31
© The Author(s) 2020
D. Geneletti et al., Planning for Ecosystem Services in Cities, SpringerBriefs
in Environmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20024-4_4
Chapter 4
Developing Ecosystem Service Models
for Urban Planning: A Focus
on Micro- Climate Regulation
4.1 Introduction
Among the natural disasters occurring in Europe, heat waves cause the most human
fatalities (EEA 2012). During the summer of 2003, for example, the heat wave in
Central and Western Europe is estimated to have caused up to 70,000 excess deaths
over a four-month period (EEA 2012). During the same period, in Germany alone,
heat-related hospitalization costs had increased six-fold, not including the cost of
ambulance treatment, while heat-related reduction of work performance caused an
estimated output loss of almost 0.5% of the GDP (Hübler et al. 2008). In many
regions of the world, climate change is expected to increase the effects of heat
waves, including the rising of temperatures in cities (Koomen and Diogo 2015).
As shown in the previous chapter, the creation and enhancement of Urban Green
Infrastructures (UGI) to regulate micro-climate and combat summer heat is one of
the most common Ecosystem-based adaptation measure. By the virtue of their cooling capacity, i.e. capacity to modify temperature, humidity and wind fields, UGI can
contribute to reducing high temperatures in cities, and lowering the related health
risks (Lafortezza et al. 2013; Escobedo et al. 2015). Studies have shown that UGI
have the capacity to mitigate high temperature in the summer, lowering them up to
6 °C (Souch and Souch 1993; McPherson et al. 1997). The creation and restoration
of UGI, maximizing their cooling capacity, can reduce energy costs for air conditioning in summer and contribute to lowering mortality induced by higher temperatures (Koomen and Diogo 2015).
Urban plans represent a key governance instrument to design and enhance UGI
(Kremer et al. 2013). However, as shown by our review in Chap. 3, despite the good
Text and graphics of this chapter are based on: Zardo L,
Geneletti D, Pérez-Soba M, Van Eupen M (2017) Estimating the
cooling capacity of green infrastructures to support urban
planning. Ecosyst Serv 26:225–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecoser.2017.06.016.
© The Author(s) 2020
D. Geneletti et al., Planning for Ecosystem Services in Cities, SpringerBriefs
in Environmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20024-4_4
Chapter 4
Developing Ecosystem Service Models
for Urban Planning: A Focus
on Micro- Climate Regulation
4.1 Introduction
Among the natural disasters occurring in Europe, heat waves cause the most human
fatalities (EEA 2012). During the summer of 2003, for example, the heat wave in
Central and Western Europe is estimated to have caused up to 70,000 excess deaths
over a four-month period (EEA 2012). During the same period, in Germany alone,
heat-related hospitalization costs had increased six-fold, not including the cost of
ambulance treatment, while heat-related reduction of work performance caused an
estimated output loss of almost 0.5% of the GDP (Hübler et al. 2008). In many
regions of the world, climate change is expected to increase the effects of heat
waves, including the rising of temperatures in cities (Koomen and Diogo 2015).
As shown in the previous chapter, the creation and enhancement of Urban Green
Infrastructures (UGI) to regulate micro-climate and combat summer heat is one of
the most common Ecosystem-based adaptation measure. By the virtue of their cooling capacity, i.e. capacity to modify temperature, humidity and wind fields, UGI can
contribute to reducing high temperatures in cities, and lowering the related health
risks (Lafortezza et al. 2013; Escobedo et al. 2015). Studies have shown that UGI
have the capacity to mitigate high temperature in the summer, lowering them up to
6 °C (Souch and Souch 1993; McPherson et al. 1997). The creation and restoration
of UGI, maximizing their cooling capacity, can reduce energy costs for air conditioning in summer and contribute to lowering mortality induced by higher temperatures (Koomen and Diogo 2015).
Urban plans represent a key governance instrument to design and enhance UGI
(Kremer et al. 2013). However, as shown by our review in Chap. 3, despite the good
Text and graphics of this chapter are based on: Zardo L,
Geneletti D, Pérez-Soba M, Van Eupen M (2017) Estimating the
cooling capacity of green infrastructures to support urban
planning. Ecosyst Serv 26:225–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecoser.2017.06.016.