Page 64 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

Climate Change Crisis And Cities

Nature-based solutions and green infrastructures
Life in the city depends on the continuity of ecosystem services. Thus,
protection of natural resources which make up the basis for ecosystem
services is of great importance. However, the consequences of climate change
also affects ecological cycles. Climate-based extreme weather conditions
and disasters cause serious losses of human lives as well as commodities.
To protect and manage natural resources that keep the continuity of life
as well to maintain the sustainability of these cities and their resilience to
climate change, more and more cities are beginning to provide nature-based
solutions, resorting to green infrastructures and using them actively. It seems
that the traditional grey infrastructure solutions are infussicient under the
changing climatic coditions, or they have a high cost. In fact, nature-based
solutions have proved to be 50% less costly compared to grey infrastructure
(WEF, 2022b: 15).
Another nature-based solution which has become popular in recent
years is green infrastructure Defined by the European Commission, green
infrastructure is “a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural
areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a
wide range of ecosystem services” (EC, 2019).
Green infrastructure, which is quite important in the context of urban
sustainability resilience, includes natural formations like forests, wetlands,
reeds, swamps and coastal areas as well as recreation areas in the city, urban
agriculture areas, urban forests, and other green areas, urban street forestry,
green wall and green roof applications, pocket parks, and sports facilities,
etc (figure 5) (Hepcan and Hepcan, 2018: 38). Green infrastructure should be
studied along with blue infrastructure, made up of rivers, lakes, seas, and
oceans, that is, all water bodies (BISE, 2022).

Year 1 / Issue 1 / Jan 2022 49