An Oceania Urban Design Agenda Linking Ecosystem Services, Nature-Based Solutions, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Wellbeing

Gabriel Luke Kiddle, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Paul Blaschke, Victoria Chanse and Rebecca Kiddle
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Gabriel Luke Kiddle: Te Kura Tātai Aro Whenua, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand
Maibritt Pedersen Zari: Te Kura Waihanga, Wellington School of Architecture, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Paul Blaschke: Te Kura Tātai Aro Whenua, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand
Victoria Chanse: Te Kura Waihanga, Wellington School of Architecture, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Rebecca Kiddle: Hutt City Council, Lower Hutt 5010, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: Many coastal peri-urban and urban populations in Oceania are heavily reliant on terrestrial and marine ecosystem services for subsistence and wellbeing. However, climate change and urbanisation have put significant pressure on ecosystems and compelled nations and territories in Oceania to urgently adapt. This article, with a focus on Pacific Island Oceania but some insight from Aotearoa New Zealand, reviews key literature focused on ecosystem health and human health and wellbeing in Oceania and the important potential contribution of nature-based solutions to limiting the negative impacts of climate change and urbanisation. The inextricable link between human wellbeing and provision of ecosystem services is well established. However, given the uniqueness of Oceania, rich in cultural and biological diversity and traditional ecological knowledge, these links require further examination leading potentially to a new conceptualisation of wellbeing frameworks in relation to human/nature relationships. Rapidly urbanising Oceania has a growing body of rural, peri-urban and urban nature-based solutions experience to draw from. However, important gaps in knowledge and practice remain. Pertinently, there is a need, potential—and therefore opportunity—to define an urban design agenda positioned within an urban ecosystem services framework, focused on human wellbeing and informed by traditional ecological knowledge, determined by and relevant for those living in the islands of Oceania as a means to work towards effective urban climate change adaptation.

Keywords: Oceania; Pacific islands; wellbeing; climate change adaptation; urban design; nature-based solutions; resilience; traditional ecological knowledge (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 (3)

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