By 2050, more than 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities. Stanford Natural Capital Project researchers have developed software that shows city planners where to invest in nature to improve people's lives and save billions of dollars.
By Sarah Cafasso
Stanford Natural Capital Project
New technology could help cities around the world improve people's lives while saving billions of dollars. The free, open-source software developed by the Stanford Natural Capital Project creates maps to visualize the links between nature and human wellbeing. City planners and developers can use the software to visualize where investments in nature, such as parks and marshlands, can maximize benefits to people, like protection from flooding and improved health.
"This software helps design cities that are better for both people and nature," said Anne Guerry, Chief Strategy Officer and Lead Scientist at the Natural Capital Project. "Urban nature is a multitasking benefactor - the trees on your street can lower temperatures so your apartment is cooler on hot summer days. At the same time, they're soaking up the carbon emissions that cause climate change, creating a free, accessible place to stay healthy through physical activity and just making your city a more pleasant place to be."
By 2050, experts expect over 70 percent of the world's people to live in cities - in the United States, more than 80 percent already do. As the global community becomes more urban, developers and city planners are increasingly interested in green infrastructure, such as tree-lined paths and community gardens, that provide a stream of benefits to people. But if planners don't have detailed information about where a path might encourage the most people to exercise or how a community garden might buffer a neighborhood from flood risk while helping people recharge mentally, they can't strategically invest in nature.
"We're answering three crucial questions with this software: where in a city is nature providing what benefits to people, how much of each benefit is it providing and who is receiving those benefits?" said Perrine Hamel, lead author on a new paper about the software published in Urban Sustainability and Livable Cities Program Lead at the Stanford Natural Capital Project at the time of research.
The software, called Urban InVEST, is the first of its kind for cities and allows for the combination of environmental data, like temperature patterns, with social demographics and economic data, like income levels. Users can input their city's datasets into the software or access a diversity of open global data sources, from NASA satellites to local weather stations. The new software joins the Natural Capital Project's existing InVEST
