Quantifying benefits of urban green spaces for climate change mitigation: experiences from a CITYgreen study in Leipzig

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

Greenery in urban areas are essential liveable-city ingredients, and many current research on sustainability of cities had favoured the implementation and conservation of urban green spaces. Some researches testified its important role on mitigating the adverseness of climate change, such as climate melioration, generating shading effects and energy savings, lowering storm water runoff, CO2 sequestration. Studies using the software CITYGreen, a GIS-based tree benefits evaluation tool, have been widely reported in the United States, while similar research experiences are hardly found in Germany. This paper demonstrates the initiative of analyzing and quantifying tree benefits related to climate change mitigation, which urban trees can provide to the commnity in the city of Leipzig, Germany. It is argued that this approach allows stakeholders in the community getting a better understanding of the added value from urban greenery as a benchmark and this should be used to support management decisions and future scenario planning of green spaces. Moreover, it has potentials to improve strategic policy-making and governance of urban forest issues dealing with the challenges of climate change in urban areas. Finally, the paper gives an evaluation of the applicability of the software tool based on the experience drawn from this German city.

Source Publication

Urban Biodiversity and Design - The 3rd Conference of the Competence Network Urban Ecology

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