Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time
A closer look at the built environment shows that opportunities lie in transforming buildings with nature-based solutions for fostering climate resilience. To understand the potential of buildings in contributing to transforming cities, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the e...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-06-01
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| Series: | Nature-Based Solutions |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772411523000587 |
| _version_ | 1797371356109602816 |
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| author | Suzanne Kandel Niki Frantzeskaki |
| author_facet | Suzanne Kandel Niki Frantzeskaki |
| author_sort | Suzanne Kandel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A closer look at the built environment shows that opportunities lie in transforming buildings with nature-based solutions for fostering climate resilience. To understand the potential of buildings in contributing to transforming cities, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the evidence of the provided benefits of nature-based solutions implemented on their roofs and facades. Our goal is to highlight findings about the co-benefits of nature-based solutions on buildings in real-life case studies. After systematic screening and selection, the 222 reviewed research papers support that there is confidence in the climate resilience performance and benefits green walls, green roofs, and living walls provide, contributing to heat resilience and indirectly to social-ecological justice, especially when they are installed in old buildings. Our findings show that other recorded benefits include the provision of vegetation, habitat and biodiversity enhancement, and strong evidence of water retention and purification. We also report on design characteristics of nature-based solutions which are recommended when they are implemented on buildings. Green roofs were especially well-documented and it underlines the need of more studies about diverse NBS. From the synthesis of the state of the art, we propose that further research about the design of nature-based solutions on buildings is required to extend their co-benefits to noise reduction, air pollution entrapment and filtering, and carbon sequestration. In our paper, we found that the most important knowledge gap for future research is holistic perspectives on designing NBS on buildings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T18:18:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7a1ed54e420341aea2c07edefc6c28fc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2772-4115 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T18:18:38Z |
| publishDate | 2024-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature-Based Solutions |
| spelling | doaj.art-7a1ed54e420341aea2c07edefc6c28fc2023-12-31T04:29:00ZengElsevierNature-Based Solutions2772-41152024-06-015100106Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a timeSuzanne Kandel0Niki Frantzeskaki1Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Vening Meinesz building A, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Centrale Marseille, 38 Rue Frédéric Joliot Curie, 13013 Marseille, FranceUtrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht, 3584, the Netherlands; Corresponding author.A closer look at the built environment shows that opportunities lie in transforming buildings with nature-based solutions for fostering climate resilience. To understand the potential of buildings in contributing to transforming cities, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the evidence of the provided benefits of nature-based solutions implemented on their roofs and facades. Our goal is to highlight findings about the co-benefits of nature-based solutions on buildings in real-life case studies. After systematic screening and selection, the 222 reviewed research papers support that there is confidence in the climate resilience performance and benefits green walls, green roofs, and living walls provide, contributing to heat resilience and indirectly to social-ecological justice, especially when they are installed in old buildings. Our findings show that other recorded benefits include the provision of vegetation, habitat and biodiversity enhancement, and strong evidence of water retention and purification. We also report on design characteristics of nature-based solutions which are recommended when they are implemented on buildings. Green roofs were especially well-documented and it underlines the need of more studies about diverse NBS. From the synthesis of the state of the art, we propose that further research about the design of nature-based solutions on buildings is required to extend their co-benefits to noise reduction, air pollution entrapment and filtering, and carbon sequestration. In our paper, we found that the most important knowledge gap for future research is holistic perspectives on designing NBS on buildings.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772411523000587BuildingsGreen wallsGreen roofsLow-impact designCoolingBuilt environment |
| spellingShingle | Suzanne Kandel Niki Frantzeskaki Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time Nature-Based Solutions Buildings Green walls Green roofs Low-impact design Cooling Built environment |
| title | Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| title_full | Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| title_fullStr | Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| title_short | Nature-based solutions and buildings: A review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| title_sort | nature based solutions and buildings a review of the literature and an agenda for renaturing our cities one building at a time |
| topic | Buildings Green walls Green roofs Low-impact design Cooling Built environment |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772411523000587 |
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