Biodiversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate and areas in Canada with high levels of urban development and intensive agriculture are home to many species at risk. A recent report from the Adaption to Climate Change Team (ACT) is phase 2 of multi-phase project studying the potential of green infrastructure as solutions to climate change – this report focuses on how green infrastructure can be implemented to help mitigate the rapid decline in biodiversity.
Green Infrastructure solutions are being implemented across urban areas. The report recommends four indicators of ecosystem health to consider in order to assess green infrastructure:
- Physio-chemical e.g. soil nutrients, water quality
- Biological e.g. species diversity
- Habitat e.g. size, connectivity, shade
- Flow e.g. water flow and the flow of species in and out of the system
This often means planning green infrastructure projects that consider natural space connectivity, ecosystem services and the human health benefits of having access to ecologically diverse spaces.
To read the full report, and the recommended next steps to help advance biodiversity-led green infrastructure projects, you can find it here.
You can also read phase one of the project here.