A Spatial Ecosystem Services Assessment to Support Decision and Policy Making: The Case of the City of Bologna

Francesca Vignoli, Claudia de Luca and Simona Tondelli
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Francesca Vignoli: Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Claudia de Luca: Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Simona Tondelli: Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: In recent years, both mapping and assessing urban Ecosystem Services (ESs) to support urban planning has been a topic of great debate. This work aims at contributing to this discussion by developing and testing a methodological approach to first assess and map supply and demand of ESs, and then identify areas of priority of intervention. Starting from the existing models, the work develops a tailored approach to map and assess three ESs (water retention and runoff, PM 10 removal, and carbon sequestration and storage) that are tested in the city of Bologna and tailored according to available open data. All data are processed in a GIS environment to allow for spatial distribution and visualization of ESs. These maps facilitate defining supply and demands and, consequently, the presence and distribution of ESs deficiencies. Building on mismatches, this paper proposes four clusters by grouping the city’s districts based on predominant land use (built-up, green urban areas) and tree canopy cover. This classification enabled the identification of intervention priority areas and suggestions of relevant nature-based solutions (NBS) to be implemented. The proposed method can serve other urban areas to perform a rapid assessment of their current needs and challenges in terms of ES provision.

Keywords: urban ecosystem services; demand and supply assessment; spatial mismatches; nature-based solutions; urban planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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