University of Nottingham Malaysia
School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences
Karen Lourdes is a third-year PhD candidate in Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Her research focuses on the integration of spatial ecosystem service assessments into town planning efforts, to support sustainable urban development. Her PhD project is a collaboration between the University of Lincoln, University of Nottingham Malaysia, University Putra Malaysia, Nanyang Technological University and the Natural Capital Project, for which she is a scholar. Karen completed her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at the University of Liverpool and her Master’s in Applied Wildlife Conservation at Anglia Ruskin University. When she’s not working on her PhD, she supports the teaching of undergraduate students, writes blogposts to further environmental education and tends to her garden.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

MAPPING AND MODELLING MULTIPLE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES TO SUPPORT PLANNING IN PERI-URBAN AREAS

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
11:30 AM - 12:50 PM
Room

Hall A

Lecture Time
11:40 AM - 11:50 AM

Abstract

Abstract Body

As cities expand, peri-urban areas experience the greatest intensity of development due to the infrastructure demands of growing urban populations. The rapid land use change in peri-urban areas often result in the loss of urban ecosystem services (UES). A worthwhile objective for peri-urban areas is to avoid the loss of natural ecosystems through the consideration of UES in planning. In this study, we used process-based models to spatially quantify and analyse the distribution of six UES in a rapidly developing, peri-urban catchment: heat mitigation, runoff retention, sediment retention, scenic quality, recreation and crop production. We analysed hotspots, identified synergies and tradeoffs between services and assessed the cooccurrence and overlap of hotspots between multiples services. Our assessment revealed that there was a stark spatial mismatch between the distribution of multiple services and population, where densely built areas lacked the provision of UES. Headwater catchment areas had the highest number of cooccurring services and greatest overlap of hotspots. There were also varying degrees of synergies and tradeoffs between provisioning, regulating and cultural services, which are key considerations for planning multifunctional peri-urban landscapes. Using the findings of our assessment, we conducted suitability analyses to identify opportunities to conserve and plan for four green infrastructures. The resulting suitability maps can be used to guide sustainable land use planning through the development of new urban parks and green walls/roofs as well as to identify conservation priority areas within the catchment. The parameterised models and methods applied in our multiple UES assessment can be adapted for conducting ES-based land use management in other urbanising areas of Southeast Asia.

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