co-Author: Lauren McPhillips – Pennsylvania State University

  Co-author: Wu Hong – Penn State University

  Co-author: Carolina Rojas – Pontifical Catholic University

  Co-author: Bernice Rosenzweig – Sarah Lawrence College

  Co-author: Brandon Winfrey – Monash University
• 2:10 PM – 2:30 PM EDT

  Just, nature-based solutions as critical urban infrastructure for cooling & cleaning airsheds
  

  Presenting Author: Paul Cosio – Arizona State University

  Co-author: Paul Coseo, PhD – Arizona State University

  Co-author: Zoe Hamstead, PhD – University of California, Berkeley
• 2:30 PM – 2:50 PM EDT

  Mapping, measuring, and valuing the benefits of nature-based solutions in cities
  

  Presenting Author: Tong Wu – Stanford University

  Co-Author: Anne Guerry – Stanford University

  Co-author: Eric Lonsdorf – University of Minnesota

  Co-author: Chris Nootenboom – University of Minnesota

  Co-author: Roy Remme – Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University

  Co-author: Rob Griffin – University of Massachusetts

  Co-author: Hillary Waters – University of Minnesota

  Co-author: Stephen Polasky – Dept. of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota

  Co-author: Baolong Han – Chinese Academy of Sciences

  Co-author: Ben Janke – University of Minnesota

  Co-author: Megan Meacham – Stockholm University

  Co-author: Perrine Hamel – Nanyang Technological University

  Co-author: Xueman Wang – The World Bank
• 2:50 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

  Discussion