Nature-Based Solutions最新文献

Estuaries along with their saltmarshes are extremely relevant areas to what ecosystems conservation is concerned. Not only do they provide unique conditions to house numerous species but can also play an important role in pollution mitigation. This study aimed to evaluate the role of saltmarsh plants in metals retention in the long term, using a previously monitored estuary as a case study (Lima river estuary). Seasonal sampling campaigns were carried out in 2022 to determine the metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) concentrations in vegetated and non-vegetated sediments, as well as in saltmarsh plants at three sites within the estuarine area, Canogem, Salinas and Srª das Areias. Results showed saltmarsh plants, despite some seasonal variability, are concentrating metals in their rhizosediments (ratio metal in vegetated sediment / metal in non-vegetated sediment >1) and in their roots, namely Cd, Cu and Zn (ratio metal in plant roots / metal in non-vegetated sediment >1). This role seems to be maintained in the long term, with plant metal retention levels similar in 2009 and 2022, indicating plants are probably contributing to remove metals from the surface water. However, this feature seems to be decreasing in one of the sites, Srª das Areias, that shows signs of degradation. Thus, saltmarsh plants have the potential to retain metals in estuarine areas, contributing to reduce metals present in the aquatic environment and preventing them from spreading through the estuarine area, from reaching coastal areas and eventually from reaching underlying aquifers. Protection of this environment is mandatory and the promotion of re-vegetation of non-vegetated estuarine areas is needed so that the saltmarsh works as a nature-based solution that prevents and/or recovers impacted environments, in order that saltmarshes can continue to deliver their multiple co-benefits.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is a concept aims to address challenges related to human well-being, including human health, socio-economic development, and ecological security on both national and global scales. This concept was proposed against the backdrop of global climate change, ecological crises affecting humanity, and threats to sustainable development and it has been increasingly recognized and applied internationally over the past decade. The principle of NbS is reciprocity between humans and ecosystems, which is completely in line with the goals, systems, practices, and concepts guiding China's construction of ecological civilization. This paper clarifies concepts, evaluation criteria, and comprehensive benefits related to NbS, to trace the connection between NbS and both traditional and contemporary ecological civilization principles in China. By drawing valuable experience from NbS practices in China, it will focus on proposing policy and implementation suggestions to address challenges currently faced in NbS applications in China. This research will promote the research and practice of nature-based solutions in China. Meanwhile, provide novel perspectives and technologies for urban ecological design as well as sustainable development.

The Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), home to diverse ethnic communities locally known as tribals, lags behind in socioeconomic development, with widespread poverty and precarious livelihoods. This paper, using diverse sources of literature, examines the existing livelihood challenges faced by the tribal people of CHT and explores various livelihood options that could improve their well-being. Our analysis revealed that a variety of factors, including geographic, economic, social, historical, and political, affect the livelihoods of tribal people in the CHT. The region's difficult topography, remoteness, poor infrastructure, and past conflicts have hindered development efforts and deterred both private and public sector investments. Although over 60 % of the tribal people depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods, many of them are landless. Moreover, tribal communities have limited access to finance, education and training, health services, and markets due to their remote locations, poor infrastructure, and lack of transportation facilities. Our findings suggest that, despite many challenges, there is huge potential to improve the livelihoods of the tribal people. However, it would require a holistic and coordinated approach of managing natural resources, improving human, social, physical, and financial capital, as well as addressing underlying structural and institutional factors. Priority should be given to managing natural resources, improving governance, resolving land disputes, investing in infrastructure, improving access to markets and financial services, and developing skills and knowledge. This paper outlines a framework to address the existing challenges and harness the opportunities to promote sustainable livelihoods in CHT.

Statement of the Problem. Lack of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approach to optimize the application of nature-based solutions (NbS) for enhancing energy sustainability in building projects. This gap can result in suboptimal decision-making processes. Purpose. This study aims at introducing a decision support system (DSS) framework that fuses NbS with the power of fuzzy – based AI. The proposal seeks to support decision-makers and empower them with the capabilities of AI. Method. Through a systematic literature review, the aim was to first capture models’ input variables for the development of a DSS framework using fuzzy logic. Conclusions. Our findings underscore the significance of an integrated approach in energy-efficient building projects. The integration of NbS with fuzzy-based AI showcases substantial promise in augmenting decision-making processes, promoting optimized designs that align with both environmental and technological objectives. Practical implications. The proposed DSS framework can lead to improved building project outcomes, reduced environmental footprints, and more resilient infrastructure regarding energy consumption. Future Research Directions: further research endeavors should delve deeper into the practical implementation of the DSS framework across diverse engineering projects. Exploring variations of fuzzy-AI could further enhance the decision support system. Additionally, investigating the potential barriers and challenges in adopting this approach will be crucial in ensuring its widespread adoption.

A closer look at the built environment shows that opportunities lie in transforming buildings with nature-based solutions for fostering climate resilience. To understand the potential of buildings in contributing to transforming cities, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the evidence of the provided benefits of nature-based solutions implemented on their roofs and facades. Our goal is to highlight findings about the co-benefits of nature-based solutions on buildings in real-life case studies. After systematic screening and selection, the 222 reviewed research papers support that there is confidence in the climate resilience performance and benefits green walls, green roofs, and living walls provide, contributing to heat resilience and indirectly to social-ecological justice, especially when they are installed in old buildings. Our findings show that other recorded benefits include the provision of vegetation, habitat and biodiversity enhancement, and strong evidence of water retention and purification. We also report on design characteristics of nature-based solutions which are recommended when they are implemented on buildings. Green roofs were especially well-documented and it underlines the need of more studies about diverse NBS. From the synthesis of the state of the art, we propose that further research about the design of nature-based solutions on buildings is required to extend their co-benefits to noise reduction, air pollution entrapment and filtering, and carbon sequestration. In our paper, we found that the most important knowledge gap for future research is holistic perspectives on designing NBS on buildings.

With the increasing in urbanization and uncontrolled development of cities over the last decade, designing public urban green spaces as nature-based solutions has become imperative due to their positive health and economic impacts. The Qasrodasht neighborhood in Shiraz, Iran has suffered from haphazard construction and loss of public open space. This study demonstrates the potential for expanding and revitalizing urban public green spaces in Qasrodasht by proposing a framework for designing them in the vertical dimension. 25 experts in urban planning, design, and architecture were interviewed extensively. The interview questions were selected via literature review and SWOT analysis, with each interview lasting 20 min online. The data were analyzed and presented in a table. Ultimately, this study presents design alternatives, a framework for vertically-oriented public green space design, and policies and strategies for implementing such designs in Qasrodasht through expert interviews.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) have received increased interest as cost-effective contributors to addressing societal challenges, with ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) being the specific approach for reducing disaster risk under the NbS umbrella. Ecosystem services (ES) provided by Eco-DRR measures are known to contribute to reducing all three components of disaster risk. Yet, Eco-DRR evaluation falls short of recognising this, and this hampers its strategic placement and effective use. This paper addresses the challenge of evaluating the impact of Eco-DRR measures on reducing hazard, exposure and vulnerability. The methodological approach for Eco-DRR evaluation is developed for agroforestry as an example of ecosystem-based measure for flood risk reduction. The literature review on ES provided by cropland versus agroforestry provided the basis to elaborate on how the quantitative evaluation of such a measure for flood risk reduction could be realised in a next step. An additional literature review served to create a look-up table on the effects of agroforestry on hydrological processes in comparison to cropland. This can serve as input for re-running the hydrological model and comparing the hazard before and after the agroforestry implementation. The paper also captures the effects of agroforestry implementation on social and ecological vulnerability through changes in ES provision. Changes in ES provision resulting from the implementation of an agroforestry measure on cropland were related to social and ecological vulnerability using a deductive approach. The concept for comprehensive evaluation developed in this paper provides the groundwork for evaluating the risk reduction potential of Eco-DRR with reference to a tailored risk assessment.

Urban heat islands (UHI) are of the most common urban phenomena according to which some urban regions, especially downtowns, are hotter than the surrounding by some degrees. Urban development and its relationship with UHIs are important topics that should be first understood and then controlled by devising relevant plans for the trend of urban development. Municipal District 6 (MD-6) is an oldest and the most populous areas of Tehran city in Tehran province-Iran, which also has a high building density. In order to reduce the calculation error, this area is divided into 23 sections. And modeling in each section is done by comparing closely related sections separately. The results of this study can be generalized to all same parts of the world. Initially, earth surface temperature is estimated using Landsat 8 satellite data. Then, the vegetation area of each section is calculated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). And in the next step, by establishing a relationship between the obtained data, the rate of reduction of UHI is determined by adding a certain area of vegetation. Also, a map was prepared that showing the buildings on UHI, thus measuring the area of roofs with the ability to add vegetation. Finally, the modeling is based on this information. Results show with the addition of vegetation to the roofs of buildings, an average of% 38.58 of the area and 0.68°C of the intensity of the UHI was reduced in this area. Modeling gave different results for other sections depending on their location and the area of buildings inside heat islands that can be used for green roof development. When the material of urban surface changes and water and humidity penetration increases due to the replacement of these surfaces with plants, more time will be required for the increase in ambient temperature by plants versus impermeable surfaces like asphalt and concrete. Therefore temperature rise in plants needs more time than in impermeable surfaces.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are emerging as an approach to sustainable environmental management and addressing environmental and social issues in ways that benefit human well-being and biodiversity. NbS have been applied to social-environmental challenges such as climate change and urbanization, but with diverse conceptualisations and applications that may impact their effectiveness and broader uptake. Much of the literature and implementation of NbS has emerged from Europe and though NbS use is rising in Australia, the context is unclear. This systematic quantitative literature review aims to improve understanding of NbS in the Australian context.

Here we explore the meaning and uses of NbS in the scientific literature in Australia, through three research questions: In Australia, (1) what is meant by the term ‘nature-based solutions’? (2) what socio-ecological challenges do NbS aim to address and how? (3) what are the barriers and opportunities for greater integration of NbS into policy and practice in Australia?

We show that in Australia, local governments are using NbS in urban planning to address the compounding challenges brought on by climate change in the human-environment interfaces. However, there is no consensus on NbS definitions and approaches, research is focussed on urban areas and problems, and NbS implementation follows a bottom-up, localised pattern without an integrated policy framework. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for improving the implementation of NbS in Australia including: (1) a consistency of NbS definition and awareness of NbS approaches; (2) interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration on NbS methods and effectiveness and; (3) an integrated policy framework supporting NbS nationwide.

Green roofs are typically constructed for their provision of both environmental and associated economic benefits including increased habitat, thermal regulation, mitigation of air and noise pollution, and stormwater retention. The provision of these various ecosystem services is sharply influenced by plant species composition, with particular species and traits known to excel at specific services. For this reason, increased biodiversity can improve the overall provision of ecosystem services. However, one key contributor to green roof biodiversity, colonizing species, is understudied. In this study we examine the contribution of common colonizing species (lawn weeds) and one green roof species, to three important ecosystem services: stormwater retention, temperature reduction, and nitrogen retention. This experiment used replicated green roof modules to examine 13 different treatments: eight colonizing species in monoculture, one green roof species monoculture, two treatments with a mix of colonizing species, one treatment where vegetation was allowed to spontaneously colonize, and one substrate only control. Results from this study show that mixtures of colonizing species performed well for all three monitored ecosystem services, with a few of the monocultures, especially those with high biomass or canopy density, performing similarly. While it is unlikely that green roof installations would proceed equally well without adding vegetation, our results indicate that colonizing species can support a viable green roof ecosystem. This study shows that spontaneous growth and/or allowing new species to colonize may be a viable design alternative for green roofs, decreasing cost while maintaining the desired ecosystem services.