Urban landscapes are a complex combination of natural, physical, social, and built elements. Each element of a city can benefit urban residents, with the benefits that we receive from natural elements often labelled as “ecosystem services”.
Understanding the spatial and temporal drivers of ecosystem services
Green spaces within cities aren’t just nice to look at – they provide important health and safety benefits. Facing extreme heat and unpredictable weather events, researchers and decision-makers often turn to ecosystem services (e.g. carbon storage, temperature regulation, air quality regulation) provided by ecological infrastructure (or nature-based solutions) as key parts of climate adaptation strategies and urban wellbeing. As cities grow to encompass broader spatial areas, there is a need for ecosystem service assessments that consider the complex spatial heterogeneity and land-use history of urban landscapes. This includes the role of biodiversity in maintaining and increasing ecosystem services at spatial and temporal scales relevant to decision-making. Do biodiversity and ecosystem services go hand-in-hand, or is it more complicated than that? (see overlapping theme, below!)
Example people and projects:
Understanding the spatial and temporal drivers of ecosystem services
Green spaces within cities aren’t just nice to look at – they provide important health and safety benefits. Facing extreme heat and unpredictable weather events, researchers and decision-makers often turn to ecosystem services (e.g. carbon storage, temperature regulation, air quality regulation) provided by ecological infrastructure (or nature-based solutions) as key parts of climate adaptation strategies and urban wellbeing. As cities grow to encompass broader spatial areas, there is a need for ecosystem service assessments that consider the complex spatial heterogeneity and land-use history of urban landscapes. This includes the role of biodiversity in maintaining and increasing ecosystem services at spatial and temporal scales relevant to decision-making. Do biodiversity and ecosystem services go hand-in-hand, or is it more complicated than that? (see overlapping theme, below!)
Example people and projects:
- Understanding cross-city vs. city-specific drivers of urban forest ecosystem services (Bella Richmond)
- The role of green space governance in driving preference-based traits across the urban forest (Kayleigh Hutt-Taylor)
- How composition and configuration of urban green infrastructure influence temperature regulation services (read Lingshan’s article in The Conversation on urban heat)
- How legacy effects of previous land use and urban form influence urban forest (& soil) composition, structure, and services (explore Michael’s scicomm work on urban soil ecology, here)
- How can we develop best practices for urban forestry that support both climate mitigation, and biodiversity (Riikka Kinnunen, Kayleigh Hutt-Taylor, Chloe Cull, with Frei Lab at ECCC).
Related projects
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Cross-city Drivers for Ecosystem Services
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Lingshan's cooling stuff 
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Carly's cooling stuff informal green spaces
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Related Publications
Hutt-Taylor K, Ziter CD. 2022. Private trees contribute uniquely to urban forest diversity, structure, and service-based traits. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening 78: 127760