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Scenario Analysis of Green Infrastructure to Adapt Medium-Size Cities to Climate Change: The Case of Zaragoza, Spain

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  • Elie Hanna

    (Departamento de Ciencias Agrarias y del Medio Natural, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Zaragoza, 22071 Huesca, Spain
    Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • María R. Felipe-Lucia

    (Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC, 22700 Jaca, Spain)

  • Francisco A. Comín

    (Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract

Planning a well-structured urban green infrastructure (UGI) is essential for cities to counteract the impacts of climate change. Soil carbon and air temperature differences between open and plant-covered sites were used as proxies of carbon sequestration (CS) and temperature regulation (TR) to evaluate the current conditions of UGI in Zaragoza, a medium-sized city in northeastern Spain. Alternative scenarios were constructed, after a stakeholder consultation, at both city and municipal (city plus peri-urban zone) scales, extrapolating the highest values of CS and TR to two groups of UGI types grouped based on the state of their ecological functioning. We employed analysis of variance to compare mean values of CS and TR across diverse scenarios at both city and municipality scales. Statistically significant differences were found in city-scale and municipality-scale scenarios for both CS and TR. Multiplying CS by area did not show significant variation in city scale. Significant differences were found when multiplying TR by area at both scales, with exceptions in certain scenario combinations. These results suggest favoring the restoration of UGI sites in peri-urban zones (such as forests and steppe zones) to increase CS and those in densely urbanized zones (such as urban parks) to provide TR benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Elie Hanna & María R. Felipe-Lucia & Francisco A. Comín, 2024. "Scenario Analysis of Green Infrastructure to Adapt Medium-Size Cities to Climate Change: The Case of Zaragoza, Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:3:p:280-:d:1344942
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Nikolaos D. Proutsos & Alexandra D. Solomou & Stefanos P. Stefanidis & Ioannis X. Tsiros, 2025. "Reflectance and Thermal Micrometeorological Characteristics of an Urban Green Space in the Mediterranean During July’s 2023 Heatwave," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Ana Kadić & Biljana Maljković & Katarina Rogulj & Jelena Kilić Pamuković, 2025. "Green Infrastructure’s Role in Climate Change Adaptation: Summarizing the Existing Research in the Most Benefited Policy Sectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-26, May.
    3. Melika Zarei & Sina Shahab, 2025. "Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Green Infrastructure: A Systematic Review of Success Factors and Implementation Challenges," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, April.

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