TY - JOUR

T1 - Greening cities through urban planning

T2 - A literature review on the uptake of concepts and methods in Stockholm

AU - Adem Esmail, Blal

AU - Cortinovis, Chiara

AU - Suleiman, Lina

AU - Albert, Christian

AU - Geneletti, Davide

AU - Mörtberg, Ulla

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by FORMAS Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development [Grants 2020-00086 and 2021-00054 ] within the national research programme " Sustainable Spatial Planning ". Funding Information: This research was supported by FORMAS Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development [Grants 2020-00086 and 2021-00054] within the national research programme "Sustainable Spatial Planning".The authors thank Prof. Dr. Berit Balfors from the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, for her helpful advice and guidance in the research upon which this manuscript is based. To Maria Riffat, Eva Hartkopf, and Thea Eleahnora Maria Kelly for assistance, and the members of the PLACES lab at the Institute of Geography, Ruhr University Bochum, for feedback on first draft. DG acknowledges support from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the frame of the “Departments of Excellence” grant L. 232/2016" and the project NASCENT, funded under the University of Trento Research Grant "Covid 19". CC acknowldges partial funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Funding Information: The authors thank Prof. Dr. Berit Balfors from the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, for her helpful advice and guidance in the research upon which this manuscript is based. To Maria Riffat, Eva Hartkopf, and Thea Eleahnora Maria Kelly for assistance, and the members of the PLACES lab at the Institute of Geography, Ruhr University Bochum, for feedback on first draft. DG acknowledges support from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the frame of the "Departments of Excellence" grant L. 232/2016 " and the project NASCENT, funded under the University of Trento Research Grant "Covid 19". CC acknowldges partial funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Nature-based solutions (NBS) represent the most recent of several “greening” concepts proposed to support spatial planning and decision-making towards sustainable metropolitan regions. Despite similarities, the concepts stem from different disciplines and policy arenas and reflect various models of people-nature relations. This paper aims to analyze the uptake of greening concepts in scientific planning literature focusing on (urban) nature and landscape in the metropolitan region of Stockholm, Sweden, over the last three decades. It investigates what changes this evolution has brought in terms of the topics adopted, methods applied, and types of planning support put into practice. We identified 574 articles that reflect substantial research on greening concepts in the Swedish planning context. The articles demonstrate an initial prevalence of biodiversity with later increases of interest in ecosystem services and NBS. A detailed analysis of the studies focusing on Stockholm revealed Population growth/densification, Green space management and Biodiversity conservation as the most commonly addressed societal challenges. The most frequently mentioned type of green and blue element is Parks and (semi-)natural urban green areas, including urban forests. Methods applied were mostly quantitative, while mixes with qualitative approaches were only apparent in ecosystem services articles. Half of the studies involved practitioners or decision-makers, but only four seemed related to real-life planning processes. Taken together, the influence of scientific literature on the uptake of greening concepts in spatial planning seems to have been limited. Future mainstreaming of greening concepts in Stockholm and beyond could benefit from available data, methods and experiences, but will require more active translation and boundary management. Further research into science-policy-planning interfaces at city scale is thus imperative to advance more sustainable pathways for people and nature in metropolitan regions.

AB - Nature-based solutions (NBS) represent the most recent of several “greening” concepts proposed to support spatial planning and decision-making towards sustainable metropolitan regions. Despite similarities, the concepts stem from different disciplines and policy arenas and reflect various models of people-nature relations. This paper aims to analyze the uptake of greening concepts in scientific planning literature focusing on (urban) nature and landscape in the metropolitan region of Stockholm, Sweden, over the last three decades. It investigates what changes this evolution has brought in terms of the topics adopted, methods applied, and types of planning support put into practice. We identified 574 articles that reflect substantial research on greening concepts in the Swedish planning context. The articles demonstrate an initial prevalence of biodiversity with later increases of interest in ecosystem services and NBS. A detailed analysis of the studies focusing on Stockholm revealed Population growth/densification, Green space management and Biodiversity conservation as the most commonly addressed societal challenges. The most frequently mentioned type of green and blue element is Parks and (semi-)natural urban green areas, including urban forests. Methods applied were mostly quantitative, while mixes with qualitative approaches were only apparent in ecosystem services articles. Half of the studies involved practitioners or decision-makers, but only four seemed related to real-life planning processes. Taken together, the influence of scientific literature on the uptake of greening concepts in spatial planning seems to have been limited. Future mainstreaming of greening concepts in Stockholm and beyond could benefit from available data, methods and experiences, but will require more active translation and boundary management. Further research into science-policy-planning interfaces at city scale is thus imperative to advance more sustainable pathways for people and nature in metropolitan regions.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Green belt

KW - Green infrastructure

KW - Green wedges

KW - Nature's contributions to people

KW - Transformative change

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133652583&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127584

DO - 10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127584

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85133652583

VL - 72

JO - Urban Forestry and Urban Greening

JF - Urban Forestry and Urban Greening

SN - 1618-8667

M1 - 127584

ER -