Cities are Planning for Biodiversity: A global survey of city plans

Karen M. O’Neill, Myla F.J. Aronson, Charles H. Nilon, Sarel S. Cilliers, Cynnamon Dobbs, Lauren J. Frazee, Mark A. Goddard, Debra Roberts, Emilie K. Stander, Peter Werner, Ken P. Yocom

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A global scale understanding of how cities promote biodiversity and ecosystem services in city planning is underdeveloped. Urban planning scholars use the concept of policy mobility to explore similarities in planning ideas across different settings. If there are wide variations in the ways planning documents discuss biodiversity and ecosystem services, that could indicate planners are working without a broadly shared set of ideas. Taking a snapshot of urban planning practices, we did two comparisons of the ways 135 planning documents from 40 cities around the world discuss biodiversity and ecosystem services. Our comparisons found similar combinations of goals and targets for biodiversity and ecosystem services across cities. First, in plans from cities in the Global North versus the Global South, and second, across five categories of planning documents. These results indicate there is a loosely coherent set of goals and measurable targets for biodiversity and ecosystem services that is not yet standardized. Practices that could be used more widely are setting measurable targets and including biodiversity and ecosystem services topics more consistently in climate plans and comprehensive master plans.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRoutledge Handbook of Urban Biodiversity
EditorsCharles H. Nilon, Myla F.J. Aronson
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Chapter25
Pages361-378
Number of pages18
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781003016120
ISBN (Print)9780367444549
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Oct 2023

Publication series

NameRoutledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks
PublisherRoutledge

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