Speaker
Description
Cities are a major source of carbon emissions, and in a time of frequent extreme weather, how to realize sustainable urban development through emission reduction and sink enhancement has a bearing on the fate of mankind globally. Urban blue-green infrastructures have outstanding carbon sink benefits and potentials and are the baseline ecological carriers for carbon sequestration and sink enhancement in cities. However, with the rapid expansion of cities, the destruction of nature by cities has led to the phenomenon of the fracture and fragmentation of blue-green infrastructures, which in turn has led to a significant reduction in their carbon sink benefits. Relevant scholars have carried out in-depth research on this issue, but the current research, on the one hand, separates blue infrastructure and green infrastructure and discusses them separately, ignoring the comprehensive benefits of blue-green infrastructure. On the other hand, the measurement of the carbon sink efficiency of blue-green infrastructure is also limited by low data precision, fuzzy measurement boundaries, and complex influencing factors, which makes it impossible to accurately identify the carbon sink efficiency of the space. Therefore, exploring scientific, high-precision carbon sink measurement methods and integrating natural elements such as water bodies and green spaces in cities is an important direction for current research.
In this study, we take blue-green infrastructure as the research object and climate suitability as the target and discuss the overall carbon sink benefit and its influencing factors under the coupling of green space, vegetation, water systems, and soil in the city in a comprehensive way. Firstly, by combining macro satellite remote sensing data and micro field research data, the limitations brought by single data are compensated, and the scientificity and feasibility of the study are enhanced. Based on this, the spatial distribution map of carbon sink elements of blue and green infrastructures was constructed and visualized by ArcGIS. Secondly, the quantitative calculation of carbon stocks in green areas, water systems, and soils was carried out by carbon sink coefficients, and the carbon sink benefits of blue infrastructures and green infrastructures were discussed and reconciled with the score in a holistic perspective. Again, we constructed a linkage model between carbon sink benefits and blue and green infrastructure and further discussed what influences the carbon sink benefits of blue and green infrastructure. Finally, based on the above analysis, we propose optimization strategies for urban blue-green infrastructure for climate suitability objectives.
It is found that there are spatial differences in the distribution of carbon sinks of blue-green infrastructure in Nanjing's river-reading building area, and that the spatial aggregation of blue-green elements and the area of green space are the main factors affecting the carbon sink benefits. Further analysis shows that trees are the main vegetation type to enhance the carbon sink capacity. In addition, we propose optimization strategies for urban blue-green infrastructure from the levels of spatial pattern and blue-green elements and enhance the comprehensive benefits of carbon sinks by optimizing the plant communities in the space, widening the area of waterfront green space, and the reasonable ratio of blue-green space, with a view to improving the quality and efficiency of the comprehensive carbon sink benefits and ecological resilience of the city, so as to enhance the spatial climatic appropriateness and provide a solution path for the city to cope with global warming and promote the sustainability of the city. In this way, we can improve the climate suitability of the space, provide a solution path for the city to cope with global warming, and promote the sustainable development of the city.
References
Wei, L., Guo, D., Zha, J., Bobylev, N., Chen, Z., & Huang, S. (2024) 'Estimation of the ecological carbon sink potential of using urban underground space: A case study in Chengdu city, China', Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 144, p. 105533. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2023.105533 (Accessed: 15 January 2025).
Sun, Y. Y., Shen, Z. Q., Huang, L. Y., Hu, J. L., Zhao, X. Y., Wu, J. Y., & Hu, G. (2024) 'Patterns of carbon source/sink across urban-rural gradient and urban green space types: A case study of Hangzhou City', Acta Ecologica Sinica, 44(3), pp. 930-943.
Xue, B., & Ren, W. X. (2012) 'China’s uncertain CO2 emissions', Nature Climate Change, 2(11), p. 762.
Wolch, J. R., Byrne, J., & Newell, J. P. (2014) 'Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’', Landscape and Urban Planning, 125, pp. 234-244.
Masoudi, M., & Tan, P. Y. (2019) 'Multi-year comparison of the effects of spatial pattern of urban green spaces on urban land surface temperature', Landscape and Urban Planning, 184, pp. 44-58.
| Keywords | Carbon sinks, blue-green infrastructure, sustainable cities, climate-resilient planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
