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Stockholm 2013 (photo: A. Kaczorowska)
POLICY BRIEF #4
Stockholm – The city of green
and blue wedges S
tockholm has a long history of environmental awareness and protection of urban green areas. Most
of its urban development has been contained along the metro lines and there are green “wedges”
reaching in from the hinterland towards the urban core. The city is situated on several islands between
Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. These green and blue wedges provide inhabitants with recreational
areas and a rich biodiversity. Over the next 25 years, the population of the City of Stockholm is
expected to grow from 850,000, to 1,000,000 inhabitants and to at least 1,200,000 inhabitants by
2050. There is a high demand for both housing and commercial premises. Despite strong policies for
preserving both green wedges and the many smaller green areas integrated in the urban fabric, these
may suffer from the many large and small decisions favouring individual development projects. As a
result, Stockholm’s urban green areas may be negatively affected at a time when the population grows
and demand for urban green functions increases.
POLICY BRIEF #1
Stockholm’s visions for 2050
Stockholm 2013 (photo: A. Kaczorowska)
Regional and city-level policy documents focus on Stockholm as a poly-centric city with preserved natural areas
in between built up “fingers” reaching out from the city center. The city’s new comprehensive development
plan (The Walkable City) emphasizes densification of the city centre and along the metro lines. The same
policy is integrated in the Regional Development Plan for the Stockholm region (RUFS 2010) extending the
densification strategies to a polycentric region. There is also a new green structure plan under development
in the city (The Green Walkable City) emphasizing the value of urban green for culture and living space and
as a provider of essential ecological infrastructure. Stockholm also continues to position itself as a leader in
sustainable urban development through the Royal Seaport development project, where one objective is to find
innovative ways of strengthening and securing the benefits of nature in the city.
These high ambitions in combination with strong developmental pressures in Stockholm create challenges
for planning urban green areas. Planners find themselves caught in between a persistent need for new
construction projects and expansion of infrastructure, and the preservation and upgrading of urban nature.
Therefore, they are keen to explore new tools and approaches that may be useful in their daily work.
Through the URBES project, a group of urban stakeholders had the opportunity to assess whether an approach
based on urban ecosystem services would be helpful (see TEEB initiative, 2011). Participants included spatial
and strategic planners, NGOs, consultancy firms and researchers, who are all involved in shaping the future
of Stockholm in various ways. In addition to representing the city, participants also represented other levels of
urban development, such as the Stockholm region/county and the smaller municipality Haninge. The process
consisted of:
1. Interviews and two workshops identifying developmental challenges in Stockholm linked to urban green structure
2. Development of scenarios with land use maps for two different options for Stockholm 2050,
linked to the supply and demand of urban ecosystem services
3. Two workshops discussing and assessing these scenarios
4. A workshop discussing strategies to safeguard urban ecosystem services in an increasingly
dense Stockholm
The material and workshops were developed and organized by Chalmers University of Technology and Mistra
Urban Futures, in collaboration with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Stockholm Resilience Center.
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POLICY BRIEF #1
Challenges of planning for
ecosystem services in Stockholm
The city of Stockholm is very ambitious when it comes to preserving urban nature. The focus has been on
preserving and strengthening biodiversity and cultural/recreation values, and a flagship is the Royal National
City Park located close to the city center. However, current policies aim to increase the density of built up
areas and there are strong economic drivers for more housing and commercial properties. From the interviews
and first workshops it was clear that the stakeholders see the need to complement their current work with
urban nature. In a situation with very dense future urban structures they were keen to find more versatile ways
to promote benefits of urban nature and for a wider range of purposes. Here, the stakeholders considered
urban ecosystem services as a potentially useful approach, but were both positive and cautious since they
identified a number of challenges linked to the concept, such as:
1. There is a lack of holistic knowledge on the existing ecosystem services in Stockholm and also
regarding the importance of different types of land use for supplying the city with different ecosystem services.
2. More knowledge is required regarding the types of ecosystem services needed in cities, including what is needed at different locations.
3. The complexity of ecosystem services is a problem – both as a concept and in practice. They
need support from interconnected institutions, but the sectoral organisation of planning and
governance for spatial planning, environment, traffic, water, etc. is an obstacle.
4. Intense developmental pressures drive urban development based on short-term economic interests rather than social and ecological values and a long term perspective on human wellbeing.
The workshops and discussions focused on the second and third challenge.
Two land use scenarios: Vibrant
Stockholm & Stockholm Green
Capital
To better understand how urban land use affects the supply of ecosystem services, two scenario illustrations
were developed for the year 2050. Vibrant Stockholm was based on existing plans aiming at intense
densification along the existing “urban fingers” whereas Stockholm Green Capital was targeted at surpassing
current plans by maximizing the benefits of urban nature. Geographical Information System (GIS) software
was used to show the consequences of the two scenarios for future land use at regional, city and district
levels (for the City of Stockholm see Figure 1).
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POLICY BRIEF #1
Vibrant Stockholm
Stockholm Green Capital
Figure 1. Land use maps for the two future scenarios: Vibrant Stockholm and Stockholm Green Capital
Land use maps based on Urban Atlas land use classes were valuable to illustrate differences in land use
between the two scenarios but were not sufficient to reflect the details. Therefore, Service Providing Elements
(SPEs, see Figure 2) were introduced as a more refined layer of information. In addition to providing details on
land use, SPEs also simulate how land use types and functions can be stacked on top of each other, such
as a green roof on top of a shopping center.
Class 1110: Urban Atlas
Vibrant Stockholm
Stockholm Green Capital
Figure 2. Service Providing Elements (SPEs) for land use class 11100 Continuous urban fabric. Original
Urban Atlas land use class to the left (see http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/urban-atlas). To
the right, the more detailed SPE land use as applied in the two scenarios.
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POLICY BRIEF #1
Ecosystem services in Stockholm
by 2050
Based on the land use scenarios specified through land use classes and SPEs, the potential supply of ecosystem
services was calculated for Food, Energy, Urban Cooling, Air Quality Regulation, Carbon Sequestration, Storm
Water Retention, Physical Recreation and Mental Recreation.
For Food and Energy Supply, Stockholm Green Capital had a significantly larger potential than Vibrant
Stockholm. However, the stakeholders questioned if this potential could actually be realized in practice,
considering aspects, such as conflicts with other land uses, aesthetical issues, and operational and financial
viability. Also in relation to Urban Cooling there was a remarkable difference in favour of Stockholm Green Capital
(Figure 3), and the same was also apparent for the services Air Quality Regulation, Carbon Sequestration and
Storm Water Retention. Apparently, the differences in SPEs between the two scenarios are significant, since
for example green roofs and walls, ponds, and more diverse vegetation in general, have a significant impact
on the supply of various ecosystem services. The stakeholders considered these differences interesting in
light of the ongoing densification of Stockholm, linked to current and future problems of, for example, harmful
emissions from traffic, the urban heat island effect and more frequent heavy rainfall.
Vibrant Stockholm
Stockholm Green Capital
Figure 3. Supply of ecosystem services for Urban Cooling. Some of the dense areas with risks of urban heat
island effect are circled in white. Supply is ranging from high cooling capacity (green), through intermediate
cooling capacity (yellow), to low cooling capacity (red).
Regarding ecosystem services for recreation, the results were more ambiguous (Figure 4). For Physical
Recreation, Vibrant Stockholm was actually the better alternative since less green areas are used for food
and energy production. For Mental Recreation, however, Stockholm Green Capital turned out to be the
better option, by integrating urban nature into built up areas for easier access.
For all ecosystem services, the differences in favour of Stockholm Green Capital grew when focussing on
the district level. This becomes significant for Urban Cooling, Storm Water Retention and Mental Recreation,
where needs have to be satisfied locally.
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POLICY BRIEF #1
Vibrant Stockholm
Stockholm Green Capital
Vibrant Stockholm
Stockholm Green Capital
Figure 4. Supply of ecosystems services for Physical (green) and Mental Recreation (blue). The darker green/
blue, the higher recreational values. Areas with poor access to urban nature today are circled in red.
Strategies for urban ecosystem
services in Stockholm 2050
Although Vibrant Stockholm was based on existing plans and visions, the stakeholders judged Stockholm
Green Capital as being more in line with aspirations for quality of life. Future plans and visions may thus well
be more radical when it comes to the role of urban ecosystem services and an extensive list of strategies were
developed, which included the following:
• As the population grows it is important to improve the qualities, performance, multifunctionality and
resilience of green areas, but also investigate the limits for each ecosystem service.
• By working with urban nature, systematically prevent negative impacts of densification in combination with
climate change, such as heat islands and heavy rains.
• Use urban ecosystem services for social involvement and cohesion, to shift lifestyles and to attain a
transformative society.
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POLICY BRIEF #1
• Policy and implementation of ecosystem services need to be locally adapted. Distinguish between plotlevel, local, regional, and more global supply and demand of such services.
• Spread the learning, discussions and decisions concerning urban ecosystem services to higher policy
levels to secure political guidance, coordination, collaboration and mandates.
• Collaborate closely with municipalities and developers and create new urban “business models” that turn
social and ecological values into business opportunities.
Visualization of Vibrant Stockholm and Stockholm Green Capital, here from Haninge municipality
Comparing two different land use scenarios for Stockholm for the year 2050 facilitated shared
learning among the participating stakeholders of the URBES workshops on how changes in land
use affect the supply of urban ecosystem services. The benefits of integrating multifunctional
urban green space into future urban densification became apparent and the stakeholders discussed the need to develop more ambitious plans and visions to strengthen a wide range of urban
ecosystem services. Finally, a series of strategies were outlined, linking ecosystem services to
developmental pressures, cross-scale interdependencies, socioeconomic exclusion, adaptation
to climate change and institutional reform.
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POLICY BRIEF #1
References
TEEB (2011). The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity: TEEB Manual for Cities: Ecosystem Services in Urban Management.
The URBES project
The URBES project aims to bridge the knowledge gap on the role of urban biodiversity and ecosystem
services for human well-being. It further aims to inform urban management and decision-makers on how to
best integrate the natural environment and human needs. The URBES partnership of academic institutions
and international organisations translates science into action for cities.
Project donor
Project partners
Self-financed partners
Contact person from
URBES project for Policy Brief #4
Jaan-Henrik Kain,
Chalmers University of
Technology
kain@chalmers.se
URBES Coordinator:
Thomas Elmqvist
Stockholm Resilience Centre
Kräftriket 9A
11419 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)705264806
info@urbesproject.org
This policy prief is part of series of policy briefs produced by the URBES project.
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