Abstract
Green infrastructure is a core component of any city. The ecosystem services that it provides already make an important contribution to the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers and are considered to be vital for future urban sustainability. In the case of African cities, this argument is stronger still given that other forms of infrastructure are often lacking or seriously underperforming. This chapter discusses the potential role of urban ecosystem services for climate adaptation in African cities. It is based on an empirical assessment of the urban morphology, green structures and ecosystem services of five cities, with a particular emphasis on provisioning services from woody cover and temperature regulating services from evapotranspiring surfaces in two of them. An analysis of retrospective and prospective change helps to establish the extent of pressures to green structures – including in the context of climate change – and the prospects for using green infrastructure for achieving urban climate adaptation. The results show considerable losses in green structures and their associated ecosystem services; something set to continue under ‘business as usual’ development scenarios projected to 2025. Indeed, there is already a greater need for services than is currently satisfied, especially in the urban core. Our results suggest that, although climate change is an additional pressure to ecosystem services, it is development which poses the greatest immediate threat. It is therefore critical that green infrastructure planning is strengthened and brought into the core of urban development planning as part of climate adaptation and broader sustainability goals.
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- 1.
The development of the final, verified UMT dataset was a lengthy process. It was sometimes necessary to use draft final versions to progress other parts of the work programme. As a result there is sometimes a slight mismatch of categories between different parts of the work – and the data cited in other Chapters in this book (e.g. Chap. 3) – but the impact on subsequent results is considered small.
- 2.
The mud/wood residential class is used to differentiate areas where the majority of dwellings are constructed using less formal construction methods and materials than is generally found with some other classes, e.g. condominiums. Dwellings in the mud/wood class may follow an irregular pattern and have few or no services. It should be noted that housing may not be constructed with mud/wood materials specifically – see Chaps. 3 and 6 – but materials are expected to be among the least resilient in each city. Finally, it should be noted that although this class is likely to be associated with informal settlements, not all areas associated with other residential classes can be assumed to be formally planned.
- 3.
The work in this section draws particularly from PhD work by Florian Renner (Technische Universität München) (woody vegetation) and Deusdedit Kibassa (Ardhi University) (regulating services, specifically air temperatures). Work on cultural services is reported in Lindley et al. (2013).
- 4.
Dar es Salaam has an equatorial savannah climate, generally hot and humid throughout the year with dry summers (Aw – Köppen-Geiger) (Kottek et al. 2006). Climate change projections for Dar es Salaam (for 2041–2050 relative to 1961–70) indicate no significant changes in the seasonality of rainfall, but potentially significant increases in rainfall in the March-May “long rains”, and seasonal temperature increases around 1.5–2 °C (CSIR and CMCC 2012).
- 5.
Addis Ababa experiences a warm temperate climate with dry winters and warm summers (CwB – Köppen-Geiger) (Kottek et al. 2006). Climate change projections for Addis Ababa (for 2041–2050 relative to 1961–70) indicate no significant changes in the seasonality of rainfall, but slight changes in monthly rainfall and potentially significant increases in rainfall amounts during March to May (CSIR and CMCC 2012). Projected increases in seasonal temperatures are in the region of 1.5–2 °C (CSIR and CMCC 2012).
- 6.
The text in this section contains excerpts reprinted from Ecol Ind, 42, Cavan G, Lindley S, Jalayer F, Yeshitela K, Pauleit S, Renner F, Gill S, Capuano P, Nebebe A, Woldegerima T, Kibassa D, Shemdoe R, Urban morphological determinants of temperature regulating ecosystem services in two African cities, pp. 43–57, ©2014 with permission from Elsevier.
- 7.
In Dar es Salaam this timeframe includes the end of the period of short rains termed in Swahili as vuli and the subsequent ‘short dry season’ when peak temperatures are expected. The main dry season is June-early October and the main rainy season March–May.
- 8.
- 9.
Sensors are 1-Wire (Maxim Integrated) battery operated loggers with a fixed and limited time span. Primarily designed for internal use, such as monitoring of container goods, they can be housed in appropriate environmental enclosures for external use. Their main benefit is that their very low unit cost allows a good coverage of sensors for a limited resource input.
- 10.
Local land cover characteristics may also vary and this is still to be investigated.
- 11.
This may also be the case elsewhere but a detailed assessment of the planning process has not been attempted.
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The authors would like to acknowledge the input of the entire Task 2.2 team for their contributions to the research process, and the data providers, stakeholders and funders who have helped to make the research possible.
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Lindley, S.J. et al. (2015). Green Infrastructure for Climate Adaptation in African Cities. In: Pauleit, S., et al. Urban Vulnerability and Climate Change in Africa. Future City, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03982-4_4
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