- Title
- Rethinking urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services from the perspective of sub-Saharan African cities
- Creator
- Lindley, Sarah, Pauleit, Stephan, Yeshitela, Kumelachew, Cilliers, Sarel, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/398357
- Identifier
- vital:69403
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.08.016"
- Description
- Urban green infrastructure and its ecosystem services are often conceptualised in terms of a predominantly western perspective of cities and their wider social, economic and environmental challenges. However, the benefits which are derived from urban ecosystems are equally – if not more – important in the cities of the developing world. Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are well known to be facing severe pressures. Nevertheless, despite the challenges of rapid population change, high levels of poverty and seemingly chaotic urban development processes, there are also tremendous opportunities. Realising the opportunities around urban green infrastructure and its benefits requires harnessing the inherent local knowledge and community innovation associated with a multitude of inter-connected urban social-ecological systems. Such systems are a powerful driving force shaping urban realities. Associated planning regimes are frequently lambasted as being either absent, weakly enforced, corrupt or wholly inappropriate. Much of this criticism is justified. However, it must also be recognised that decision-makers are frequently working in contexts which lack the scientific foundations through which their decision-making might be made more effective and complementary to bottom-up initiatives. The paucity of research into urban ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of development of context-specific conceptual, theoretical and empirical foundations is a problem which must be addressed. Drawing on papers from a Special Issue centred on urban green infrastructure and urban ecosystem services in sub-Saharan Africa, we consider what concepts and frameworks are in use and what needs to be considered when framing future research. We also synthesise key messages from the Special Issue and draw together themes to help create a new research agenda for the international research community.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (11 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Landscape and Urban Planning, Lindley, S., Pauleit, S., Yeshitela, K., Cilliers, S. and Shackleton, C., 2018. Rethinking urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services from the perspective of sub-Saharan African cities. Landscape and Urban Planning, 180, pp.328-338, Landscape and Urban Planning volume 180 p. 328 2018 1872-6062
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Elsevier Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.elsevier.com/legal/elsevier-website-terms-and-conditions)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 15. Life On Land
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| View Details | SOURCE1 | Rethinking urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services from the perspective of sub-Saharan African cities.pdf | 709 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |