Nature-based solutions for our cities

6 2 July 2017

HE GROWTH of Dublin at the expense of rural

Ireland is a familiar refrain, ampliﬁed in post-

crash Ireland. While it is true that Ireland has

a particularly unbalanced economic and popu-

lation growth pattern focused on its capital

city, increased urbanisation is a global trend. Along with

pressure on housing, this urbanisation poses a range of

environmental challenges for cities that directly affects

the health and wellbeing of inhabitants, as well as bio

diversity. These environmental pressures are

exacerbated by climate change, with more frequent

ﬂooding events and (possibly less obviously in this coun-

try) urban heat island effects. Increasingly policy-makers

and communities are looking to what are termed ‘nature-

based solutions’, actions copied or inspired by nature,

to address these challenges and to help citizens re-con

nect with the natural world.

Depending on calculations, about 60% of Irish people

live in urban areas and this is only projected to increase.

It is still relatively low relative to the European average

of 73% which is projected to increase to 82% by 2050.

Globally, over 3.5 billion people live in urban areas. This

accounts for over 75% of global energy consumption and

80% of global CO2 emissions.

The environmental impacts of urban development are

linked to the population and wealth of a city and hence

consumption levels and consequent demands on natural

resources. The ecological footprint or impact of a com-

munity on natural resources and ecosystems is therefore

greater with larger and wealthier populations. However,

while cities concentrate negative environmental impacts,

their very densities of population and consumption offer

opportunities for sustainable development through

innovations in land-use planning, transport and building

design.

The ‘greening’ of cities, or more speciﬁcally the

(re)introduction of nature into towns and cities is one

such opportunity to reduce environmental impacts and

to promote more sustainable development. Having a

greener city as a means of improving the environment

through parks, street trees, green roofs and walls - even

window boxes, seems obvious to most in some vague

appreciation of its amenity value. Over the past twenty

years an extensive body of research reveals the connec

tion between public health, wellbeing and nature.

Increased contact with nature is proven to have positive

physical and mental effects, through mitigation of air

pollution, increased physical activity and social interac-

tion, and reduction in stress.

However, research also reﬂects concerns that urbani

sation is quantitatively and qualitatively diminishing

possibilities for human contact with nature. This may be

particularly acute within often impoverished, inner-city

neighbourhoods raising the issue of environmental jus

tice. A 2016 study by UCD mapped greenery in Dublin

city and highlighted stark disparities between areas,

with the North East Inner City particularly lacking in

greenery. There is good reason that the term ‘leafy sub-

urbs’ tends to denote both a pleasant environment and

wealth.

The idea of enhanced urban greening is not wholly

new. The earliest interest in land conservation was a

reaction to urban environmental conditions in the

National Planning Framework needs to

focus on the importance of nature-based

solutions for urban areas

Nature-based

solutions for our

cities

ENVIRONMENT

by Dara Carroll

City ‘greening’: New York High Line

July 2017 6 3

nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution and the

destruction of the natural environment. Nineteenth-

century nature conservation came in the form of

national parks and the protection of forests, rivers

and wilderness, championed in the US by people like

George Perkins Marsh who, in 1864, published ‘Man

and Nature’ which castigated the destructive effects

of human activity. Around this time, nature also

began to be considered as a vehicle for urban plan-

ning and landscape development. The American

author, poet, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau

wrote that every town should have a park or primitive

forest and Frederick Law Olmsted designed New York

City’s Central Park and Prospect Park in the 1860s.

In the UK, the Garden City movement developed as a

reaction to the squalor and degradations of Victo-

rian, urban, industrialised Britain. Pioneered by

Ebenezer Howard with the new town of Letchworth,

it incorporated housing, a connection and balance

with nature, and economic viability. Garden City

design principles were incorporated in Dublin in the

newly developed suburbs of Marino and Drimnagh.

Cities concentrate

negative environmental

impacts but their very

densities of population

and consumption

offer opportunities for

innovations in land-use

planning, transport and

building design

Green infrastructure: a street ‘bioswale’

(designed to concentrate or remove silt and

pollution from surface runoff water)

Sustainable urbanism: a project connecting

communities with nature in Philadelphia

Enhanced

urban greening

in Qatar

6 4 July 2017

ENVIRONMENT

Come the 1960s, Scottish landscape architect

Ian McHarg promoted the concept of ecological

planning for human settlement with his book

‘Design with Nature’. In this he divided the world

into what was ‘ﬁt’ and what wasn’t. Nature was

deemed ﬁt, whereas cities were seen as unﬁt or

“scabrous entities”. In ‘The Granite Garden,

Urban Nature and Human’ published in 1984,

Anne Whiston Spirn explored how urban ecology

can address environmental and social problems

- such as water and air quality, the urban heat

island, storm-water drainage, ﬂooding, urban

vegetation and wildlife – within the city itself.

The contemporary concept of Sustainable

Urbanism and its offshoot Green Urbanism have

evolved from these earlier movements and writ-

ings. It brings together the strands of

environmentalism, New Urbanism, Smart

Growth and innovations in building and infra

structural design and technologies. Sustainable

urbanism seeks to connect people with nature

and natural systems and in contradiction to

McHarg’s beliefs, this can be achieved even in

dense urban environments.

Local authorities in cities around the world are

slowly beginning to embrace green urbanism,

with a particular focus on green infrastructure.

Comhar, the defunct National Sustainabilty

Forum, described green infrastructure as an

interconnected network of green space that con-

serves natural ecosystem values and functions

and provides associated beneﬁts to human pop-

ulations. Multi-functionality is at the core of the

concept. ‘Ecosystem services’ that green infra

structure can deliver include clean air,

temperature control and mitigation of the local

‘heat island effect’, recreation areas, ﬂood pro

tection, rainwater retention and ﬂood prevention,

maintenance of groundwater levels, and restora-

tion or halt the loss of biodiversity. These are in

addition to improving the health and quality of

life of citizens through the provision of accessi

ble and affordable areas for physical activity.

The multifunctional nature of green infrastruc-

ture means that the beneﬁts accruing to it are

not measured as just the sum of its constituent

elements. Green infrastructure can be viewed as

an approach rather than just a single entity. Its

elements weave together synergistically, ena-

bling the delivery of both ecosystem and human

beneﬁts in a way that enhances the environmen-

tal, social and economic sustainability of the

urban environment.

Technical barriers to the implementation of

greening policies include lack of space and

extensive underground services in the inner city,

however cities are proving that these can be

overcome. Within local authorities, cross-

departmental collaboration is required, as well

as engagement with local communities and the

private sector to promote implementation.

As the nexus of knowledge, infrastructure and

governance, cities represent a key opportunity

to stimulate larger-scale change towards green

economies. Opportunities exist to sustain biodi-

versity in and around urban areas. Human

health, child development and human apprecia-

tion of nature – and thus the conservation of

nature everywhere – may depend on ﬁnding and

implementing solutions to the dissociation of

urban human forms from nature.

Policies and plans for the sustainable devel

opment can often be misunderstood,

misinterpreted or simply ignored. At present

there is only limited national guidance on the

development of green infrastructure strategies

or nature-based solutions as part of spatial plan-

ning. The new National Planning Framework

should address such shortcomings, with a focus

on the importance of nature-based solutions for

urban areas and the role citizens can take in their

planning and implementation.

Dara Carroll is a Director of urbangreen.ie

and a PhD candidate in the School of Transport

Engineering, Environment and Planning,

DIT Bolton St

Green infrastructure weaves

together synergistically,

promoting both ecosystem and

human beneﬁts to enhance

the environmental, social and

economic sustainability of the

urban environment

Green roof: Technical and Scientiﬁc Centre of Paris,

Vertical Garden: Pont Max

Juvenal in Aix en Provence,

Green roof: ACROS Fukuoka

International Hall in Japan

July 2017 6 5

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ADVERTORIAL

reland’s targets for afforestation have received a substan-

tial boost thanks to a new investment by Microsoft.

Natural Capital Partners, a company specialising in

working with businesses on meeting their environmen-

tal commitments, is working with Microsoft to put this

investment towards achieving afforestation targets in Ireland.

With Microsoft’s participation, trees will be planted on 137 hec-

tares of land over the next two years. Forestry specialists, Forest

Carbon Ltd, and Irish-based forest managers Green Belt, are

working with Natural Capital Partners to find sites, and to

establish and maintain forests.

Ireland is Europe’s least forested country (along with The

Netherlands) and the programme will make an important con-

tribution to the country’s goals of new native woodland creation

as laid out in the 2014-2020 Forestry Programme – a require-

ment which is currently not being met. In addition, the newly

created forests will sequester approximately 35,600 tonnes of

carbon over 40 years, equivalent to removing 7,500 passenger

cars from the road for one year, and contributing to Ireland’s

national GHG emission reduction targets.

“This programme is a powerful example of the continual evo-

lution in business climate leadership and the types of

intervention that will become increasingly critical to delivering

long term positive impact on both emissions and the world’s

natural capital”, says Stephen Killeen, CEO, Natural Capital

Partners.

The programme, created by Natural Capital Partners, will

provide financing to land owners committing to new native

forest creation, supplementing the payments they can receive

from the Irish Forestry Service. The programme began plant

ing on sites in Cork, Kerry and Galway during April and May

with the remainder taking place in 2018.

John O’Reilly, CEO of Green Belt notes, “This could herald a

new chapter for Irish forestry and a first step towards valuing

and compensating land owners for the ecosystem services their

forests provide”.

Green Belt Limited, www.greenbelt.ie, established in 1982,

is Ireland’s largest privately owned forest establishment and

management company. Through a network of 19 experienced

forest managers, supported by a three person GIS team, plus

administrative support, Green Belt establishes, on average,

2,500 ha of new forests each year. This represents a one third

market share of the National Afforestation programme. Green

Belt currently manages in excess of 280,000 acres of privately

owned woodlands, builds 20 Km of new forest roads per annum

and harvests in excess of 150,000 tonnes of timber from thin-

ning and clear fell

Mr Andrew Doyle TD, Minister for State with responsibility

for forestry at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the

Marine welcomed this initiative saying that “Microsoft have

been in Ireland now for over 30 years and during that time have

made a significant contribution to our local economy. The crea

tion of a fund to encourage the planting of native woodlands

will now contribute to our environment by protecting and

enhancing water quality and enriching the biodiversity of the

land planted”.

“In May 2012, Microsoft made a commitment to become

carbon neutral. We also created a fund for investment into both

internal and external carbon reduction activities. The Irish

Forest Creation project is one of nearly 50 projects around the

world that are supported by investments from the carbon fee

funds. Operating in a sustainable way is an important part of

our vision of creating a Cloud for Global Good”, concluded Cath-

riona Hallahan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland. 

Green Belt & Natural Capital Partners

announce Largest Corporate Commitment

to New Native Forest Creation in Ireland

in a Decade