du Toit, MJ, Cilliers, SS, Dallimer, M orcid.org/0000-0001-8120-3309 et al. (3 more authors) (2018) Urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services in sub-Saharan Africa. Landscape and Urban Planning, 180. pp. 249-261. ISSN 0169-2046
Abstract
Africa is urbanizing at an astonishing rate. To meet many of the Sustainable Development Goals there will be a requirement for cities in sub-Saharan Africa to plan for, and manage, the rapid rise in the urban population. Green infrastructure has the potential to provide multiple ecosystem services to benefit the urban population. The general objective of this review is to consolidate research undertaken on urban green infrastructure and the associated ecosystem services in sub-Saharan African cities. The 68 reviewed papers spanned 20 countries and included 74 urban areas. However, only 38% of sub-Saharan countries had any research carried out in them. The most represented ecosystem services were regulating and provisioning, with supporting services getting the least attention. Overall there was a lack of in-depth studies on all ecosystem services, especially supporting and cultural services. Seven overarching categories of barriers and challenges to the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services emerged from the reviewed papers, namely: (i) socio-cultural values, traditions and perceptions; (ii) lack of capacity; (iii) governance, urban planning and social inequality; (iv) lack of data and/or case studies; (v) ecosystem disservices; (vi) spatial trade-offs and conflicts; (vii) climate change. These barriers we identified will need to be addressed if the future, long-term sustainable provision of ecosystem services in sub-Saharan African cities is to be assured.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Green space; Challenges; Provisioning; Regulating; Supporting; Cultural |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/R002681/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jun 2018 15:28 |
Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2020 09:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.06.001 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:132402 |