In the WSP experiment, a method is developed to measure the benefits of nature in urban environment and to provide information for urban planning.

What kind of problem is the project trying to solve?

The benefits of nature, that is, ecosystem services have a major impact on the physical and mental well-being of residents, but there are hardly any indicators for measuring the ecosystem services provided by the urban environment. Therefore, precise information on the benefits of the natural areas and vegetation in the city cannot be utilised in urban planning.

This project is about developing a method for utilising city information models in analysing produced ecosystem services.

Objective: Attention to the benefits of nature in urban planning

The objective is to achieve a method that makes it possible to analyse the benefits of green zones in the city as a part of the urban planning process.

What is done in this project?

We will map vegetative elements (such as trees along streets, green roofs, block parks, vegetative storm water swales) in existing models of built environment and analyse the benefits, i.e. ecosystem services that they provide (such as increased biodiversity in cities, carbon and nutrients stored by plants, positive impact on the micro climate, recreational values, etc.).

What are the expected results of the experiment?

The method will show the effects of construction to the ecological systems in the urban environment and the possibilities of accommodating to the climate change. The results obtained from the method can be taken into account in urban planning by adding green infrastructure elements to plans, for example.

Who benefits?

The analysis method to be developed serves as an auxiliary tool in urban planning: a proposed plan or a reference plan (e.g. local detailed plan area) can be modelled and analysed by using the green infrastructure auditing for potential ecosystem service provision or loss.