Opinion – Claudio Bernardes: The importance of urban planning with an ecological bias

Today, cities are centers of social and economic exchange, as well as anchors of the system of mutations through which humanity passes. The process of urban development and transformation can pose a threat to biodiversity and nature. In this way, safeguarding the well-being of people and natural environments is a function of those who think about cities.

On the other hand, just as urban planning often takes place without much regard for biodiversity, so does environmental planning often ignore the reality of life in cities. The search for balance should, therefore, be a medium and long-term objective.

It is important to note that the preservation of biodiversity is closely linked to the so-called urban ecosystem services, among them, improving air quality, through carbon dioxide sequestration; increase in the quality, supply and distribution of water in aquifers and reservoirs, by facilitating water infiltration into the soil; reducing the risks of landslides and erosion; assistance in climate regulation; promotion of thermal comfort mainly due to the vegetation, which provides milder temperatures and greater air humidity.

City planning must address the isonomy of the distribution of urban ecosystems and, in this way, improve the sharing of their effects. The combination of planning and nature conservation produces a powerful vision of equitable sustainability for the cities of the future.

To understand how the urban planning process can be used to address biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services, it is necessary to identify which attributes of biodiversity and ecosystem services are truly relevant to urban planning. Also, identify which of these attributes cities can include in their plans and how different cities, according to their specific characteristics, can use these attributes.

Researchers from American universities studied how cities deal with urban planning related to biodiversity and ecosystem services, evaluating 40 cities in 25 countries, and seeking to understand how different cities with a wide variety of ecological, political and economic contexts incorporated biodiversity and ecosystem services. in planning.

The attributes of biodiversity most present in urban planning of cities, according to these studies, involve educating the population regarding biodiversity, mitigating the effects of heat islands, improving water quality, and sequestering carbon. The research shows that the cities with the highest number of attributes related to biodiversity in their urban plans are Washington, Baltimore, London, Mexico City, Nagoya, Seoul and Sheffield. The cities with the fewest attributes are Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Monrovia and Iquitos.

The survey results show that more than 80% of the plans studied incorporated at least one objective to improve ecosystem services. Most plans also included some mention of commitment to the implementation of one or more targets to increase biodiversity and, in particular, targets to increase or improve the quantity or quality of specific habitats. Measurable targets for biodiversity and ecosystem services occurred in fewer plans.

World Bank report published in September 2021, in association with the “Global Platform for Sustainable Cities”, concluded that an important way for leaders to address the growing challenges of life in cities is to bring biodiversity and nature into urban projects, through ecological planning. We have no alternative but to recognize that, in the context of urban planning, cities depend on biodiversity, and biodiversity depends on cities.

In this way, ecologically-biased planning not only highlights the links between urbanization and biodiversity, but should also help to integrate this understanding into investment strategies.

However, cultural changes will be necessary to definitively promote the use, in a balanced way, of the concepts of biodiversity and systemic services in the planning of cities.