The 2050 climate neutrality goal is a central strategic priority for the European Union. Cities, as primary contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, are simultaneously vulnerable to climate change impacts. To achieve this goal, urban areas must prioritize the transformation of energy systems and the adoption of sustainable innovations. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) represent a...
Urban areas are increasingly susceptible to the co-occurrence of flood and drought events, driven by climate change and rapid urbanization. This study applies a novel multi-risk framework for analyzing urban flood and drought risks, using Barcelona, Spain, as a case study. The framework integrates insights from existing multi-hazard and multi-risk assessment methodologies, focusing on a...
The growing urgency of climate change requires effective and inclusive strategies to meet sustainability targets. The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) supports municipalities in achieving climate neutrality through mitigation and adaptation measures. However, the success of SECAPs relies not only on their technical rigor but also on the extent to which they incorporate...
Background:
Urban heat exacerbates pre-existing vulnerabilities in Xi’an’s vulnerable communities, characterized by ageing infrastructure, socio-economic inequality, and a concentration of rural-to-urban migrants. These communities frequently face resource shortages, limited awareness, and insufficient institutional support to mitigate heat-related challenges, underscoring the urgent need for...
Rural coastal communities are highly dependent on natural resources, making them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This is especially evident in the Eastern Shore of Virginia (ESVA), a hotspot for accelerated climate impacts, including rising sea levels, coastal and inland flooding, and groundwater salinization. These environmental pressures threaten local agriculture,...
The term "energy transition" is often oversimplified in public discourse, reduced to a focus on emissions-free energy targets while black-boxing the intricate global supply chains and material flows that sustain them (Nadaï and Wallenborn, 2019). Rather than a uniform shift, energy transitions involve reconfigurations of socio-technical systems that reshape landscapes, infrastructures, and...
Sustainability policies achieved increasing attention in the last decades, with the EU green transition initiatives, especially the European Green Deal, taking a leading role (Almeida, et al, 2023). There are now a series of concrete ideas adopted and under implementation in many cities and metropolitan areas, such as greening public space, renovating buildings, avoiding to develop unbuilt...
The multiple impacts of climate change, such as floods, heavy rainfall, and heat waves, pose major challenges to cities and their inhabitants. In order to protect urban residents from these threats implementing targeted adaptation measures is essential especially in particularly affected areas and for vulnerable groups. In this context, assessing heat-related health risks is extremely...
Urban heat islands (UHIs) are a significant environmental challenge in modern urban areas, characterized by elevated temperatures compared to rural surroundings. This phenomenon arises from factors such as reduced vegetation, increased impervious surfaces, and dense urbanization (Leconte et al., 2015). Addressing UHIs is critical for enhancing urban livability, public health, and environmental...
As cities continue to expand, the increasing pressures of climate change and disaster risks have revealed significant gaps in conventional growth-driven urban strategies, which often fail to address ecological balance and social equity adequately (Pelling, 2011; Ahern, 2011). Urban growth patterns, when poorly managed, can intensify vulnerability to climate hazards while neglecting critical...
The way in which urban planning deals with the question of land in Mumbai is invariably tied to how it imagines urban water—in its various forms and flows—in relation to land. In a city where land-use planning is dominated by real estate imperatives, the everyday life of Mumbai’s inhabitants is caught in the struggle to anticipate and adapt to how water will flow and flood the city, altering...
Since the plastics lifecycle has a significant carbon footprint and emits about 4% of total GHG emissions, the global plastic pollution crisis is becoming a significant challenge to achieve the international target of limiting global temperatures to the climate-safe level of 1.5 degrees (OECD, 2023). Even if anthropogenic GHG emissions were reduced to zero, researchers believe that changes in...
Nature-based solutions (NBS) offer a promising framework for addressing urban environmental challenges while also enhancing social and economic resilience. As cities seek to achieve climate neutrality, the integration of NBS with Renewable Energy Sources (RES) presents both an opportunity and a challenge requiring an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative planning strategy. In this...
In an era marked by an escalating planetary crisis, the need to rethink spatial planning as a transformative action becomes ever more pressing. Addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and socio-spatial inequalities requires a paradigm shift that moves beyond conventional approaches, embracing adaptive frameworks capable of fostering resilience and...
Achieving carbon neutrality has become a key objective in global sustainability efforts, shaping climate policies and spatial planning strategies. In response to climate change, comprehensive plans are being developed globally to assess the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and implement strategies for their reduction. Many cities are formulating strategies to address this challenge....
Climate change adaptation, CCA henceforth, is nowadays a shared concern, deeply investigated and advocated by international research and political organisations. However, both CCA implementation and its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are challenges yet to be properly addressed. From a spatial planning perspective, local plans are the land-use-oriented tools with the highest potential to...
“Climate gentrification” is the new turn of phrase used to highlight the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income populations of color. Sea level rise threatens to dramatically reshape life on the Florida coast. As waters breach the tops of sea walls and bubble up from below, they erode the risk tolerance of wealthier residents to remain on the coast as inundation becomes more...
The Mediterranean coast is warming at a rate 25% faster than the global average and 40% faster during the summer. This rapid climate change has heightened risks of food insecurity and heat exposure for local populations. These risks are further intensified by another major transition: urbanization. Since 1960, the Mediterranean and North Africa have seen their populations quadruple and their...
In an era defined by converging crises—climate change, environmental degradation, social inequalities—urban planning and policy urgently need new interpretative frameworks and actionable approaches to face complex sustainability challenges. These must integrate technical-scientific insights with imaginative efforts to foster behavioural change, activate institutional innovation, and catalyse...
Identifying the built-environment characteristics related to the thermal environment is crucial for mitigating climate issues through planning interventions. Existing studies typically use linear regression, which struggles to accurately depict the complex association patterns between the built environment and the thermal environment. Taking the central urban area of Zhengzhou, China as an...
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly adopted worldwide to tackle urban environmental challenges, but their governance and implications for environmental justice remain contested. Current research on the implications of NbS on environmental justice often critiques NbS projects for reinforcing inequalities through neoliberal governance and exclusive planning, with limited focus on how...
Setting the context: global pressures/water challenges
Cities are under pressure due to multiple and conflicting social, economic, and environmental challenges. Water cities such as coastal territories, river cities and delta regions are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate extremes which are pushing public authorities to identify adaptive interventions across scales and...
Urban environments have a profound impact on public health. The design and management of such places play a significant role in shaping air quality and thus respiratory health. Despite growing awareness of the health implications of urban design, little is known about how to improve air quality of neighborhoods. Most urban design guidelines have focused on creating walkable neighborhoods...
This contribution arises from the ongoing research project HyperSCAPES: Extreme Infrastructure Projects and New Forms of Urbanity in the Anthropocene, and the MSCA project Integrating Energy and Logistics Hubs: Sustainable Infrastructure Development in Second-tier Mediterranean Ports, both conducted at the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico...
The topic of energy transition and energy savings for residential buildings is a crucial issue for present and future territories both with respect to environmental and climate change challenges and with respect to issues of inclusion and social justice (Rotondo et al. forthcoming). Although the literature is very fertile in this area (see, for instance, Bridge and Gailing, 2020; Scott, 2022),...
In the context of global efforts to address climate change, cities, as the core spatial carriers of human activities, bear significant responsibility for emission reductions. Urban carbon emissions account for more than 70% of global emissions, and with the acceleration of urbanization, population density and urban expansion have further driven the growth of carbon emissions (Shi et al.,...
The community life circle is a key unit in urban built-up areas and serves as the daily spatial domain through which individuals interact with the city. It supports diverse human activities and, as an urban design concept, emphasizes density, mixed-use, and pedestrian accessibility, becoming increasingly popular for its sustainability and livability benefits. In high-density cities, community...
Cities face increasingly urgent challenges related to climate change. Innovative approaches are being implemented to ensure environmental sustainability for future generations. According to the World Health Organisation, a prerequisite for sustainable urban development is health (Neira, 2015). Numerous studies show that urban biodiversity contributes to human health. Aerts et al. (2018)...
Since the early 2000s, a new paradigm has emerged focused on the creation of eco-cities (Nguyen & Vu, 2023), positioning them as one of the three models of the future city alongside the smart city and the knowledge-based city (Ingallina, 2019). As an umbrella concept encompassing various types of cities—such as sustainable cities, green cities, and others (Jabareen, 2006)—the development of...
Climate change is significantly increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, posing severe risks to health. According to the Lancet Countdown (2023), heat-related deaths among the elderly have risen by approximately 85% in recent years. Additionally, a recent study published in Nature estimates that, without effective mitigation, extreme temperatures could result in an...
With the constant dependence on groundwater and diminishing recharge capacity, along with untreated sewage and garbage dumping onto the water bodies, India is likely to be the most severely affected by water scarcity by 2050. As the most populous country with unique climate risk challenges, urban India has significantly stressed water resources. To address this, India recently completed its...
“Regenerativity” has emerged as a response to sustainability challenges and the climate crisis by focusing on restoring ecosystems, enhancing resilience, and creating self-sustaining systems that go beyond reducing harm to actively improving the environment and society. The concept of "regenerativity", though increasingly central to discussions of sustainable development, ecological...
As extreme weather events are becoming more common, the urgency to transform cities worldwide to become more resilient and adaptive is steadily increasing. Both in literature and practice nature-based solutions (NBS) have been identified as a key approach to making cities more adaptive, as they offer multiple co-benefits such as recreation, biodiversity, aesthetic qualities, and health...
This contribution is conceived within the framework of the PRIN 2022 - COSTA | Med - Catching Opportunities for Strategic Transformation and Adaptation of Mediterranean Coasts*. The overall objective of the research project is to formulate strategies for the transformation and adaptation of Mediterranean coastal territories. Specifically, the Pescara Research Unit investigates the potential...
It is increasingly understood that the impacts of climate change transcend traditional administrative boundaries, necessitating innovative, cross-boundary policy actions (Leck and Simon, 2013). Emerged in the 1990s as a way to reinterpret the evolving interplay between cities and their surrounding regions, the concept of 'functional areas' may be useful in this concern, indicating a shift in...
This paper articulates a reflection on the intersection between socio-economic inequalities, spatial segregation, and environmental justice in cities focusing on green inequalities and public space. Urban green plays a dual role: providing essential ecosystem services and mitigating climate risks, while also serving as a key component of public space. Green deprivation can therefore impoverish...
Energy resilience is crucial for mitigating the effects of climate change, urbanization, and natural disasters, as well as ensuring the continuity of urban life. A resilient energy system demonstrates the capacity to recover rapidly from shocks and stresses, thereby minimising downtime and mitigating the socio-economic impacts of disruptions. As urban populations expand, ensuring reliable and...
This study investigates the interrelationships among socio-ecological resilience, identity construction, and hydraulic heritage, as well as their multifaceted impacts on local communities.
Using the Huaibei region in China as a case study, the research examines the historical consequences of the Yellow River’s artificial diversion into the Huai River during the Song Dynasty. This large-scale...
Assessing and mapping Ecosystem Services (ESs), i.e., the material and non-material benefits provided by ecosystems to humans, is essential for quantifying the impacts of land uses and their changes, understanding the spatial mismatch between demand and supply of ESs, identifying priority areas for conservation, and evaluating the success of conservation strategies. Spatially targeting ES...
In response to the escalating urban ecological challenges induced by global climate change, the pursuit of sustainable development and green low-carbon regenerations under the goals of peaking and neutralizing carbon emissions (dual carbon) has emerged as a pivotal approach to bolster urban resilience and enhance urban ecology. However, systematic research on the integration of urban...
The contribution examines how climate risk and vulnerability assessments (CRVA) can be systematically embedded into real estate development to advance both urban climate resilience and compliance with emerging European regulatory frameworks. Using Milan as a demonstrative context, the study highlights CRVA’s value in meeting the requirements of the EU Taxonomy (European Commission, 2020) and...
The intensifying impacts of climate change have underscored the need for effective governance and long-term planning to ensure heat resilience in urban environments. Greater Sydney, with its exposure to extreme heat events, presents a compelling case study in the challenges and opportunities of integrating heat resilience into urban planning. Heatwaves have long been under-recognised in...
The emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases has accelerated the global warming process, exacerbating environmental problems. Urban CO₂ concentration has become a new focus in CO₂ research. However, existing studies are often limited by single data sources, restricting the temporal and spatial scope of the research. This study addresses the issue of limited data sources by...
Paper Title: Investigating the impact of Urban Form Elements on carbon emissions at Different Development Stages: Based on GWR and Random Forest Models
*Presenter:* Yihuan Wang (Southeast University)
Author(s): Yihuan Wang (Southeast University)
Topic Category: Carbon emissions, Urban development Levels, Urban forms, Geographically Weighted Regression Model, Random...
The Sundarbans mangrove forest, located in the Ganges Delta, neighbors numerous vulnerable coastal communities. The mangrove forests play a crucial role in sustaining local livelihood structures and providing key ecosystem services. Climate-induced change risks contributed saline waterlogging, and salinity intrusion in low-lying lands within polders through extreme weather events, such as...
Climate change has intensified extreme rainfall events which have made flood risk management critical for cities (IPCC, 2023). Conventional drainage systems are struggling to cope with increased stormwater flows, leading to sewer overflows and localised flooding (Ashley et al., 2020). A shift towards resilient flood management is needed, focusing on polycentric governance, integrated...
Climate change represents a critical global issue for urban, periurban, agricultural, and natural areas, where significant alterations to ecosystems and habitats are occurring. According to the European Pollinator Initiative (EC, 2018), approximately 80% of crop and wild plant species in the EU depend, at least in part, on animal pollination. In this context, the Mediterranean basin is...
The spread of renewable energy sources (RES) represents nowadays a main goal both at European and at national level, being “decarbonization” one of the key solutions to counterbalance climate change. However, the effective balance between global concern for climate change and local attention to landscape quality may give rise to several conflicts (Stremke and Schöbel, 2018). The current push...
This study examines Norrbotten’s transition towards sustainability by analyzing and mapping regional indicators in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using GIS-based spatial storytelling, it visually represents the current state of prioritized SDGs in Norrbotten, Sweden. This story map integrates data-driven insights with region-specific indicators to provide...
This paper outlines a specific phase of the whole methodology and initial findings of the RETURN Urban Living Lab (ULL) implemented in the Bagnoli-Coroglio area of Naples, Southern Italy. Developed as part of the Extended Partnership PE3 RETURN project within the Spoke TS1-Urban and Metropolitan Settlements activities, the initiative aims to foster collaboration among stakeholders to guide the...
In recent years, global climate change has intensified the frequency and severity of extreme rainfall events, while rapid urbanization has substantially expanded impervious surfaces. This expansion has led to elevated surface runoff, which poses a substantial threat to urban hydrological security. Synergetic grey-green infrastructure (SGGI) offers a promising paradigm for the effective...
How can the spontaneous renaturation of brownfields contribute to sustainable urban regeneration while integrating ecological, social, and economic objectives? The study examines the potential of spontaneous renaturation in brownfields, with the purpose of valorising the ecological regeneration methodology.
The rapid deindustrialisation of the 20th century left behind a vast number of...
Estuaries are dynamic and contested spaces of high environmental, economic and social relevance in Europe and worldwide. Over decades, offshore port locations have been developed in estuarine regions, creating strong economic dependencies at the national level, such as the ports of Antwerp and Hamburg. In addition to unregulated economic growth in these multifaceted spaces, estuaries face...
High-quality community public spaces are vital for fostering social interaction and improving the physical and mental well-being of elderly residents. Among various factors influencing the quality of these spaces, outdoor thermal comfort stands out as a critical indicator. Thermal comfort arises from the dynamic interaction between the built environment and thermal conditions, primarily...
One of the most pressing issues our cities face today is the constant rise in temperatures, leading to heat islands, biodiversity loss, increased mortality rates, and overburdened national energy systems. The solutions most commonly used today, such as air conditioning systems, involve significant energy consumption. This creates a cycle of dependency on energy resources and widens the gap...
Motivation and research question
Cities contribute 70% of total greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2022), with the heat sector as a major, hard-to-decarbonize contributor. Solutions such as transitioning to renewable energy, electrification, and improving building efficiency require coordinated local action involving multiple stakeholders and varying infrastructure needs.
To guide the...
Climate change significantly impacts urban areas, intensifying extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms, which strain infrastructure, compromise housing, and threaten public health and livelihoods. Cities also contribute approximately 70% of global CO₂ emissions, mainly from transportation and buildings (IPCC, 2022). Addressing these challenges requires integrated strategies...
Climate change presents historically and culturally significant cities with unique challenges in adapting to its impacts while preserving their heritage. This research investigates the interplay between cultural heritage preservation and climate adaptation in Siena, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995. The study, born from the ISOCARP YPP (Young Planning Professional) Workshop "Valleys of...
Biodiversity conservation and enhancement are increasingly central to urban and regional planning, yet a significant gap remains in understanding how local planning authorities translate high-level policies into effective practices at the city and project levels. While much of the existing research has focused on mapping biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecological conditions using...
As global climate change accelerates, cities worldwide are increasingly affected by wet-heat stress (WHS), driven by the combined effects of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and Urban Moisture Islands (UMI). Human perception of the thermal environment depends on both temperature and humidity. While UHI has been extensively studied, research on UMI remains limited, and few studies have integrated both...
Background: Bulgaria has established practices in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), yet the integration of applied Health Impact Assessment (HIA) research findings is limited or absent in the practice of urban planning, governance and development. This has led to poorly informed planning and decision making in recent years. Meanwhile, keeping...
This article aims to contribute to the bibliographic and theoretical understanding of the development of human settlements and urban infrastructures in the post-industrial era, with a focus on the unequal distribution of essential resources such as food, water, and energy, as well as the intervention in landscapes for energy production and consumption. The primary objective is to propose...
Harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature is the core objective of social development, and the need for collaborative governance of cross-domain ecological space is becoming more and more prominent. With the deepening of urbanisation, ecological space significantly crosses multi-level administrative boundaries, which involves the synergistic application of multiple governance...
In recent years, human and more-than-human histories twine together in creating the Anthropocene, and scholars need to learn to notice more of the threads in these knots (Gan and Tsing, 2018). To address these unseen threads, participatory approaches involving pluriversal (Escobar, 2018) stakeholders in the planning process are crucial (Kambunga et al., 2024). Neglecting the essential role of...
In response to the global trend of transitioning from carbon reduction to achieving net-zero emissions, the transformation of energy systems must simultaneously address challenges across social, economic, technological, and environmental dimensions. European countries have realised that relying solely on individual buildings, such as Zero Energy Building (ZEB) and Net Zero Energy Building (Net...
While the role of urban greening as driver of gentrification in cities worldwide has been researched extensively, recent studies have pointed towards a more complex and ambivalent relationship between greening and gentrification (Quinton et al., 2024; Reibel et al., 2023; Rigolon and Collins, 2023). Empirical evidence has suggested that greening can sometimes be a consequence of...
Mounting evidence of climate-related impacts—such as intensifying heatwaves, flooding, and resource shortages—makes urban adaptation an urgent priority. Yet effectively addressing these interlinked environmental and social challenges requires innovative forms of knowledge production and decision-making. Central to such efforts is the active engagement of non-academic stakeholders, who bring...
In recent years, the ongoing phenomenon of global warming and the frequent occurrence of extreme and unusual weather events have posed significant challenges to the human living environment and public health. Among these challenges, the issue of the urban heat environment has garnered particular attention, as evidenced by the prominence of the urban heat island(UHI) effect in research and...
In recent years, many European cities have adopted new planning tools to manage climate change through new strategies, rethinking the relationship between the city and nature and innovating urban planning practices. Around 60% of the European population lives in small and medium-sized cities (10,000-250,000 inhabitants) (Selada et al., 2010), which often face climate challenges without...
Wildfires, snowstorms, and rising temperatures are intensifying in tandem with growing inequalities and political dissatisfaction, signaling the profound socio-economic challenges posed by climate change. As the world has collectively pledged to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 under the Paris Climate Accord, this commitment necessitates extensive economic restructuring and significant...
The accelerating pressure of climate change on human settlements and the environment imposes a responsibility on central and local governments to take action (Kuyper, Schroeder and Linnér, 2018). Local governments’ commitment to international agreements and transnational city networks necessitates the preparation of climate action plans (Arı and Aydın, 2019; C40 Knowledge Community, no date;...
Integrating health issues into planning and urban development is becoming urgent (UN-Habitat and WHO; 2023) in this context of concurrent crises and climate change. It is about understanding how to minimize the exposure of populations to risk factors (pollutants, social isolation, etc.) while maximizing exposure to protective factors (practice of physical activities, access to green spaces,...
Some European cities have undergone rapid expansion of inhabitants and employment opportunities during the last two decades. Consequently, their spatial development targets have gradually shifted from largely exploited inner city brownfield redevelopment sites towards densification-oriented redevelopment of areas at their urban fringes. However, such sites bear specific challenges. During...
The shift to renewable energy is transforming rural landscapes, presenting both opportunities and challenges for biodiversity conservation and agricultural sustainability. This study examines the spatial and functional relationships between agricultural land, biodiversity conservation, and ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) deployment in Italy, addressing the "Land Use Gap" emerging from...
Urban and peri-urban parking lots are underutilized spaces with significant potential for sustainable transformation. Traditionally serving as basic vehicle storage, these sealed surfaces exacerbate climate change as urban heat islands and miss opportunities to support multifunctional uses. With shifting mobility paradigms, increasing demand for renewable energy, and growing societal needs for...
Numerous studies have highlighted the global impacts of climate change on heritage, such as flooding, sea-level rise, and drought (Orr et al., 2021). In urban contexts, heritage encompasses both tangible and intangible elements, such as historic centres and buildings as well as local traditions and expressions (UNESCO, 2017). It is intrinsically linked to values, socio-economic processes, and...
Global climate change has led to an increase in extreme heat events, affecting urban mobility, particularly bike-sharing systems, which are crucial for sustainable urban development. Although the built environment has a considerable influence on bike-sharing usage, there is limited research on its impact on urban mobility resilience (UMR) of bike-sharing. This study investigates the effect of...
The anthropogenic activity resulting from urbanization has significantly contributed to biodiversity loss (Das et al., 2024) and part of this transformation involves buildings, streets, and sidewalks. Urban biodiversity studies frequently investigate the relationship between the degree of urbanization and its effects on species (Yang et al., 2023). Particular attention has been given to the...
Global climate change presents a growing challenge, as frequent extreme heat events increasingly harm urban environments. Urban heat resilience refers to a city's capability to respond to extreme heatwaves. As urbanization accelerates and city scale expands, addressing these challenges will require firm solutions and careful consideration of heat resilience. Prior studies explored several...
The paper presents methodology and preliminary results of a Urban Living Lab (ULL) in the area of Bagnoli-Coroglio, Naples, South of Italy. The Return Bagnoli-Coroglio ULL has been organized in the frame of the Extended Partnership PE3 RETURN project, within the activities of the Spoke TS1-Urban and Metropolitan Settlements, with the objective of involving stakeholders in a shared process able...
Climate change significantly impacts urban water systems through rising sea levels, erratic rainfall patterns, and increased occurrences of floods and droughts. This research, conducted by the UNESCO Chair in Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark in collaboration with the UNESCO Urban Water Division, analyzed the urban water focus in 194 Nationally Determined Contributions...
Senmeng Hao
College of Cultural Relics and Art, Hebei Oriental University
As cities face rapid urbanization and escalating environmental challenges, the protection and creation of urban wilderness areas have emerged as critical strategies for achieving ecological balance and sustainable urban development. Urban wildernesses—natural spaces within or near urban centers that remain minimally...
The sixth special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)highlights uncertainty regarding whether the rise in fatalities is due to more landslide events or increased human activity. The Hindu Kush Himalaya exemplifies the convergence of climate change and urbanization impacts on landslide risk. While urban expansion may increase the vulnerability of the Himalayan...
Urban areas are dynamic and complex landscapes where the effects of urbanization on vegetation are influenced by socio-ecological processes across multiple scales. Urbanization significantly impacts vegetation and land use, driving the fragmentation of green-blue areas and biodiversity loss. Understanding urban biodiversity is critical for protecting ecosystem services (ES); however,...
Coastal areas have long been important to human settlement due to access to trade networks and food. Today, approximately 40% of the world’s population lives in coastal areas—an estimated 2.15 billion people. Along with residential development, coastal areas are home to highly developed infrastructure systems and trillions of dollars in private property assets. In the face of sea level rise...
The built environment constitutes one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Strongly mitigating the negative climate impacts of buildings and infrastructure can therefore offer opportunities to move towards more sustainable and climate resilient futures. Lowering the overall energy needs of the built environment, as well as better coordinating the energy demand and supply of...
Over the last few decades, there has been a significant surge in academic studies on nature-based solutions (NBS), driven by the urgent need for transformative action to address planetary crises such as climate change and ecological degradation. Yet, what is meant by nature in NBS research? While definitions of NBS are commonly referenced in the literature, the concept of “nature” itself is...
As heating is responsible for about half of the world’s total energy consumption, the heat transition is an important part of efforts to mitigate climate change. In the Netherlands 90% of the households depend on natural gas for heating their homes. Phasing out natural gas has therefore become a central policy objective in Dutch climate policy. Part of the Dutch heat transition strategy is a ...
As the world population living in cities continues to increase –expecting its current size to double by 2050– the need to consider the more-than-human as an integrative part of urbanization, inspiring broader thinking about ecological processes and human-nature relationships, has become more pressing. Alongside the capacities and resources that all levels of government and society need to...
