Management, valuation and evaluation of urban greenspace and trees in relation to resilience; : The importance of ecosystem services in the built environment and how they are maintained and cared for.

Sammanfattning: Abstract: Managing worldwide urbanization and housing shortage in cities through a resilient development isan immense issue of today. This study states the risk with urban densification, at the expense ofgreenspace, which is crucial to maintain vital ecosystem services. The nonlinear response todisturbance in ecosystems, need to be emphasized both in planning and practice, to avoiddegradation and collapse. Despite general promotion of densification as a tool to decrease negativeurban impact on surrounding landscape, as to mitigate climate change, current strategies ofcompacting cities are argued to endanger future resilience. In this work, it is stressed that valuationof greenery in urban areas should include the recognition of uncertainty, safeguarding the availabilityof all forms of ecosystem services in a changing future. Applying a framework of social-ecologicalresilience, a case-study of Stockholm regarding valuation of greenery and ecosystem services inplanning and exploitation, as in continuous management, has been carried out. A wide range ofactors within the fields of green management, planning and exploitation have been interviewed.When compared with expressed visions in comprehensive plans and policies, results from interviewsshow severe gaps between planning and practice. Foresight planning in relation to adaptivegovernance, to enhance social-ecologic interactions, is suggested a tool to improve implementationand acknowledgement of ecosystem services in urban development and design. Further, enhancedcross-learning and knowledge exchange in the social-ecological system, should be improved throughinteraction and recognition of the variety of stakeholders and multi-functional green areas tostrengthen social-ecological resilience in the urban context.