Abstract
Cities are facing a broad range of social and environmental challenges due to the current pressure of global urbanization. Nature-based solutions aim to utilize green infrastructure to improve people’s health and wellbeing. The design of urban environments must embrace the individual ideals of citizens and stakeholders which can only be achieved if effective methods of communication, involvement, and feedback are ensured. Such a procedure creates trust during its implementation, helping to take ownership and stewardship of processes and sites. This systematic literature review explores the current state of the art regarding citizen and stakeholder participation in nature-based solutions (NBS). The search on the SCOPUS database identified 142 papers in total that met the inclusion criteria. The participation analysis was separated in two areas: (a) analysis of perceptions, preferences, and perspectives of citizens and stakeholders, and (b) analysis of the participation process, including challenges and opportunities, motivations, methods and frameworks, and collaborative governance. The results revealed that stakeholder and citizen participation or collaboration in nature-based solutions is increasingly recognized as promising; however, research in several related domains is still lacking.
Highlights
Due to the current pressure of global urbanization, quality of life and sustainability of European cities have gained political impetus in the last decade
Nature-based solutions have been studied around the world, and some existing reviews have paid attention to these urban green solutions in a general way, relating environmental and social benefits, opportunities, challenges, and barriers [9,10,15,16,17]
Important review research has focused on participation contributions, considering specific urban green spaces a comprehensive looking at the various concepts that encompass nature-based solutions (NBS) approaches is still lacking [15,20]
Summary
Due to the current pressure of global urbanization, quality of life and sustainability of European cities have gained political impetus in the last decade. Cities are facing a broad range of challenges, such as climate change, human health issues, social inequity and poverty, degradation, loss of natural capital and the provision of ecosystem services, and an enhanced readiness to deal with disasters (e.g., floods) [1,2]. Key challenges for sustainable cities are to significantly increase their resources and efficiency in addressing issues relating to transportation, climate change, and water and air quality. Such actions should exert profound economic, social, and environmental impacts, resulting in a better quality of life (including health and social cohesion), jobs, and growth
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