Welcome to this lecture on nature- based solutions in urban planning and design. You will get to understand what nature- based solutions entail and why this type of sustainable management is so important to create healthy urban environments. Let's take a look at one of the most central elements of nature- based solutions, namely blue and green infrastructure, and how these concepts promote human health. Evidence shows that the promotion of natural elements in the urban environment is a key factor to maintain health and well-being among the citizens. Ths graphic by Barton and Grant shows how the natural environment and ecosystems are influencing all the wider determinants of health. This is where the concept of blue and green infrastructure becomes helpful. In the urban context, blue and green infrastructure refers to natural and semi- natural elements that have the potential to create a continuous, coherent and consistent network to support healthy urban living. In our cities, we have for decades been looking for continuity and efficiency in transport networks. This has led to a fragmentation of the natural ecosystems like rivers, streams, forests and coasts. How can we restore these ecosystems and integrate them in urban environments to improve human health as well? Some ways we can improve human health is to assure carbon sequestration and oxygen supply, which improves air quality in our cities, preventing asthma and other respiratory diseases. Keep fertile soil, which is important in order to assure local production of food and access to healthy products. Reduce Urban Heat Island, preventing other related health problems like heat strokes or heat stress. Regulate water cycles and its management, supporting the continuity of natural water cycles, which is essential in order to manage risks from torrential storms or floods, or to assure a safe water supply, and adequate sanitation to protect health. Promote biodiversity and wildlife eco types which support physical, mental and as well as social well-being. All these interventions bring social and economic benefits too, and are known for being the focus of multiple evidence- based studies showing that the proximity to natural spaces relate to higher physical activity and better mental health. Let us now listen to Professor Luis Inostroza explaining a few specific results from his studies showing the benefits associated with green and blue infrastructure. Green and blue infrastructure sustained over healthy ecosystems has the capacity to generate the full range of ecosystem services from provisioning to cultural, with important effects on human health. Urban agriculture produces provisioning ecosystem services like,for instance edible vegetables, animal biomass and drinkable water with important nutritional health benefits for urban populations. Furthermore, green and blue infrastructure can host important pharmaceutical species to treat several diseases. Regulating services are also very relevant for human health in aspects like thermal comfort by reducing air temperatures in hot days. The cooling capacity of urban vegetation can vary from 0.8 up to 1+ Celsius average during the day, in the warm season in templated environment. Air cleaning by reducing airborne pollution like particulate matter from several sources can have also an important impact on health. For instance, in the city of Rome, the PM10 absorption provided by green infrastructures is circa 1.140 Mg/ year. Several studies have proven that populations living closer to the regulating services provided by green and blue infrastructure have better health. Finally, cultural services provided by green and blue infrastructure are fundamental for the overall human well-being with important positive effects in terms of mental health, reduction of stress as much as 1.33 higher chances in less green areas. Living 500m further away of green and blue infrastructure can increase by 1.5 the odds of overweight. Another study proved that for each additional 5 % increase in the proportion of neighborhood land covered by treed areas, there was a corresponding 5 increase in the relative odds of increasing free-time physical activity. There are also significant results in terms of other diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. An interquartile range increase in vegetation intensity measured by the normalised difference vegetation index is associated with a 13.4 % decreased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Henan city, for instance. As we learned from Luis Inostroza, blue and green infrastructure brings many benefits to human health, but how can the concept actually be integrated in urban development plans? Let's listen to Professor Ester Higueras explaining various approaches and strategies that human planners and others can take advantage of when it comes to designing a strategy for green and blue infrastructure. The European Commission has published a green infrastructure strategy to ensure the protection, creation and restoration of natural areas. This document provides a consistent framework for spatial planning and territorial development. The key is to understand all the different elements that are present in the local territory and then combine them with natural- based solutions to create the blue and green infrastructure. Another resource helping planners is the project Nature4Cities from Horizon 2020. Nature4Cities has created a database, and study cases of different nature-based solutions that are available on their website and can help to understand the multiple typologies and their associated benefits in terms of health and climate regulation. Planning with nature- based solutions requires a coherent strategy from large to a small scale. Madrid, as an example, is now working towards a continuous green infrastructure that connects the natural protected areas in the great metropolitan scale to the city center. I am going to show you how to improve urban health by green infrastructure. The method has 4 steps that can be applied and adapted to any local context. I will show you them as they look in a proposal for the San Blas neighborhood situated in the eastern part of Madrid. The health goal is to have cleaner air and new connection with natural areas. The district has very high density industrial areas and very few parks and all in a peripherical position. First, we need to identify protected spaces, natural resources, wetlands, forests or potential interesting natural areas near the site. In this case, there are great natural protected areas. Second, we find the opportunity areas at the urban scale, such as parks, open spaces, walkable streets, primary and secondary school playgrounds, parking areas, etc. Third, it is important to complete the network with the more suitable connectors, such as main rivers or stream structure, green roads or any other linear elements. Finally, we will establish the new components of the green infrastructure. The nodes, such as green urban parks or natural protected areas, and reservoirs, the corridors and eco connectors like linear structures from rivers to [inaudible] in the streets or hedge in private properties, and the buffer areas such as the protected areas along the river to prevent floods, where permissive activities can be developed to deliver a healthier district. The example from Madrid illustrates how important it is to read the territory and create human infrastructure, being respectful to the natural components, and thereby mitigate the risk of heat island effect, high levels of pollutions or floods and water management. From a practical point of view, we are still far away from achieving these blue and green continuity in all neighborhoods and areas of our cities. This is why the design plays an important role in order to provide the opportunities of greening the cities to all, not leaving anyone out. Susana Saiz, director of ARUP consultancy in Madrid will explain different typologies of nature- based solutions at the scale of the city that can support this continuity. The Madrid+Natural main purpose is to establish a vision that is common to the whole city of Madrid, that is intending to join efforts between the different areas in the municipality of Madrid towards a common purpose, to establish a climate strategy, a climate official strategy the city based mainly on nature-based solutions. Under the umbrella of the Madrid+Natural project, there is one very significant project that was already developed and this is the renaturalisation of the Manzanares river in the city of Madrid, which was a stream that was channelled and reconstructed with engineering solutions. Thus it created a really, really strong, negative impact on biodiversity in the area. And the Madrid+Natural initiative covered this intervention in the Manzanares river, which really just consisted in leaving the stream flow naturally and renaturalise the river streams, all the areas that were adjacent to the river. And that has an immediate effect on biodiversity. That really, really attracts a lot of different birds and different animals that were not anymore in the city enhancing the biodiversity of the area and is now a focus of attraction for citizens, who go there to enjoy these new renaturalised space regenerated natural space that we lost many years ago from the city. The main benefit for the city regarding to the health, is the provision of a complete network of green spaces, and natural areas where they can develop outdoor activities, to activate promotion of a more active lifestyle and also better weather conditions for their health in terms of air quality, reduction of pollutants and and also strategies that create more comfortable environments, reducing the impacts of heat island effect, for example, in the city and providing like green spaces with shading, and heat control. For the next five years, the goal is to see progressively the implementation of the strategies and measures that we're identifying in the Madrid+Natural strategy and see how that become real in projects. The last version of the Madrid+Natural, the last edition was a recap of the different projects that have been implemented under the umbrella of the Madrid+Natural strategy. We saw a lot of initiatives coming up from green roofs, parks and like works done in the school under the initiative of Madrid+Natural. So we see a growing number of initiatives that are becoming , are transforming the strategy into a reality. So our goal is to see this increasing and to see how the Madrid+Natural becomes a point, a common ground for the different municipal areas and a common goal for all of them. Green and blue infrastructure addresses the challenge and opportunity of planning health in cities because it improves all the social and environmental benefits of urban green areas in a new open scope at territorial scale.
