Project description
Optimising the role of trees for urban green resilience
Cities need robust urban environments that can withstand global changes. Urban green infrastructures (UGIs) such as trees and parks offer valuable contributions from nature to residents (nature’s contributions to people or NCP). Nevertheless, empirical research is needed to help optimise these benefits, given that societal preferences may not align with UGIs. The EU-funded BioCiTrees project aims to identify the most suitable type of UGI for adapting to present and future conditions while enhancing its long-term ecosystem functionality and resilience. The project constructs mechanistic models to assess which species can maximise various NCPs such as air purification and support for insect biodiversity. BioCiTrees also delves into examining the trade-offs between society's preferences for specific UGIs and their contributions.
Objective
There is a huge pressure on cities to build robust urban ecosystems in a way that can withstand global change while providing good living conditions for citizens. The accomplishment of this goal is essential to ensure an equitable future maintaining the benefits of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) that the urban green infrastructures (UGI, i.e. trees, parks and urban forests) provide. To achieve this challenge, we first must identify which type of UGI better adapt to present and future conditions and hence increase its long-term ecosystem functionality and resilience. Thus, there is an urgent need of empirical research to optimize UGI functions and NCP, which are still insufficient. Additionally, society’s preferences for given UGIs may not coincide with UGIs that maximize nature’s benefits to people. This could add new trade-offs between social and ecological dimensions of those benefits. The main objective of BioCiTrees is to build mechanistic models testing which species maximize different NCP (i.e. air purification and insect biodiversity support) while exploring trade-offs between society’s preference for certain UGIs and the provision of those contributions. For this, BioCiTrees will apply trait-based approaches to identify key traits and community functional components that maximize the benefits of those contributions in the context of global change, an evidence that is lacking. Moreover, this project will develop a survey to identify different stakeholders’ preferences for certain UGIs, providing support for establishing targets to co-develop UGIs taking cultural values into account. BioCiTrees will help to fill a major gap in our understanding of the underlaying mechanisms controlling NCP in urban ecosystems so that we can use the full potential of the UGI for the benefit of urban citizens while tackling global challenges, a priority of the Horizon Europe and the EU Green Deal.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
18071 Granada
Spain