Assessment and Monitoring of Local Climate Regulation in Cities by Green Infrastructure—A National Ecosystem Service Indicator for Germany

In densely built-up urban areas, green spaces such as gardens, parks, forests and water bodies can greatly enhance the quality of life for local residents and promote human health. These areas mitigate heat stress and the urban heat island effect to create a balanced local climate. To quantify the ecosystem service of “urban climate regulation” provided by urban green infrastructure, we developed a national indicator for specific measurement and monitoring. This indicator captures both the supply of climate-regulating services by urban green spaces and the demand for this service from the residential population. Using nationwide geodata, a cooling capacity value can be calculated that reflects the tree canopy, soil cover, sizes of green area and site characteristics. This cooling capacity value is then related to the affected residential population in the neighbourhood. Our analysis indicates that 76% of the population in the 165 case cities in Germany enjoy high or very high cooling capacities in their immediate living environment. In 37 cities, over 85% of the population benefits from good or very good cooling capacity provided by green space. The proposed indicator enables a comparison of the cooling service of urban green infrastructure and offers a sound basis for spatial planning and decision-making in urban areas.