Scenarios

Reference: Representing the current situation

Green: Additional trees and parks are implemented within the city

Grey: Trees and parks are largely removed from the city

Nature for Society: Integrating nature into the city where people most need it by implementing additional trees, permeable surfaces, parks and forests within the city.

Nature as Culture: Creating ‘attractive’ nature within the living environment by increasing the amount of public accessible green spaces (e.g. parks, beaches, forested area) within the city.

Nature for Nature: Bringing nature back into the city by creating additional space for semi-natural green areas (e.g. forests, grasslands, parks) within the city.

Benefits

Biodiversity: Potentially occurring fraction of species (POF), measuring the proportion of birds and flying insects populations which could potentially survive in the urban area based on the availability of semi-natural habitat within 100m and 1000m distance.

Carbon storage potential: Nature-based solutions have the potential to store carbon in living biomass, dead wood, litter and soil, which contributes to reducing atmospheric carbon concentrations and global warming. The map shows the average carbon storage (kton C/km2) per city, as well as the average carbon storage (kton C/km2) and total amount of carbon (Gton C) currently stored in European cities under a specific scenario. Select a city from the table below, and download a map showing the potential of nature-based solutions to store carbon (i.e. per grid cell, average and total ton carbon stored) within your city of interest under the three scenarios.

Carbon mitigation: Relative contribution of urban NBS to reduce cities annual CO2 emissions, based on the amount of carbon sequestered by trees within the FUA relative to cities’ carbon footprints.

Heat mitigation potential: Nature-based solutions have the potential to reduce the urban heat island effect (UHI; additional heat stress in the city when compared to areas surrounding the city) by providing shade, increasing cooling through evapotranspiration, and modifying the thermal properties of the urban fabric (albedo effect). The map shows the average heat mitigation potential (0-1) per city under a specific scenario, as well as the average heat mitigation and corresponding cooling potential (in °C) during a typical hot day in summer across the 775 European cities. Select a city from the table below, and download a map showing the potential of nature-based solutions to reduce heat (i.e. heat mitigation per grid cell, average heat mitigation and cooling potential) within your city of interest under the three scenarios.

Heat stress mitigation: Relative contribution of urban NBS to reduce the risk of exceeding temperatures thresholds over which people perceive heat stress, using national heat health warning levels as a benchmark.

Green space availability: Share of population living within 300m distance to publicly accessible urban green spaces (e.g. parks, beaches, forest areas of at least 1h).

Water retention potential: Relative contribution of urban NBS to avoid stormwater runoff during a heavy rainfall event, based on vegetations’ capacity to retain water in relation to the amount of rainfall.

Stormwater regulation: Amount of avoided stormwater runoff: the amount of avoided aboveground stormwater runoff (m3/km2) during a heavy rainfall event, based on the natural infrastructure’s capacity (i.g. soil permeability) to retain water in relation to the amount of rainfall.