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Urban green infrastructure is often promoted as a form of nature-based solutions (NbS) designed to simultaneously address environmental, social, and economic challenges. These interventions are expected to deliver benefits across all three dimensions. While existing evidence suggests that urban NbS can indeed tackle multiple issues concurrently, it remains unclear to what extent different components of green infrastructure contribute to these outcomes, and how this translates into practical decisions related to pl...

The transition to renewable energy is a high-priority agenda across Europe, particularly in Northern Europe. This shift is critical for achieving both environmental and economic sustainability. Northern Europe, with its high energy consumption and strong support for green policies, has the potential to lead in this transition. However, the region faces a unique set of social and ecological challenges that, if not carefully addressed, could undermine the sustainability of proposed solutions, harm natural ecosystems...

Nature-based Solutions represent a set of powerful tools that are intended to reconcile often conflicting economic and nature conservation goals. Rapid infrastructure development threatens biodiversity globally. In this context application of Biodiversity Net Gain strategies start to gain traction. One possible approach to achieve the Net Gain outcomes is to apply Nature-based Solutions. It is, however, important to understand that application of the solutions does not guarantee biodiversity outcomes that could co...

Global biodiversity decline is dramatic. Urbanization is a global trend that is often driving biodiversity loss. At the same time urban green spaces can maintain high levels of biodiversity. However, for urban Nature-based Solutions to maintain biodiversity they have to be designed and managed with this goal in mind. Furthermore, there are certain risks to biodiversity associated with the urban green infrastructure. These risks merit consideration when urban planning is undertaken. Approaches to green infrastructu...

Urbanization is an ongoing trend. It causes various negative issues, including strain on human health and biodiversity. Cities are often subject to negative effects of climate change. Currently green and blue infrastructure are often seen as potential solutions for these problems. However, integration of topographically diverse sites and geological elements into urban landscapes is rarely considered as an important measure for addressing societal and environmental issues in cities. This can lead to lost opportunit...

The current dramatic pace of biodiversity loss requires immediate and decisive action. The Nature Positive Agenda implies recovery of lost natural ecosystems and gain of new ones that would overcompensate for biodiversity loss. Achievement of such an ambitious agenda is not trivial. It requires mobilization of resources and stakeholders across public and private sectors. Obviously, efforts of protected area establishment are not sufficient as it only implies protection of existing habitats, not gain of new ones. G...

Geopark networks are expanding globally, with the main purpose to protect geoheritage. In many places of the world geopark sites are associated with local cultural heritage and indigenous people. These links sometimes are synergistic, whereby geoparks serve as important protected areas that allow for preservation of important cultural objects and even support livelihoods of indigenous people. However, in some cases geopark development is perceived negatively by local communities and might have potentially damaging...

Global heating is happening at an unprecedented speed. As a result, both human society and natural ecosystems are facing significant challenges. Numerous tools and policies are being implemented both for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Substantial amount of funding has been pledged by international governments and private corporations to support these efforts. One of particularly promising tools that tends to gain popularity for addressing climate change are Nature-based Solutions. These tools can be use...

Urban green infrastructure has historically been used for aesthetical purposes, making landscapes visually pleasant. More recently the green infrastructure in urban and sub- urban areas has started to be applied to help solve a broad range of problems that city dwellers are facing. These problems include natural disasters, overheating, excessive flows rainwater, biodiversity decline and food insecurity among others. Thus, implementation of green infrastructure as Nature-based Solutions has become increasingly popu...

Geographical areas with high biodiversity, high geodiversity and high cultural diversity tend to coincide. However, conservation strategies tend to consider these aspect of diversity separately, instead of considering them all together. Application of an integrated approach could potentially improve effectiveness of conservation actions and deliver significant benefits both to human and to the natural environment. Practical implementation of the integrated approach might, however, be problematic due to the fact th...

Nature-based Solutions is an umbrella concept, gaining traction in recent years. It implies working with nature in order to simultaneously address multiple challenges humanity faces today, including biodiversity loss, climate change, food and energy insecurity. Nature-based Solutions are being applied across landscape types, including urban, rural, forest and protected areas. Combining nature-based solutions with landscape design, however, has predominantly been considered in cities. However, there is a great pote...

Forest restoration programmes take place globally and lay a pivotal role in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Often restoration programmes are based on simple plantation schemes, evenly planting trees that later on might contribute to economic activity. This, however, does not seem to be sufficient for supporting biodiversity. Recent research suggests that successful restorations should match original ecological patterns in any particular landscape, assuming that severe erosion and changing soil con...

Food security is one of the most important issues that needs to be addressed in order to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. Currently multiple technologies are used in conventional agricultural practices, including application of artificial intelligence and GIS. However, the technologies are rarely considered in sustainable farming practices. Organic agriculture, although gaining traction in recent times, mostly relies on traditional, rather than technologically advanced approaches. There are, however, mult...

This paper presents three common and simplified steps in conceptual modeling, which are also proposed as “tools” for project initiation. These steps are: 1) system characterization, 2) system structural analysis, and 3) multi-criteria modeling of alternative scenarios. The main motivation for a standardized approach is that that many projects involve complex systems with diverse stakeholders. Both of these aspects increase the need for effective communication and for including perspectives across disciplines and s...

The Volga River is today a cascade of lowland reservoirs. This allows flood prevention, river-sea navigation and hydropower generation. There are also disadvantages, such as the flooding of fertile floodplain lands, a decrease in water quality and drastic algal blooms in the summer season. Due to the problems triggered by the current system, alternative solutions have been proposed that include a decrease in the amount of water stored and a reduction in energy production being, which can be compensated with floati...

UNESCO’s Global Geopark Network reflects the importance of geo-heritage for society. The wide range of characteristics and the varied connections to the local ecology and culture are significant for their individual management. The aim of this article is to use comparisons between Geoparks as a step toward a generic, conceptual model that can be adapted and used to understand the crucial, functional relationships between system variables and how these variables can be optimized for stainable management. A general ...

The Volga River is essentially a cascade of reservoirs that provide hydroelectric energy. This technical solution made it possible to produce electricity for industrialization, to ensure the passage of river-sea vessels between five seas and to stop floods on the Volga River. Although often considered a green energy source, there are environmental and economic considerations that should be accounted for in a holistic and sustainable perspective, i.e. a life cycle of ca. 50 years, areal inundation by reservoir wate...

The UNESCO Global Geopark network is expanding. Geoparks are intended to play important roles in sustainable development. For this to happen, new sites geopark establishment need to be carefully evaluated. In addition, protection and maintenance of heritage and sustainability within established geoparks requires effective monitoring. Modern geographic information system (GIS) technologies have a lot to offer for effective landscape-scale assessments and monitoring of geo park territories. However, little attention...

Karezes represent a sustainable water supply since their discharge is regulated by the natural groundwater renewal in the mountains and on upslope surfaces in the valleys. Although most karezes have become inactive due to lowered groundwater levels, they can still be used together with other accessible information sources to initially and remotely interpret basin geohydrology and the groundwater resources when they were constructed (and today if still active). This is mainly done by using karezes to map the depth ...

A Geopark is a demarcated area with particularly interesting geologic heritage. Since the physical landscape is intimately related to both cultural and ecological characteristics, knowledge about geological sites can be essential for management of the resources in these settings. In this context, we suggest the term “Landscape Geopark” in order to stress the regional system perspective. Therefore, various stakeholders need to be included in Geopark planning, including researchers, tourists, seasonal and permanent ...

Stakeholders and project activities are related to the typical and usually necessary project components of: ideas, financing and implementation. Our aim is to illustrate useful steps in problem analysis, progressing from system characterization (analytical phase) to predictive modeling (synthesis phase). System analysis and multi-criteria evaluation are used to identify alternative scenarios regarding project goals. The model suggests that “public awareness” is best promoted in projects with a more balanced repres...

Environmental change is, today, an unavoidable cause of societal stress that leads to suffering and migration. The focus here is not on change itself, but on the local and regional resources and environment conditions that frame both the extent of change and the alternative actions that might mitigate effects. In this context, a modelling approach to resource and risk assessment and possible responses change is presented. Complex systems are not initially suitable for a bottom-up approach to modelling that assumes...