Environmental Management Center, Mykolas Romeris University, Ateities street, 20, Vilnius 08303, Lithuania.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Geography Department, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium; Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Sociology Department, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium; Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici Z (ICTA-ICP), Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Apr 15;817:153032. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153032. Epub 2022 Jan 7.
Urban population and urbanisation are increasing rapidly, mainly in developing countries, usually at the expense of green and blue areas. This trend will decrease the ecosystems' capacity to supply ecosystem services (ES) and threaten human wellbeing. Therefore, it is key to establish greening policies in urbanising areas, which are essential to improve the liveability of cities. Restoring and developing green and blue infrastructures using nature-based solutions is vital to improving urban biodiversity and urban ecosystems. Healthy urban ecosystems have a high capacity to supply regulating (e.g., air, noise, climate and water regulation), provisioning (e.g., food, medicinal plants, biomass) and cultural (e.g., recreation, landscape aesthetics, social cohesion) ES. This multifunctionality can provide diverse environmental, social and economic benefits to urban residents, hence contributing to the sustainability of urban areas. However, urban green and blue areas are also associated with ecosystem disservices (e.g., plant allergies or poisoning, emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds, unpleasant smells), tradeoffs (e.g., increased water consumption, wildfire risk, associated management costs) and implementation barriers (e.g., political motivation, lack of knowledge, time and workload). Overall, the SI published 8 articles from different parts of the world, such as China, the USA, Italy or Spain, focused on important aspects of greening the city (e.g., green roofs, green walls, green infrastructures, sustainable mobility).
城市人口和城市化进程迅速增长，主要集中在发展中国家，通常以牺牲绿色和蓝色区域为代价。这种趋势将降低生态系统提供生态系统服务（ES）的能力，并威胁到人类福祉。因此，在城市化地区制定绿化政策至关重要，这对于提高城市的宜居性至关重要。利用基于自然的解决方案来恢复和发展绿色和蓝色基础设施对于改善城市生物多样性和城市生态系统至关重要。健康的城市生态系统具有提供调节（例如，空气、噪音、气候和水调节）、供应（例如，食物、药用植物、生物质）和文化（例如，娱乐、景观美学、社会凝聚力）服务的高能力。这种多功能性可以为城市居民提供多样化的环境、社会和经济效益，从而有助于城市地区的可持续性。然而，城市的绿色和蓝色区域也与生态系统的不良服务（例如，植物过敏或中毒、生物源挥发性有机化合物的排放、难闻的气味）、权衡（例如，耗水量增加、野火风险、相关管理成本）和实施障碍（例如，政治动机、缺乏知识、时间和工作量）有关。总体而言，该特刊发表了来自中国、美国、意大利和西班牙等不同国家的 8 篇文章，重点关注绿化城市的重要方面（例如，绿色屋顶、绿色墙壁、绿色基础设施、可持续交通）。
