Integrating nature in urban areas : how natural structures and features in urban spaces contribute to human health and well-being as well as biodiversity

Sammanfattning: Nature has shown to have many positive effects on our health and well-being as it benefi ts both our physical and mental health. Still, it has seldom been included in development processes in urban areas, which has led green spaces to become fragmented, resulting in decreasing the diversity of species. Urban biodiversity today, in contrast to the natural landscape, mainly consists of generalist species that are able to adapt to urban conditions and human disturbances. This makes it important to preserve biodiversity in urban areas, as it can benefi t humans as well. This study has through the means of a literature study examined how nature can be integrated in urban areas and at the same time promote both human needs and biodiversity by looking at the natural landscape. It has further looked into how urban green spaces can help mitigate the negative effect on the climate. The results suggest that the needs of biodiversity in urban areas can have many synergies with human needs, it can also raise confl icts affecting the relationship between humans and biodiversity. Further, it has also been shown that urbanization itself is often in confl ict with both human needs and biodiversity, a confl ict that can be solved through strategic designing. The structures and features found in the urban landscape do not help to mitigate the negative climate effects, but that the natural structures do help to mitigate them. The present study has also shown that to integrate nature in urban areas and still attend to human needs, urban inhabitants need to have knowledge of nature — how it works and its benefi ts. This is because the literature has shown that knowledge about nature changes humans preferences and attitude towards it. Because it is only when we understand the contributions nature provides us and our needs that we can fully integrate nature to further promote biodiversity in urban areas.