Urban Green Spaces in a Post-Apartheid City: Challenges and Opportunities for Nature-based Solutions

Abstract

Cities in sub-Saharan countries are simultaneously facing climate change, rapid urbanisation, and social inequalities. Nature-based Solutions harness nature’s benefits to address these environmental, social, and economic challenges. In this study, we investigate how taking into account temporal dynamics and multiple values of nature helps to implement better Nature-based Solutions. Through satellite images and interviews with practitioners and residents, we look at how green spaces and dry riverbeds are distributed, managed, and perceived in the capital city of Namibia, south-western Africa. We find that apartheid spatial segregation legacies persist through the unequal distribution of urban green spaces, and that, although their current management limits their capacity to deliver benefits, riverbeds have the potential to support sustainable development and climate change adaptation.