The urban geoengineering solutions described in this chapter present a range of existing and proposed activities that together offer a multi-pronged and integrated approach for tackling emissions at geographic hot spots of emission production. In contrast to conventional geoengineering approaches, which remain untested at scale, urban geoengineering is about scaling up existing and tested decarbonization strategies for large cumulative impact, through net-zero technologies and carbon sequestering materials in the urban fabric, while delivering co-benefits for city residents. The challenge of applying such strategies is not so much technical, but rather is one of governance, that is, to co-ordinate decarbonization policies, overcome vested interests of incumbent high-emitting industries, and align collective societal will. 

Transportation infrastructure supports the smooth mobility of humans, commodities, and services. Pavement depth measures the quality of road infrastructure through representing the thickness of road surfaces, and influences various aspects of construction projects. However, accurately modeling and predicting pavement depth has been a critical challenge due to diverse and complex factors, such as weather dynamics, traffic patterns, maintenance interventions, and environmental fluctuations. This study develops a second-dimension spatial learning (SDSL) model that integrates geospatial models and machine learning for large-scale pavement depth prediction. SDSL models are implemented in pavement prediction for eight distinct regions in Western Australia, and they are validated using the observation of pavement depth through cross-validation. Results demonstrate that the proposed SDSL models can more accurately predict large-scale pavement depth than the existing first-dimension spatial learning (FDSL) models, with 17.3% to 37.6% increase of R2 values, 1.46% to 16.5% reduction of RMSE, 1.7% to 31.1% reduction of MAE and 21.0% reduction of prediction uncertainty. SDSL models enhance effective infrastructure management by accurately predicting pavement depth, essential for maintaining large-scale transportation infrastructure. The study significantly contributes to the efficient management of sustainable infrastructure assets, saving time and money. © 2024 The Authors

Interest in urban agriculture is growing. Yet despite its popularity barriers remain, preventing widespread uptake, especially for productive commercial urban agriculture. Stadsbruk is a method developed to foster dynamic commercial urban agriculture movements in Swedish cities. The method uses a brokering organization to: facilitate communication between urban farmers and municipalities; provide training programs for municipalities and farmers; support farmers to access municipal land for growing; and build networks of municipalities and other key actors involved in commercial urban agriculture. In this chapter, we use the city of Malmö as an example to show how Stadsbruk farms have the potential to make a substantial contribution to the city's self-sufficiency in terms of fresh vegetable provision. We then explain how Stadsbruk amplifies commercial urban agriculture by creating more resilient movements in the cities where it operates, increases the speed at which commercial urban agriculture is taken up, and thereby grows the movement itself. As such, the Stadsbruk network and its underlying principles have begun to spread across Europe. Importantly, Stadsbruk is influencing policy and shifting public perceptions of urban agriculture. While the method is promising, there continue to be many institutional barriers to more widespread success, and this is compounded because attempts to gain legitimacy through demonstrating impact can be thwarted by methodological challenges. As commercial urban agriculture is amplified, social and ecological sustainability values must be prioritized to ensure that it remains a genuine contributor to sustainability.

1.Participatory approaches are linked to landscape restoration (LR) success, but not all participatory approaches are created equal. Engagement approaches that invest in transformative stakeholder and governance processes can create the right conditions for long-term LR commitment.2.A large-scale LR initiative in Spain, namely AlVelAl, illustrates how collective action can be activated through inspiration, trust and hope, which, in turn, can be cultivated through the application of social schemes designed to support inclusive stakeholder engagement processes and programmes.3.Collective agency and inspiration matter for activating and sustaining LR actions and outcomes. Multi-stakeholder partnerships that speak to human agency, inclusivity and trust between actors can help create a deeper shared meaning, a place-based sense of belonging that encourages cohesive landscape stewardship.

The benefits of ecosystem services to cities are well documented; for example, water-sensitive urban design to mitigate stormwater flows and purify run-off, the cooling benefits provided by tree shade, and psychological benefits of urban greening. Cities tend to displace nature, and in urban environments where nature exists it tends to be as highly altered ecosystems. This paper sets out how it is possible to regenerate nature in cities. We outline the principles of how to do this through a study on a new regenerative urban development in Perth, Australia, where urban planning is intended to support the regeneration of a bioregional habitat within the city. The authors, drawn from sustainability, property development and ecological backgrounds, describe how urban regeneration can potentially facilitate the regeneration of endemic habitat within the city. This builds on the original ecosystem functionality to provide an urban ecosystem that enables biodiversity to regenerate. Perth lies on the Swan Coastal Plain, a biodiversity hotspot; it is home to 2.1 million people and numerous endemic species such as the endangered Black Cockatoo. Low reproduction rates and habitat loss through agricultural clearing, fire and urban expansion have greatly reduced the Black Cockatoo's range and this continuing trend threatens extinction. However, the charismatic Black Cockatoos enjoy passionate support from Perth's citizens. This paper describes a range of strategies whereby new urban development could potentially harness the popularity of the iconic Black Cockatoo to build momentum for urban habitat regeneration (for the cockatoos and other species) on the Swan Coastal Plain. The strategies, if systematically operationalised through urban planning, could allow city-scale ecological gain. The authors suggest a framework for nature-positive design and development that offers multiple benefits for human and non-human urban dwellers across scales, from individual gardens, to city/regional scale habitat corridors. Collectively, these strategies can increase the capacity of the city to support endemic species, simultaneously enhancing a bioregional "sense of place", and numerous associated ecosystem services to increase urban resilience in the face of climate change.

Healthy urban ecosystems are increasingly recognised as important for resilient cities and need to be considered as part of GPR. Urban nature-based solutions (NBS) comprising green (vegetation) and blue (water) infrastructure need to be considered at multiple scales from the bioregions, through to catchments, neighbourhoods/precincts, blocks, streets, and buildings, including linkages through and in GPR areas. This chapter describes how climate change—particularly extreme urban heat—is expected to affect Australian cities, and how green and blue infrastructure can help GPR to be incorporated into urban adaptation and mitigation solutions. Topics covered include water-sensitive urban design, nature-based solutions, and urban cooling. The chapter outlines how nature-based solutions can be incorporated into higher-density regenerative urban redevelopment through new technologies and supported by planning models, many of which can be best designed and managed at precinct scale. The ‘additionality’ of green and blue nature-based solutions can offer residents of GPR areas increased liveability and enhanced resilience in both normal and extreme weather.

Healthy urban ecosystems are increasingly recognised as important for resilient cities and need to be considered as part of GPR. Urban nature-based solutions (NBS) comprising green (vegetation) and blue (water) infrastructure need to be considered at multiple scales from the bioregions, through to catchments, neighbourhoods/precincts, blocks, streets, and buildings, including linkages through and in GPR areas. This chapter describes how climate change—particularly extreme urban heat—is expected to affect Australian cities, and how green and blue infrastructure can help GPR to be incorporated into urban adaptation and mitigation solutions. Topics covered include water-sensitive urban design, nature-based solutions, and urban cooling. The chapter outlines how nature-based solutions can be incorporated into higher-density regenerative urban redevelopment through new technologies and supported by planning models, many of which can be best designed and managed at precinct scale. The ‘additionality’ of green and blue nature-based solutions can offer residents of GPR areas increased liveability and enhanced resilience in both normal and extreme weather.

Greening the Greyfields uses ‘greening’ as a term related to the regeneration of an urban area, as well as to the choice of environmentally beneficial (or at least neutral) technology for new urban development. This chapter will outline how new twenty-first-century green urban infrastructures can help realise the value proposition of regenerating established middle suburbs. The technologies covered include energy, water, and waste systems, along with smart information and communications technology (ICT) systems that are needed to make the ‘distributed green technology’ work efficiently and equitably. Micro-mobility (scooters and bikes) is likely to help accessibility at a precinct scale and will be discussed in the next chapter, although they certainly fit within the new distributed infrastructure model. While this chapter looks at ‘greening’ in terms of ‘green tech’, Chapter 5 will look at nature-based solutions more broadly. Greening the greyfields provides the opportunity for new ‘green tech’ to be introduced in urban development in an integrated way.

In recent decades, the concept of resource efficient cities has emerged as an urban planning paradigm that seeks to achieve sustainable urban environments. This focus is upon compact urban environments that optimise energy, water and waste systems to create cities that help solve climate change and other resource-based sustainability issues. In parallel, there has been a long-standing tradition of ecological approaches to the design of cities that can be traced from Howard, Geddes, McHarg and Lyle. Rather than resource efficiency, the ecological approach has focused upon the retention and repair of natural landscape features and the creation of green infrastructure (GI) to manage urban water, soil and plants in a more ecologically sensitive way. There is some conflict with the resource efficient cities and ecological cities paradigms, as one is pro-density, while the other is anti-density. This article focusses upon how to integrate the two paradigms through new biophilic urbanism (BU) tools that allow the integration of nature into dense urban areas, to supplement more traditional GI tools in less dense areas. We suggest that the theory of urban fabrics can aid with regard to which tools to use where, for the integration of GI and BU into different parts of the city to achieve both resource efficient and ecological outcomes, that optimise energy water and waste systems, and increase urban nature.