Database available for publication review purposes.
Globally, cities are facing pressing challenges imposed by climate change, water security issues, air pollution and deterioration of public health and well-being. Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) and their provisioning of ecosystem services are increasingly recognized for their potential to help tackling those challenges. However, knowledge on this topic is scattered. In a review, we synthesised more than 800 peer-reviewed scientific papers to identify where and how ecosystem services provided by urban GBI have been assessed.
The resulting database provides an overview of papers assessing six urban ecosystem services: local temperature regulation, air quality regulation, waste treatment (i.e. water and soil purification), storm water regulation, pollination and cultural services (i.e. recreation and aesthetic appreciation). The database contains information on various characteristics of the ecosystem service assessments, such as in which cities and which urban GBI service provisioning has been assessed, through which assessment methods and which types of contrast were used. The database also contains information on the indicators used to quantify the ecosystem services.
The work is part of the H2020 project NATURVATION (NATure-based URban innovation, 2017-2020) and was done in collaboration with the Centre of Environmental and Climate Research, Lund University, Sweden.
