Conceptualizing the nexus between urban shrinkage and ecosystem services

Abstract

Urban shrinkage has become an issue for urban planning and policy in Europe because approximately 40% of its large cities are currently losing population. Shrinkage implies dramatic land-use impacts, including under-utilisation, vacancy, demolition, emerging brownfield sites, and de-densification. However, shrinkage also offers great potential to “re-create”—that is, to enhance and implement—urban green space including the ecosystem services it provides: Local climate and air quality regulation by trees that grow on abandoned land, carbon sequestration and storage by vegetation on vacant lots, preservation or enhancement of urban biodiversity, and recreational facilities that support the mental and physical health of the inhabitants through the enlargement of parks and woodlands. This paper argues that there is a linkage—a nexus—between shrinkage and ecosystem services provisioning. We develop a matrix approach that links the potentials of land use (change) related to urban shrinkage with ecosystem services provisioning in cities. Through a discussion of these potentials, challenges, and the relevant strategies of urban planning such as interim uses, urban afforestation, or community gardens, we show how planning policy in shrinking cities could benefit from considering the nexus between shrinkage and urban ecosystem services provision. Empirical evidence comes from Leipzig, Germany, a city that has, until very recently, experienced decades of shrinkage and still faces many of the resulting challenges.