ULTRA-Ex: Exploring Linkages Among Ecosystem Services, Public Health, and the Green Area Factor in New York City

人类历史上第一次有超过50%的世界人口居住在城市中心。到2015年，这一比例预计将增长10%以上。城市中心的不断扩大对生态系统服务和依赖这些服务的人类社区产生了重大影响，尤其是因为城市地区及其周边地区的生物地球物理环境与农村地区的生物地球物理环境有很大不同。这种差异的影响可以在城市中心和郊区的水循环和气候的改变、城市土壤性质和生态系统物种的改变以及城市气道和水道的污染中看到。在许多情况下，退化的城市生物地球物理环境也造成城市人口的严重健康问题。对城市化的主要生态影响的关注促使制定了许多改善城市内生态服务的战略，其中许多战略的重点是保护和/或恢复自然景观特征。在美国，有一种策略正在迅速引起人们的关注，那就是城市绿地因子（GAF）计划的概念。GAF项目的目标是通过为城市土地不同地块的开发设定“绿化”百分比的目标，为恢复或扩大城市环境中的生态系统服务提供一种成本效益高、分散的方法。从改善城市生态和健康、改善城市环境的美观性和宜居性以及让城市利益相关者参与可持续发展战略的角度来看，使用GAF作为城市规划工具具有多种潜在益处。但是，尽管具有潜力，GAF指南与生态结果之间的科学联系仍处于初级阶段。此外，关于美国公众愿意为各种GAF战略提供支持和管理的信息是有限的。本研究项目的目标是在纽约市密集的城市环境中，对人、自然生态系统和绿色技术之间的动态相互作用进行跨学科研究。调查人员将以他们自己先前的研究为基础，并与不同的当地社区团体和从业人员建立伙伴关系，以监测和量化自然生态系统和不断发展的绿色技术干预在纽约市三个社区的生态和公共卫生效益；确立利益相关者对此类系统和干预措施的接受程度和价值；并开发一个基于gaf的工具，作为城市利益相关者对优化不同城市绿化策略相关的生态和公共利益感兴趣的共同规划平台。该项目将有助于为推进和完善GAF概念提供潜在的科学基础，以便更有效地考虑人类与城市绿化战略的相互作用，包括环境正义社区。最理想的情况是，它可以应用于密集和多样化的城市环境，如纽约的大城市。除了促进科学知识的发展，该项目还将提供一种新的规划工具，为纽约市不同的利益相关者提供一个共同的平台，让他们在不同的任务和目标背景下探索各种绿化策略。该项目还将建立一个由科学家、社区组织和从业者组成的团队，他们可以共同努力，创造有关城市生态系统可持续性和功能的新知识。为博士后学者、研究生和本科生提供研究培训，教育、推广和教学活动将成为项目的主要组成部分。该奖项是由国家科学基金会和美国农业部林业局联合支持的一项特殊竞赛的结果，作为城市长期研究区域探索奖（ULTRA-Ex）的资助。

For the first time in human history, more than 50 percent of the world's population resides in urban centers. By the year 2015, this fraction is expected to rise by more than 10 percent. The increasing expansion of urban centers is significantly impacting ecosystem services and the human communities dependent on these services, not least because the biogeophysical environments of urban regions and their surrounds are substantially different from those of rural areas. The effects of this difference can be seen in modified water cycles and climates within urban centers and exurban areas, amended urban soil properties and ecosystem species, and polluted urban airways and waterways. In many cases, degraded urban biogeophysical environments also are contributing to severe health problems among urban populations. Concern about the major ecological impact of urbanization has prompted the development of numerous strategies for improving ecological services within cities, many of which are focused on the preservation and/or recreation of natural landscape features. One strategy that is gaining rapid attention in the U.S. is the concept of an urban Green Area Factor (GAF) program. The goal of a GAF program is to provide a cost-effective, decentralized approach to the restoration or expansion of ecosystem services in urban environments, by setting targets for the percentage of "greening" to occur in the development of different parcels of urban land. The use of the GAF as an urban planning tool has multiple potential benefits from the perspectives of improving urban ecology and health, improving the aesthetics and habitability of urban environments, and engaging urban stakeholders in strategies for sustainable development. But despite its potential, scientific linkages between GAF guidelines and ecological outcomes remain nascent. Furthermore, information about U.S. public willingness to provide support and stewardship for various GAF strategies is limited. The goal of this research project is to conduct interdisciplinary research on the dynamic interactions between people, natural ecosystems, and green technologies in the dense urban environment of New York City. The investigators will build on their own prior research as well as partnerships with diverse local community groups and practitioners to monitor and quantify the ecological and public health benefits of natural ecosystems and evolving green technology interventions in three New York City neighborhoods; to establish the acceptance and value of such systems and interventions to stakeholders; and to develop a GAF-based tool that might work as a common planning platform for urban stakeholders interested in optimizing the ecological and public benefits associated with different urban greening strategies.This project will help provide the underlying scientific basis to advance and refine the GAF concept in order to more effectively take account of human interactions with urban greening strategies, including environmental justice communities. Optimally, it could be applied to dense and diverse urban environments such as the mega-city of New York. As well as advancing scientific knowledge, the project will deliver a new planning tool that can provide a common platform for different New York City stakeholders to explore various greening strategies in the context of their different missions and goals. The project also will build a team of scientists, community organizations, and practitioners who can work together to create new knowledge on urban ecosystem sustainability and functionality. Research training will be provided to post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students, and educational, outreach, and teaching activities will form major components of the project. This award was funded as an Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) award as the result of a special competition jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.