Abstract
Street trees, native plantings, bioswales, and other forms of green infrastructure alleviate urban air and water pollution, diminish flooding vulnerability, support pollinators, and provide other benefits critical to human well-being. Urban planners increasingly value such urban ecosystem services (ES), and effective methods for deciding among alternative planting regimes using urban ES criteria are under active development. In this effort, integrating stakeholder values and concerns with quantitative urban ES assessments is a central challenge; although it is widely recommended, specific approaches have yet to be explored. Here, we develop, apply, and evaluate such a method in the Friendly Area Neighborhood of Eugene, Oregon by investigating the potential for increased urban ES through the conversion of public lawn to alternative planting regimes that align with expressed stakeholder priorities. We first estimated current urban ES from green space mapping and published supply rates, finding lawn cover and associated ES to be dominant. Resident and expert priorities were then revealed through surveys and Delphi analyses; top priorities included air quality, stormwater quality, native plantings, and pollinator habitat, while concerns focused on cost and safety. Unexpectedly, most residents expressed a willingness to support urban ES improvements financially. This evidence then informed the development of planting regime alternatives among which we compared achievable future urban ES delivery, revealing clear differences among those that maximized stakeholder priorities, those that maximized quantitative urban ES delivery, and their integration. The resulting contribution is a straightforward method for identifying planting regimes with a high likelihood of success in delivering desired urban ES in specific local contexts.
Highlights
Dense networks of streets, buildings, industry, and transportation interfere with numerous ecosystem processes, affecting the local hydrology, quantity and biodiversity of native flora and fauna, biogeochemical cycling, and microclimate stability [1]
Privately owned land is important in providing urban ecosystem services (ES) [52,53], this study focuses on public green space in which urban ES delivery is managed by the City
We considered a series of questions planners might ask in making urban ES-motivated vegetated land cover decisions; developed a set of alternative planting regimes that responds to these questions in the context of the FAN; and evaluated them according to the local evidence collected, yielding a single integrated result
Summary
Buildings, industry, and transportation interfere with numerous ecosystem processes, affecting the local hydrology, quantity and biodiversity of native flora and fauna, biogeochemical cycling, and microclimate stability [1]. Urban ecosystem services (ES), the benefits humans derive from ecological processes in urban and peri-urban areas [2], are often compromised in population centers, resulting in diminished air, water, and soil quality as well as intensified vulnerability to flooding and heatwaves [1,3,4]. Land 2020, 9, 391 matter [8,9]; store atmospheric carbon [9,10]; intercept rainfall, thereby reducing stormwater runoff [11]; provide shade and air temperature regulation [12]; increase recreation value [13]; supply diverse nesting and foraging opportunities for birds; diminish soil erosion; and contribute to stormwater purification [14,15]. Urban forests removed an estimated 27,000 metric tons of PM2.5 , 523,000 metric tons of ozone, 68,000 metric tons of nitrogen dioxide, and 33,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide from the U.S urban air in 2010, providing an estimated $4.7 billion in annual health benefits [8]
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