Abstract
How are our cities using nature-based solutions to confront the challenges posed by a warming climate, the loss of biodiversity and major resource depletion? This article discusses the opportunities and benefits of applying the concepts of regreening and rewilding of cities. The article engages with key sources and summarizes the background and development of regreening and nature-based solutions and important policies, concerns and perspectives of international and national organizations. It introduces the integration of nature-based solutions (NBS) as a strategy in urban planning with the aim to strengthen urban resilience and to slow down the biodiversity decline. Rewilding areas in cities has become a powerful strategy to bring back butterflies, insects, birds, and wildlife. In contrast to highly managed parks and gardens, these rewilding initiatives are leaving allotted spaces mostly uncultivated and self-regulated. Contact to nature is essential for human existence, urban wellbeing, and good quality of life. Green spaces in cities—big or small—all contribute to the health and wellbeing of residents. However, many cities do not offer residents easy access to green space within the city. Improving the better distribution of and access to green spaces and extending gardens and parks is likely to deliver a large number of benefits, such as: ecosystem services, better water management for enhanced urban flood control, slowing down the biodiversity loss, contributing to food security, and restoring damaged ecosystems. Furthermore, additional green space and NBS help to keep cities cool during heatwaves and improve the urban microclimate. Rewilding has emerged as an important part of new public parks and gardens. The next step is to up-scale citywide climate intervention strategies deployed to keep cities cool. However, as the discussion of this article shows, it is essential that the design of these NBS strategies is fully integrated with other complementary planning interventions and seeks synergies across all sectors.
Highlights
How Can We Stop the Decline of the Quality of Life in Cities?Over the centuries, humanity has become a force that changes the planet, and this change has become so fundamental that it could overturn the Earth’s system
The purpose of this review paper is based on a literature review in the area of regreening of cities and attempts to make a relevant contribution to the regreening and renaturalization of cities debate
The recent IPCC report and numerous other research studies confirm that more plants, trees, vegetation, and greenery in the city will reduce the heat load, or the urban heat island (UHI)
Summary
How Can We Stop the Decline of the Quality of Life in Cities?Over the centuries, humanity has become a force that changes the planet, and this change has become so fundamental that it could overturn the Earth’s system. In. 2020, scientists found that the total weight of all human-made objects had, for the first time, exceeded that of all living things (known as biomass) on planet Earth. The combined weight of all buildings, roads, plastic, bricks, concrete, and other things humans have made outweighs all animals and plants [1]. Humans have experienced a transition from a life predominantly spent outside towards a vastly different life spent mostly inside buildings and in an urban context—a fundamental change in our relationship with nature has been the result. More than 80% of the US population currently lives in urban areas, with a substantial proportion being “estranged from nature” [2]. We spend 90% of our lives indoors, in controlled interior environments [3], with an increasing amount of time spent on “screen time” online alone
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