It’s December 12, 2035. I woke up in my apartment, in the middle of the city and there was a mountain. Yes, a mountain with a forest, greenery everywhere. I opened the windows and I could listen to the birds singing. I could smell the moist ground, the same smell that happens when it’s about to rain―it’s called petrichor. It was hard to believe what I was experiencing, then I saw my hands and counted six fingers. It was a dream.
We are living in cities with eco-anxiety, driven by the multiple planetary crises we are facing. But the worst to come will be to live in cities with no nature at all. Rapid and disorganized urbanization is supporting the battle of buildings and cement over nature in several cities in the world. Streets and buildings have covered mountains, old trees are becoming too rare, and key ecosystems disappearing, increasing climate risks and social vulnerabilities.
I live in Bogota, a city with a magnificent mountain range that embraces its eastern side. These mountains, declared in the 1970s as a protected area, remain green today, conserving biodiversity, buffering the city’s climate, and providing enough happiness to all the citizens and visitors who walk through them. The Cerros, as we call them, are Bogotanos’ most cherished natural secret. We are lucky to have them with us and I feel privileged every time I can hike them, as many other citizen fellows do. I can’t get bored of them and it’s always a great idea to plan a nature escape during the cold mornings. (For those interested in coming to Bogota, just keep in mind it’s a cold city with rare and enjoyable sunny days).
I think I have developed an obsession for the Cerros and it has been growing stronger over time. Every opportunity I have to go out of the city, I miss the mountains. As a mountaineer, I can get bored in flat lands, unless I see the sea, and that’s another story. This is why I have decided to investigate more about how to conserve nature in cities. Managing nature in cities requires a vision, clear decisions to protect regulations, law enforcement, and financial resources. I still see a gap in the urban agenda to urgently integrate nature in urban planning and, for this reason, I have written some books about this subject.
During COP 16 in Cali Colombia, I released the newest one: “Integrating nature-based solutions in cities from the Global South”, a collaboration with 21 voices from the Global South. A book led by SELVAR, a think-and-do tank working on promoting nature-based solutions in cities, with a simple goal: provide clear guidance on how to integrate nature into urban planning. Our approach acknowledges several of the challenges that we face in cities from the Global South: we need to deal with urban challenges such as informality, disorganized urbanization, and a lack of long-term vision to create greener cities.
This book has been designed as a practical guide, it offers 8 steps for individuals and organizations engaged in urban planning—whether from planning, environment, and housing and infrastructure offices of city governments, regional and national authorities, NGOs, consulting firms, urban developers, or construction and urban designers—to:
- Identify and spatially prioritize strategic urban areas where existing NbS should be strengthened or new ones created, thereby introducing a portfolio of urban NbS.
- Design, finance, and implement NbS that maximize the benefits of nature for biodiversity, climate resilience, and people’s well-being.
STEP 1. Assessment of natural assets and opportunities in urban and peri-urban areas
In Bengaluru, India. The most common sites we associate nature in cities with are perhaps parks and water bodies (…) Cemeteries and graveyards may seem unlikely places when we think of nature in cities. But in our research in Bengaluru, we find that cemeteries in the city core and periphery are also natural spaces that have their different uses. The cemeteries in the core of the city comprise a mix of native and introduced species, but the density and diversity differed based on whether it was a Hindu, Muslim, or Christian cemetery. For example, Hindu cemeteries have the highest proportion of native trees, while Muslim cemeteries had the highest tree density. In the periphery, the cemeteries mostly had native tree species, and were also used by the local community as sites to collect fodder, fuelwood, and graze livestock. The cemeteries and graveyards are often close to worship sites such as temples, mosques, and churches. In these sacred spaces too, there is tree diversity. The temples we found had the highest diversity of native trees and had several keystone Ficus species such as the peepul that is a sacred tree in Hinduism. When comparing parks and sacred sites in the city we found that the sacred sites had a higher diversity of native species of trees that provide multiple uses from shade to food to raw materials used by urban residents who accessed these spaces (Jaganmohan et al 2014). Conventional and unconventional places for biodiversity in Indian cities, Seema Mundoli and Harini Nagendra.
STEP 2. Identify urban needs that can be met through NbS
In urban settlements. NbS have the potential to become a cost-effective alternative bringing multiple benefits to vulnerable urban populations. According to the World Economic Forum, NbS are 50% more profitable and deliver one-third more added value when compared to “grey” infrastructure projects. However, in 2021, only 0.3% of the total spending on urban infrastructure was allocated to NbS(WEF, 2022). NbS have a myriad of co-benefits. Concerning those living in informal settlements and workers, they can provide co-benefits related to pressing issues like food security, water availability, health, job provision, and well-being. Informal settlement and NbS, Diana Carrillo.
STEP 3. Identify the role of nature in future development scenarios of the city
In the city of Curridabat, Costa Rica. Curridabat is sending a strong message for small urbanized cities in metropolitan areas, and many local government facing global challenges,by questioning city design and management, reimaging it through a nonhuman inhabitant, in particular the pollinators, delivering a large set of public policies, programs, and projects in kinder, caring, and purposeful ways. Sweet City as a development vision has enabled Curridabat to address hyperlocal phenomena with planetary impacts that effectively improve the life quality of the dwellers of the territory. It showcases a strong development model proving that a local development vision can also be a nature-based solution. Curridabat Sweet City, a nature-based development vision, Huberth Méndez.
STEP 4. Prioritize options for NbS design and implementation in urban and peri-urban areas
The prioritization of areas for NbS in Step 4 is a significant opportunity to identify a set of locations for NbS design and implementation urban and peri-urban areas, addressing both current and future urban needs. These options would already include a pre-feasibility analysis, informed by a review of urban regulations and field visits. These areas could then form an NbS portfolio that can strategically serve as a central axis for cross-sector coordination within the city administration. With a long-term vision and a focus on biodiversity, climate and people, this NbS portfolio has the potential to unify agendas, pool resources, and garner broad citizen support.
Cities with consolidated urban spaces may have greater difficulties finding new areas for NbS, which can be very expensive due to high land prices. In these cases, improving existing spaces for nature and urban expansion areas are the most important options. There are also numerous opportunities to explore within private property areas (e.g., schools, libraries, hospitals, roofs, terraces, etc.).
On the other hand, cities with rapid urbanization processes toward protected areas urgently need an NbS portfolio. These cities must act with anticipation to ensure strategic NbS for their future. In these contexts, an NbS portfolio can become a management tool to anticipate risks in the environmental, social, and economic fields. Step 4, The Analysis, Carolina Figueroa-Arango.
STEP 5. Designing effective NbS through a multifunctional design
Users of this guide can organize participatory processes to understand the local needs, and also to understand how, through nature and co-design (design created jointly between the design team and users), NbS can be proposed to respond to the problems encountered. Co-design facilitates a dialogue between the local needs and opportunities, available budget and NbS strategies. Stakeholders involved in this process include neighbors of the area, the local government, the private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Co-design requires a degree of trust between the parties and flexibility to accommodate changes in the planning process (Li and Emerton, 2012). Co-design can create multiple benefits because local needs can be identified while increasing the potential of uses of urban spaces in favor of nature and people’s well-being (van Ham and Klimmek, 2017). Step 5, 5.3 Understanding the social and cultural context for a socially sensitive design, Carolina Figueroa-Arango.
STEP 6. NbS Implementation
In Niteroi, Brazil. Parque Orla Piratininga (POP) is an NbS, a multifunctional public park on the banks of the Piratininga Lagoon. With a total area of 680,000 m2, it includes a cycle path, squares, a pier for fishing and public use, viewpoints, trails, woods, and an integrated network of green infrastructures. (…) By understanding the dynamics of the landscape, its history, geomorphology, hydrological functioning, soil types, original and remaining ecosystems, flora and fauna, human occupation, the current functioning systems of the urban fabric and projects futures, the remaining people-nature interrelationships, the main views taken to contemplate the landscape and the peculiarities of each location, it is possible to envision future scenarios of expansion of ecosystem services as a strategy for inducing resilience through ecological landscaping. High-performance landscape in the Piratininga Lagoon through NbS design and implementation. Niteroi, Brazil, Raquel Azevedo da Cruz.
STEP 7. Financing strategies for urban NbS
In Quito, Ecuador. The Quito Water Fund (FONAG) emerged in response to the urgent need to ensure a sustainable water supply for Ecuador’s capital. Situated in the Andes at altitudes nearing 2,800 meters above sea level, Quito grapples with the challenge of primarily relying on gravity-fed water from the mountains due to limited underground sources. By the early 1990s, the burgeoning demand for water had outpaced the capacity of existing sources, prompting a costly alternative: diverting water from the Amazon basin, located 100 km away from Quito in a direct line, resulting in a shift of water drainage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This strain on Quito’s water provision underscored the necessity for a dedicated mechanism to conserve and protect ecosystems that serve as vital water resources. The Quito Water Fund, a success story, Pablo Lloret and Paola Zavala.
STEP 8. NbS Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring assessments are learning processes, they go beyond selecting indicators, and they give light to specific results while they leave others unnoticed. Experts have suggested taking a participatory approach to ensure that the outcomes of NbS are socially just and take into account the communities that are most vulnerable in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss (IPBES 2019; GRP 2023). Forms of participation can range from engaging stakeholders in co-defining evidence requirements (such as indicators) and articulating demands transparently, to involving them in determining the project’s scope and selecting assessment methodologies. Additionally, it encompasses empowering community-driven data collection and analysis, as well as including stakeholders in communication strategies that facilitate public discourse and feedback (Figure 40) (GRP, 2023; IPBES,2022). Furthermore, any assessment initiative attempting to respect the diversity of stakeholders can be guided by an specific framework such as: locally-led principles of adaptation action or any other framework aimed at adequately representing and respecting stakeholders (e.g., FEBA principles for Ecosystem Based Adaptation; the Free, Prior and Informed Consent principles (FPIC) or Collective benefit; Authority to control, Responsibility and Ethics (CARE) framework) (Carroll et al., 2022; FEBA 2021; UNGA, 2007; WRI, 2022).
about the writer
Carolina Figueroa-Arango
Carolina is a political scientist from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and holds a master's degree in environment and development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she studied as a Chevening scholar. She founded SELVAR with the aim of fostering and supporting climate change resilience in cities and rural areas.
Carolina Figueroa-Arango
Bogota
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