Analyzing ecosystem services and green urban infrastructures to support urban planning

Ecosystems contribute to human wellbeing though the provisioning of goods and services, also known as ecosystem services (ES). However not all ecosystems provide ES to the same extent and depending on physical characteristics of the ecosystems or their location within the city, ES flow differently. The consideration of ecosystems and ES in the planning practice can play an important role in coping with urban challenges, aside to their potential to ameliorate quality of life. Urban planning represents one of the tools administrations have to influence the distribution of ecosystems and ES in a city, and to determine the benefits they provide and, more specifically, to re-determine the number, the location and type of beneficiaries reached. Inclusion of the ES concept in the planning practice can lead to strategic the creation or restoration of Green Urban Infrastructures in a city to maximize the provisioning of a specific ES. Despite the awareness of advantages coming from the application of the ES concept in the planning, there is limited evidence about the application in the planning practice. Goal of this work of this work is to contribute to mainstream ES knowledge into practice. Towards the achievement of this goal, it is crucial to understand the extent to which the ES concept is currently included in urban planning, and to identify the type of information that can most effectively support decision-makers and planners in adopting ES knowledge, and specifically Ecosystem-based measures in their “everyday” urban planning. The work is organized in four specific objectives: i) to provide an overview of the current state of the art related to inclusion of Ecosystem-based measures in urban planning and discuss, and use it identify and discuss the main shortcoming and propose possible solutions. ii)0 to develop an approach to estimate the cooling capacity provided by Green Urban Infrastructures to support urban planning. iii) to test the application of ES assessments in two case studies. iv) to develop guidance to support equitable distribution of ES in cities. The ES concept represents a tool to understand the underlying links between ecosystems, benefits provided and human wellbeing: if effectively used and mainstreamed in the planning practice, can be one of the keys for more livable and equitable citie

Let’s Do It for Real: Making the Ecosystem Service Concept Operational in Regional Planning for Climate Change Adaptation

The application of ecosystem service (ES) knowledge to planning processes and decision-making can lead to more effective climate change adaptation. Despite the increased attention given to the ES concept, its degree of integration and use in spatial planning processes are still below the expectations of those who are promoting this concept. Barriers hindering its operationalisation cover a span of aspects ranging from theoretical to procedural and methodological issues. Overall, there is a general lack of guidance on how and at what point ES knowledge should be integrated into planning processes. This study aims to promote the inclusion of ES knowledge into spatial planning practices and decision-making processes to enhance climate change adaptation. A replicable GIS-based methodology is proposed. First, the potential supply of ESs that can support climate change adaptation (ESCCAs) is defined, mapped, and quantified. Then, a need for an ESCCA supply is identified, and territorial capacities to respond to the expected climate change impacts on natural and socio-economic sectors are assessed. The methodology is applied to the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region (Italy) as an illustrative case study. The results reveal that areas with similar geomorphological characteristics tend to respond similarly. Forest ecosystems, inland wetlands and specifically salt marshes can potentially supply a greater variety of ESCCAs. In the case study area, about 62% of the supplied ESCCAs can contribute to reducing the impacts in more than 50% of the impacted sectors. The territory of the study site generally shows good preparedness for expected impacts in most of the analysed sectors; less prepared areas are characterised by agricultural ecosystems. This reading approach based on land cover analyses can thus assist in developing policies to enhance different territorial capacities, ultimately leading to better and more sustainable decision-making

Planning for Ecosystem Services in Cities

This open access book presents current knowledge about ecosystem services (ES) in urban planning, and discusses various urban ES topics such as spatial distribution of urban ecosystems, population distribution, and physical infrastructure properties. The book addresses all these issues by: i) investigating to what extent ecosystem services are currently included in urban plans, and discussing what is still needed to improve planning practice; ii) illustrating how to develop ecosystem services indicators and information that can be used by urban planners to enhance plan design; iii) demonstrating the application of ES assessments to support urban planning processes through case studies; and iv) reflecting on criteria for addressing equity in urban planning through ecosystem service assessments, by exploring issues associated with the supply of, the access to and demand for ES by citizens. Through fully worked out case studies, from policy questions, to baseline analysis and indicators, and from option comparison to proposed solutions, the book offers readers detailed and accessible coverage of outstanding issues and proposed solutions to better integrate ES in city planning. The overall purpose of the book is to provide a compact reference that can be used by researchers as a key resource offering an updated perspective and overview on the field, as well as by practitioners and planners/decision makers as a source of inspiration for their activity. Additionally, the book will be a suitable resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate courses in planning and geography

Analysis And Mapping of Trade-Offs Between Renewable Energy and Ecosystem Services

IRENES is an Interreg project that aims at bridging renewable energy and ecosystem-services related concepts and at integrating them into energy-related policies at the regional level. One of the specific obejctives of the project is to explore the trade-offs between key ecosystem services (ES) and the provisioning of energy from renewable resources (RES). Thus, RES represent a subset of ES, and their provisioning may trigger negative impacts on the provisioning of other ES (for example, in the case of solar farms installation, the agricultural production might be affected). Hence, to pursue proper decarbonization it is key to understand our territories, identify where RES provisioning is promising, and where it would compromise the provisioning of goods and services that are key to the economies and the communities. If not, the reduction of emission will not underpin any sustainable development and there will be monetary, social and environmental costs that we cannot afford anymore. Under this perspective, the work here presented shows mapping exercises of trade-off between RES and other ES undertaken by the consortium for the 5 contexts interested by the project. Namely, East Anglia (UK), Lower Saxony (Germany), Estonia, Veneto Region (Italy), Romania. The adopted approach aimed at taking advantage of existing available data and methods. Thus, in line with the Interreg principle, the work aims at bridging theory and practice, and capitalizing on existing knowledge. Overall, the integration of methods and data were used to build, through GIS, trade off analysis for one (or a set of) RES, based on the interests declared by the Managing Authorities. ES investigated also differ by case and reflect highlights from meetings with stakeholders. Overall, it is possible to say that, even though for each of the five contexts data and methods used are different, the approaches and the processes draft a common path. To conclude this brief introduction, the maps reported in this volume represent a fundamental part of the IRENES Interreg project, as first the methodology for producing the maps were chosen based on the needs of the Managing Authorities that emerged thanks to the dialogue of the consortium with the local stakeholders and second, the maps produced were delivered to the Managing Authorities as technical basis for decision making and to support the design of new coming energy-related policy instruments and measures

Ecosystem-based adaptation in cities: An analysis of European urban climate adaptation plans

AbstractEcosystem-based adaptation (EbA) measures have been increasingly promoted in the literature, as well as in policies and practices, for their environmental and socio-economic co-benefits. The recent scientific literature has shown a growing interest to assess climate adaptation plans at the urban level, in recognition of the important role played by urban areas in addressing climate change challenges. However, little information is available on the combination of these two issues, i.e., the actual inclusion of EbA measures in climate adaptation plans at the urban level. This paper addresses this gap by developing a framework to analyze the treatment of EbA in urban level climate planning, and apply it to a sample of climate adaptation plans in Europe. The framework consists of a classification of EbA measures, and a scoring system to evaluate how well they are reflected in different components of the plans. The results suggest that there is in general good awareness in plans of EbA measures, and of their potential role in addressing climate change challenges. However, their treatment in climate adaptation plans at the urban level often lacks sufficient baseline information, as well as convincing implementation actions. The paper concludes by offering recommendations to improve future practice, in terms of enhancing the baseline information to improve the proposal and design of EbA measures, improving the treatment of co-benefits associated to EbA measures, and strengthening coordination with other planning tools. Possible future development of this works include the integration of the proposed EbA classification, and the analysis of a larger sample of territorial plans

Infrastrutture e colonizzazione. Il caso africano tra heritage e sviluppo

L’esplosione urbana sta modificando in modo irreversibile i paesaggi africani e le morfologie insediative. Essa si manifesta con la formazione di mega-city e vaste regioni transnazionali urbanizzate, con lo sviluppo di nuovi sistemi nazionali e regionali e l’urbanizzazione di aree rurali. Se fino agli anni ’90 del secolo scorso erano le migrazioni dalle aree rurali verso le principali città (specie primate city) ad alimentare la crescita urbana, secondo il controverso modello push-pull, con il diffondersi globale dell’economia e delle culture digitali, le aree rurali tendono a presentarsi con una capacità endogena di urbanizzazione, mitigando l’inerzia delle città maggiori. La capacità endogena deriva dallo sviluppo di attività rurali non agricole, dalla modernizzazione dei farming and livestock system e da strategie di industrializzazione diffusa. Mutano così in modo radicale i rapporti urbano-rurali e gli stessi concetti di ‘urbano’ e ‘rurale’. L’attuale modello di crescita genera una domanda di infrastrutture del tutto nuova che si affianca a quella generata dalla integrazione economica e commerciale per macro-regioni, dalla maggiore connessione fra zone interne e costiere (logistica e portualità) e da programmi di sfruttamento di risorse naturali e minerarie (suolo compreso) spesso finanziati da capitali non africani. Per diverse ragioni, le politiche e i programmi infrastrutturali interpretano queste domande in modo selettivo, rispondendo in modo strategico o inerziale a istanze ‘estrattive’ sia sul versante delle risorse che su quello della distribuzione della ricchezza

Conclusions

QC 20190930</p

Reviewing Ecosystem Services in Urban Climate Adaptation Plans

QC 20191001</p

The Phenomenon Analysis of Process Demand Portfolio Based on Process Progression.

在高科技產業中，技術進步往往會對產業結構帶來重大影響，而在半導體領域，因產品更迭快速、生命週期短暫，價格下滑速度較其他產業快速，廠商普遍透過製程微縮增加單位晶圓生產力，以維持持續性的成本降低。但隨著產業持續朝向先進製程節點邁進，IC設計廠商開始面臨了指數性上升的設計成本，在這樣的情況下，產業對先進製程的移轉速度可能已經出現了減緩。本文乃是從製程需求組合的角度切入，分析在設計成本轉折出現下，產業中製程研發與需求間缺口之變化，首先建立晶圓生產力指標指標，針對1996年至2007年等十二年之歷史資料進行探討，並檢定轉折出現年份，之後從成本的角度切入，在考量產業趨勢轉折下，建構IC設計廠商之平均成本函數之效率前沿，推測未來產業的可能變化。最終，本文發現在2002年後，產業間製程研發與需求間的差距由過去穩定維持在1至1.5個世代的情況，逐年上升至2007年時的2個世代，之後，根據動態模型的預測，在未來產業製程研發速度預期出現減緩下，此差距可能會暫時出現持平的現象，但在指數性上升的設計成本影響力逐漸加大下，此差距預計將會日益擴大。Technological progression is one of the most important critical factors in many high-tech industries. In semiconductor area, ASP (Average Selling Price) is eroded faster than other industries because of short product lifecycle. To maintain normal profit, the most widespread method that the firms used is scaling. Firms can get more productivity per wafer by enter more advance technology node, and bring economic of scale. But the design cost is exponential increasing with the technology progression. In this situation, the new technology node adoption rate is slower than the past. In this research, I attempt to analysis the gap between technology R&D and demand by technology node demand portfolio, and forecast the possible phenomenon base on design cost trend changing. In the first, I designed the wafer productivity index and used it to describe the industry characteristic during 1996 to 2007. Then, I used the change point analysis to test the timing of the change. The third, the efficient frontier of the IC design house was modeled and used to forecast the future. By the process, I found that after 2002, the gap between technology R&D and demand is increasing every year from below 1.5 generations to more than 2 generations. After 2007, the gap will maintain the temporary stability because of the slowing in technology progression. But the gap will finally expand because of the exponential increasing design cost.中文摘要...................................I文摘要...................................Ⅱ錄.......................................Ⅲ目次.....................................Ⅴ目次.....................................Ⅶ、緒論...................................1 1.1 問題背景..........................1 1.2 問題描述..........................2 1.3 研究目的..........................3 1.4 論文架構..........................3、文獻探討與產業分析.....................4 2.1 科技創新與採用.....................4 2.2 產業結構...........................7 2.3 產業結構變化案例...................10 2.4 製程進步與趨勢轉折.................16 2.5 製造系統進步.......................22、歷史資料分析...........................28 3.1 指標設計...........................28 3.2 資料分析...........................33 3.3 越代現象...........................42、製程需求組合分析.......................48 4.1 製程需求組合之影響因子.............49 4.2 IC設計廠商之成本結構分析...........52 4.3 平均成本函數之效率前沿.............59 4.4 製程需求組合.......................64、研究貢獻與限制.........................72 5.1 結論與貢獻.........................72 5.2 研究限制...........................73 5.3 未來工作...........................73、參考文獻...............................7