For this question you should imagine you have been commissioned to write a report on the potential options for urban forest regeneration within the (imaginary) city of Castleport. This has been commissioned by Castleport Parks Trust, an independent environmental charity that manages the green space within the city for the city council. Castleport covers an area of and has a population of 250 000. There is a range of sites of varying size and characteristics, scattered across the city, that the Trust believes could be used for urban forest regeneration. A budget of $1.5m has been allocated to spend on the regeneration of 30 hectares of urban ecosystems, with the primary objectives of:
- i.improving the carbon budget of the city by sequestering carbon,
- ii.boosting biodiversity, notably the local bird and butterfly populations, and
- iii.generating associated health benefits.
You have been asked to provide two things in particular:
- Information on the likely benefits that might be expected from this investment, including the value of monetary benefits, and the likely extent of non-monetary benefits and any collateral benefits not amongst the Trust’s stated priority aims.
- A discussion of the relative merits of three different options for the number and size of locations targeted for regeneration, namely:
- (a) spending the entire budget reforesting a single large area of 30 ha close to the city centre,
- (b) targeting 30 smaller locations with an average area of 1 ha,
- (c) creating a narrow ‘corridor’ covering 30 ha along the river that runs through the city.
You should consider the audience for the report to be environmentalists and land managers with good science backgrounds, but who are not specialists in this topic area. You should base your report on the information and additional references provided in Session 3.5.4 of the S397 module materials, and on the following paper:
Elmqvist, T., Setälä, H., Handel, S. N., van der Ploeg, S., Aronson, J., Blignaut, J. N., Gómez-Baggethun, E., Nowak, D. J., Kronenberg, J. and de Groot, R. (2015) ‘Benefits of restoring ecosystem services in urban areas’, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, vol. 14, pp. 101–8. DOI:10.1016/j.cosust.2015.05.001
The Elmqvist et al. (2015) paper has online supplementary information, which you may also find useful for part of your report. This can be found via a link at the end of the main paper. You may also find it helpful to consult and appropriately cite other reliable sources (e.g. academic papers or websites). You will not receive credit for including more than two further references external to the module material beyond Elmqvist et al. (2015).
Your answer should not exceed 1500 words in length, excluding the reference list. You will lose marks for exceeding this limit (see the Word limits section above for more details).
Your report should consist of the following sections:
- Executive summary Summarise, concisely, the background and main findings and recommendations of your report.
Word limit: 175 words, including an appropriate title
(6 marks)
- Context Briefly summarise the science context of urban ecosystem regeneration.
Word limit: 175 words
(6 marks)
- Potential benefits Summarise and quantify the potential benefits, both monetary and non-monetary, that might be anticipated from the regeneration programme, and explain the timescales over which they are likely to be realised.
Word limit: 300 words
(10 marks)
- Evidence Summarise the scientific evidence on which your estimates of potential benefits are based, briefly describing relevant studies. Note: in your answer you should consider the scientific evidence behind the figures, that is, details of how the quantitative estimates were made.
Word limit: 300 words
(10 marks)
- Risks and unknowns Discuss the risks and unknown factors that could adversely impact the expected gains from any potential regeneration actions. Note: in your answer you should focus on risks and unknowns relating to the science of urban ecosystem regeneration, rather than general risks that might be associated with any urban management project.
Word limit: 300 words
(10 marks)
- Regeneration options Discuss the three suggested options relating to the choice of number, size and location of target regeneration sites and the relative merits and drawbacks of the different options in relation to aims of the programme and expected benefits on ecosystem services, citizens and species. Recommend a strategy and justify your choice.
Word limit: 250 words
(8 marks)
- References including citations in the report.
(4 marks)
- The remaining 6 marks will be awarded for the clarity, conciseness and relevance of your report.
(6 marks)
You should appropriately cite and reference the material used for writing the report. The guide for citation and referencing both module material and external literature is provided in the Harvard Guide to citing references.
