Ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure of Latin America and the Caribbean: How do they contribute to urban planning?

Date of Publication

2020 12:00 AM

Security Theme

Critical Infrastructure

Keywords

Critical Infrastructure, green-hybrid infrastructure, blue-hybridinfrastructure, gray-hybrid infrastructure, supply, social value, beneficiaries, systematic review

Description

We developed a conceptual framework that describes the key role of ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure. From this framework we analyze how research on ecosystem services has been addressed in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discuss their incorporation into policies of urban planning, in thecontext of nature-based solutions and sustainable development goals. Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia andArgentina represent 90% of research in urban ecosystem services, all of them except Colombia had carried outstudies considering green, blue and gray-hybrid infrastructures. However, green-hybrid infrastructure clusteredmost of the studies. Ecosystem service supply component and intermediate beneficiaries are the most studied.Our results show that most studies have not been developed from the perspective of the biophysical, sociocul-tural or economic assessment of ecosystem services, on the contrary we recognized or deduced them fromproxy variables found within the studies. Ourfindings suggest that the study of urban ecosystem services inLatin America and the Caribbean is in development and has begun to increase in the last decade. However, wefound that the incorporation of urban ecosystem services in urban planning is low, but at the same time, it isin a promising development related to the application of innovative actions such as nature-based solutionsand in support of the new global urban agenda.

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Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

Ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure of Latin America and the Caribbean: How do they contribute to urban planning?

We developed a conceptual framework that describes the key role of ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure. From this framework we analyze how research on ecosystem services has been addressed in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discuss their incorporation into policies of urban planning, in thecontext of nature-based solutions and sustainable development goals. Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia andArgentina represent 90% of research in urban ecosystem services, all of them except Colombia had carried outstudies considering green, blue and gray-hybrid infrastructures. However, green-hybrid infrastructure clusteredmost of the studies. Ecosystem service supply component and intermediate beneficiaries are the most studied.Our results show that most studies have not been developed from the perspective of the biophysical, sociocul-tural or economic assessment of ecosystem services, on the contrary we recognized or deduced them fromproxy variables found within the studies. Ourfindings suggest that the study of urban ecosystem services inLatin America and the Caribbean is in development and has begun to increase in the last decade. However, wefound that the incorporation of urban ecosystem services in urban planning is low, but at the same time, it isin a promising development related to the application of innovative actions such as nature-based solutionsand in support of the new global urban agenda.