The health of natural ecosystems is crucial to the health of cities and urban populations. From essential services like water purification, flood control and climate regulation to a range of physical and mental health benefits, societies thrive by building a strong connection to nature. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem changes are a reality in our urban
This blog post represents the opinions of Olga Horn, Roman Serdar Mendle and Monika Zimmermann, Smart Cities Team, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability _ Urban parks come in many shapes and sizes ranging from small pocket parks to large expanses, but they all serve the key purpose of providing natural settings and ecological functions
By Ingrid Coetzee, Senior Manager, Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center (CBC) and Kobie Brand, Director of the CBC The challenge of rapid urbanization The United Nations World Cities Report 2016, Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures, predicts that by 2030 two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities. It further
By Kobie Brand, Director of the ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center — INTERACT-Bio is about working together to mainstream biodiversity and associated nature-based solutions into the way we plan and build the cities of the Global South. This ambitious new project enables ICLEI to work directly with nine biodiverse city-regions, their national governments and other stakeholders
Nature-based solutions can address urban challenges exacerbated by growing urban populations and the impacts of climate change. They are multi-functional, cost-effective and provide a wide range of benefits, from improving public health to reducing energy costs and pollution to regenerating urban spaces. Local governments can use green roofs and green infrastructure to help cities become
By Andrea Erickson, Managing Director, Water Security The journey of our water from source to tap is long, and not one we think much about. For most of us, our water starts high in the mountains, hundreds of miles away. From there, water flows across natural and working lands until a portion is channeled to
by David Lammers, MSc Environmental Studies and Sustainability Studies, Lund University Water systems have a crucial function in many cities. Rivers and coastlines act as veins of life as they provide cities with a plethora of ecosystem services – water supply, income generation, relaxation and many more. At the same time, however, they can be the
From Chicago to Paris, Ottawa or Montreal, cities look for solutions to cope with hotter summers and climate change adverse effects. The solutions might be simpler than one might think. Due to the high building density and surfaces of covered soils, cities have lost the ability to regulate temperature and, in fact, are creating heat