Urban Wildland—Forests, Waters and Wetlands

Abstract

Wild lands have to be available and provide a tangible experience in cities, not only for biodiversity protection, but also for nature experience. They need to support innovation with nature in order to address social, economic and environmental challenges. For that, additional knowledge about different features of the forest, waters and wetlands has to be provided considering local experiences, such as physical and socio-economic context, ecosystem structure and functioning, ecosystem services and disservices, accessibility, social use, existent and perceived risks, maintenance costs and managing urban protected areas. The different chapters in Part III aim to contribute to increase the understanding of the wild lands in cities, the main topic being related to ecosystem services provided by urban forest (Antonenko et al.), nature-based solutions applied at city scale (Xu et al.), integration of urban rivers and wetlands in city management (Napieralski, Shirazi et al., Faggi and Breuste) or the challenges of exotic species in urban design (Gavrilidis et al.). The case studies cover a wide range of geographical backgrounds, considering experience from South Asia (Shirazi et al.), China (Xu et al.), South America (Faggi and Breuste), North America (Napieralski), Russia (Antonenko et al.) and Southeastern Europe (Gavrilidis et al.).