Output details

An evaluation of flood control and urban cooling ecosystem services delivered by urban green infrastructure

Significance of output:

Cities face threats due to climate change from temperature extremes and flooding. We have developed a generally applicable assessment tool for ecosystem services from green areas in cities to support planning to alleviate these threats. Using surface and habitat maps, we have shown that infiltration capacity is a good proxy for flood control, and Leaf Area Index is a representative proxy for urban cooling, and tested refinements which can be applied at different scales. Combined surrogates were integrated as a Green Space Factor score, which has can be used by policy makers for a range of urban ecosystem services.