Lessons for management of regional urban carbon stocks

Background/Question/Methods

Over half the world’s population is now urban, and urbanisation is the fastest land use change. Consequently, understanding the services urban ecosystems provide is of vital importance. Of particular interest is the role of cities in carbon storage and sequestration, as many countries are now legally obliged to reduce net CO₂emissions. Development policy often aims to increase sequestration into urban green space and urban forest, which supply numerous additional ecosystem services: pollutant removal, temperature regulation, noise attenuation, flood control, recreation, health benefits, wellbeing benefits, and biodiversity support.

Results/Conclusions

We present Bayesian estimates of regional urban carbon stocks for North East England, based on rich field data combined with extremely high-resolution spatial datasets. These show that regional urban carbon stocks are far higher than previously assumed. Using spatial analyses and dynamic models, we show that current land development and land management policies are inefficient in their ability to increase these stocks. We explore potential approaches that provide greater efficiency. Our results support arguments for top-down city design and flexible approaches to urban land management.