Bellamyetal_GREENSURGE_Malmo_urbanES_poster_2017_final.pdf

Green infrastructure, such as trees, parks and waterways can help regulate urban hazards such as water surface run-off, improve the aesthetic and economic value of an area and provide opportunities to interact with nature. To ensure that they deliver these benefits in the places where they are most needed, local authorities, city planners and developers need an evidence base to target green infrastructure resources and effort. We developed SPADES™ (SPatial Decisions on Ecosystem Services), a tool which includes a flexible framework for mapping cultural ecosystem services under existing conditions and alternative scenarios. By explicitly partitioning our predictors we were able to explore their relative weight in driving service ‘use’: is a site valuable because of its green infrastructure, or because it is in a busy, accessible area (or both)? We found levels of demand had the biggest impact, but features such as tree canopy cover were also important.