An Ecosystem Services Approach to Green Infrastructure Partnership Planning

It is widely recognised that ecosystems provide numerous services that are of benefit to humans but, in decisions regarding land and resource use, these tend to be overlooked. Within towns and cities this is particularly the case as nature is often considered to be absent in urban areas. However, as nearly 80% of the UK population live in urban areas there is considerable potential for improvements in ecosystem services to have a large impact on quality of life. As a result the Defra funded Ecosystem Services in the Urban Water Environment (ESUWE) project has begun to apply an ecosystem services approach to demonstrate the benefits that improvements in the urban water environment can have. It has also been recognised that a collaborative approach to decision making assists with the integrated planning that is required for sustainable catchment management. Therefore, the work of ESUWE also aims to provide tools to communicate and engage stakeholders in order to facilitate a participatory approach to catchment management.

The ESUWE project has identified numerous ecosystem services provided in urban environments and developed metrics to quantify the costs and benefits associated with these. It is now working in four demonstration areas of varying sizes to map and evaluate ecosystem services and to pilot use in local catchment planning. It is hoped that by communicating information about benefits of environmental improvements, decisions can be better informed and that by mapping ecosystem services, areas where interventions will result in multiple-benefits can be identified and prioritised.

Throughout the ESUWE project, Green Infrastructure (GI) has been highlighted as being important for delivering benefits to urban societies along with providing environmental and hydrological improvements. Therefore, the potential to expand the scope of the work beyond those directly involved with catchment planning has been identified. The Innovation Project will enable the application of the research conducted under the ESUWE project to meet the needs of a wider range of end users such as local nature partnership, local planning authorities and construction companies to be investigated so that the impact of the work can be increased.

The Innovation Project will facilitate co-development of an ecosystem services mapping approach to the planning of GI with those responsible for land use decisions at local and national levels. This will ensure that the needs of end users are incorporated into the development of decision support tools that facilitate GI planning and help create standardised metrics that can express the benefits of GI for use in differing sectors.

Work in four demonstration areas will explore the practical application of the ecosystem services approach, demonstrating the benefits provided by GI and identifying opportunities for these to be increased. This will improve strategic understanding so that the effects of potential land use decisions on levels of services provided in urban area can be explored. This will help to provide an evidence base that can inform decisions regarding trade-offs and promote interventions that provide increased and multiple benefits. The Innovation Project will also result in case studies quantifying the value of GI which can be used to promote the need for increased considerations of its provision in land use decision at both local and national levels. A partnership approach will also identify how mapping can aid integrated local decision making to support other place based initiatives. Finally, by considering how GI can be implemented in a way that delivers multiple benefits, best practice will be identified and promoted.

By expanding the work of the Ecosystem Services in the Urban Water Environment (ESUWE) project the main impacts of the Innovation Project will be to increase the effectiveness of public services and policy making at local and national levels to enhance quality of life.

The work of the Innovation project will share information regarding the services that Green Infrastructure (GI) provides, to enable decision makers at both local and national levels to better understand the benefits that can created. The quantification of the value of services and the effects different land-uses have on provision of these will enable greater understanding of the implications of decisions. This will enable trade-offs to be better understood and opportunities for benefits to be maximised.

The testing of the approach in the demonstration areas will highlight the use of ecosystem services in facilitating a partnership approach. This will create communication outputs that encourage a wider range of stakeholders to engage with land use planning and environmental improvements. This, along with the creation of standardised approaches, will help to work across differing disciplines and sectors. Furthermore, facilitating dialogue will provide greater opportunities for shared objectives and multiple benefits to be identified, leading to more integrated planning and more efficient use of resources.

By quantification of the effects that land use change has on the levels of ecosystem services provided, an evidence base for mitigation measures will be developed, thereby assisting in the allocation of funds raised under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Furthermore, the work to develop stand-alone tools has the potential to increase the capability and capacity of local authorities which are increasingly required to compensate for financial restrictions.

Through engagement with private companies the project has the opportunity to deliver economic impacts. The resources produced will enable construction companies to more efficiently identify and design GI opportunities. Companies will also be able to quantify the benefits of these, encouraging greater buy-in from other sectors and communities.
Finally, by promoting the use of GI within urban areas there will be significant societal impact. The work will apply metrics that have been developed to quantify the effects of GI on health and well-being, providing a case for increased levels of GI provision. The mapping of these metrics will enable the identification of areas where GI can have the most impact, for example, in areas of social deprivation and health inequalities.