Contributo delle Nature-Based Solutions al valore della biodiversità e dei servizi ecosistemici culturali nelle aree urbane - Caso studio per la città di Eindhoven in Olanda

The urban population is expected to grow to over 68% in 2050, leading to an increase of the negative effects of the urbanization process. The most relevant effects are land-use change, increased greenhouse gas emissions, heat island effects, climate change, higher consumption of natural resources, biodiversity loss and a general increased stress on natural environment. However, nature, ecosystem services, biodiversity and climate are considered important factors for human health and well-being as well as for social cohesion. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important to find methods in order to address these major societal challenges and to ensure future sustainable development scenarios. NBS thus appeared as the solution for their ability to enhance ecosystem services. NBS provide several co-benefits, such as mitigation of air pollution, aesthetic improvement, biodiversity enhancement, flood control and energy savings. Despite this, the lack of monetary valuation of environmental resources delays the development of NBS. Hence, their implementation is possible only with a broad collaboration between policy makers and stakeholders and with the integration of NBS multiple benefits in all levels of the policy domain. To this aim, this study focused on the contribution of NBS to biodiversity, both from the quality and monetary value point of view, by taking the City of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, as case study. The study was carried out by using an integrated assessment, through the combination of local data, the InVEST Habitat Quality Model and the Value Function Transfer Method. In particular, the studied area was the inner-ring part of the city and the result was the monetary value in ¿/ha, both for the base scenario (without NBS) and the NBS scenarios. In the first case, the obtained value for the entire considered area was 15,820 ¿/ha, while for the second case it was 37,407 ¿/ha, thus having a 136% increase. Concerning the quality levels, the base scenario has values ranging from 0 to 0.91, while the NBS scenarios have values between 0.98 and 0.99. Despite some limits, the results are in line with the ones obtained by other scholars and thus it is possible to draw two main conclusions: biodiversity brings an increase in monetary value and NBS contribute both to the quality and to the monetary value of biodiversity.