Healthy Cities - Living Sustainably
How can we protect and improve natural capital?
Like other cities around the UK, Edinburgh has natural capital – features like rivers, trees, grass verges and soil that help to counter air pollution and make urban living more sustainable. Design consultancy Atkins has helped the City of Edinburgh Council to quantify the value of its natural capital and identify priority areas where biodiversity and nature can be enhanced.
Edinburgh is renowned for its historic buildings, ancient streets and iconic vistas, but it also has an abundance of nature. The city boasts 112 parks and is reputed to have more trees per head of population than any other UK city. It is hardly surprising then, that the City of Edinburgh Council wants to protect its green and blue spaces and optimise the benefits that this natural capital delivers.
The council commissioned Atkins to undertake an advanced study into the relative value of each 100-metre square of the city, evaluating the comparative ecosystem benefits of trees, grassland, streams, verges, parks, soil and more. Carried out using ArcGIS, this geospatial analysis identified high value natural capital that must be protected, as well as opportunity areas where new natural capital could be introduced to deliver significant environmental improvements. For example, Atkins highlighted opportunities to collect run-off water from car parks to create new water channels alongside roads. These small streams would feed green verges and trees, offsetting road pollution and improving habitat connectivity to support the movement of wildlife in the city.
As a part of the project, Atkins examined air pollution across the city, so that it could see where there is most urgent need for a new ecosystem service, such as new planting, that might help to improve air quality. Information from the study is now being incorporated into the city’s new Local Development Plan to ensure that future developments in the city protect and expand natural capital. The values attached to each area of natural capital, and each proposed site for new ecosystems, will help the council to prioritise the allocation of its funds, taking into account Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) views, and maximise the environmental benefits that it can deliver for the city.
“The research we have conducted using ArcGIS will help the City of Edinburgh Council to take natural capital into account in planning decisions and prioritise projects that will create sustainable drainage, increase habitat connectivity and improve air quality.”
Elspeth McIntyre, Senior Geospatial Consultant, Atkins
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