Urban areas worldwide, including Stockholm, face increasing environmental challenges such as rising temperatures and heatwaves exacerbated by climate change and urban heat island effects. In response, nature-based solutions (NBS) have been proposed as a planning tool for enhancing urban resilience. However, evidence on the fine-scale effectiveness of NBS in addressing extreme events, such as heatwaves remains limited. Furthermore, the inclusion of subjective measures to enrich objective measures for increased NBS benefits and thermal comfort assessments is needed. This study investigates the cooling effectiveness of NBS, hence strengthening the resilience of the Stockholm Royal Seaport against heatwaves. Mental mapping interviews were used to explore residents' and expert advisors' perceptions of the cooling effects of NBS. Key findings reveal the significant cooling effects of large natural areas such as parks and waterbodies, notably the Royal National City Park. However, smaller NBSs, while contributing to the green aesthetic and climate regulation of the neighborhood, were not perceived by residents as cooling. The study emphasizes the importance of the proximity and size of NBS to residential areas and highlights the subjective nature of neighborhood boundaries that influence residents' perceptions of NBS cooling effects. A comparison of residents’ and advisors’ perceptions reveals differences between theoretical expert and experience-based knowledge. These differences highlight the need for participatory planning processes that have the potential to complement advisor knowledge with resident perception and contribute to user-based planning. Overall, the study contributes to understanding the role of NBS in urban resilience, advocates for participatory approaches to urban planning, and demonstrates the value of mental mapping in capturing nuanced community perspectives for future planning efforts by revealing experiential knowledge that may remain hidden in a dialogue.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-231570 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Rieger, Jorinde-Marie |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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