Edible green infrastructure: An approach and review of provisioning ecosystem services and disservices in urban environments
Recently published green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and ecosystem disservices (ED) literature have focused primarily on the supply of urban regulating and cultural ecosystem services (ES). Other literature on urban and peri-urban agriculture has mostly studied the role of localized, intensive agricultural practices in providing food to inhabitants.
Five decades of soil erosion research in “terroir”. The State-of-the-Art
Although soil erosion in vineyards is key to understanding the sustainability of agricultural management, there is not a worldwide definitive state-of-the-art review. It is accepted that soil erosion in vineyards has been more a scientific issue than an agronomic and environmental concern, and this review will point out key issues that will allow the designing of new and advanced research projects.
Marine reserves can mitigate and promote adaptation to climate change
Strong decreases in greenhouse gas emissions are required to meet the reduction trajectory resolved within the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, even these decreases will not avert serious stress and damage to life on Earth, and additional steps are needed to boost the resilience of ecosystems, safeguard their wildlife, and protect their capacity to supply vital goods and services.
Cascades of green: A review of ecosystem-based adaptation in urban areas
Climate change impacts increase pressure on challenges to sustainability and the developmental needs of cities. Conventional, "hard" adaptation measures are often associated with high costs, inflexibility and conflicting interests related to the dense urban fabric, and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) has emerged as a potentially cost-efficient, comprehensive, and multifunctional approach. This paper reviews and systematises research on urban EbA. We propose an analytical framework that draws on theory from ecosystem services, climate change adaptation and sustainability science.
Overcoming water challenges through nature-based solutions
Freshwater is a key resource and medium for various economic sectors and domestic purposes but its use is often at the expense of natural ecosystems. Water management must change to deal with urgent issues and protect aquatic ecosystems and their services, while addressing the demand for water from the competing claims for cities, agriculture, industry, energy and transport. In this paper key water challenges (shortage, pollution, aquatic ecosystems threatened) have been identified via global modelling.
How could companies engage in sustainable landscape management? An exploratory perspective
Current concepts that aim to align economic development with sustainability, such as the circular and green economy, often consider natural systems as externalities. We extend the green economy concept by including the landscape as the provider of social, economic and environmental values. Our aim is to explore how companies could engage in creating landscape-inclusive solutions for sustainable landscapes. We propose a conceptual model of the relationship between companies and landscape services based on a demand for landscape benefits by companies, implications for wider society.
The Soil Value Exchange: Unlocking nature’s value via the market
As the reality of a carbon-neutral market and future takes form, all available resources will need to be focused upon removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In this regard, no alternative is more promising today than nature-based solutions. Restoration of native ecosystems and the use of management concepts such as adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing for ranchland have the potential to reliably store vast amounts of carbon in near-surface soil at very low cost.
Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: Human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present
East African landscapes today are the result of the cumulative effects of climate and land-use change over millennial timescales. In this review, we compile archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data from East Africa to document land-cover change, and environmental, subsistence and land-use transitions, over the past 6000 years. Throughout East Africa there have been a series of relatively rapid and high-magnitude environmental shifts characterised by changing hydrological budgets during the mid- to late Holocene.
Betting against Human Ingenuity: The Perils of the Economic Valuation of Nature's Services
At the turn of the twentieth century, economic ornithologists focused on the monetary value of services provided by birds in order to fit nature conservation into the dominant economic paradigm. Pest control was of key interest because of its political importance and because it was relatively easy to quantify and monetize. However, this particular service became obsolete when a human-made solution was introduced that performed the same service - seemingly more cost effectively and reliably - undermining the political standing of economic ornithology.
Urban forest research in the Mediterranean: A systematic review
The Mediterranean region is facing many challenges, some of which can be addressed by nature-based solutions such as urban forests and green space. However, at best, urban forest research from Mediterranean countries has been only briefly addressed in review papers up to date. This Scopus-based review paper provides first insights into the development of urban forest research in the Mediterranean in the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015.