Urban areas must invest in ecosystems, not just in roads, pipes and homes.
My home town of New Delhi is battling with air pollution, contaminated water supplies and heatwaves. Just last November, schools were shut for more than a week because of untenable air quality. In the past 5 years, students have missed at least 26 days of school for this reason. The city is one of an increasing number of places where rapid, unplanned urbanization has undermined the environmental services essential for a good quality of life.
But cities are doing little of this. By one estimate, only 0.3% of spending on urban infrastructure goes towards ‘nature-based solutions’, efforts that use ecosystems to help mitigate pollution, reduce risks from floods and storms and provide healthy air, water, food and living conditions.
Models and research analyses allow city planners to rigorously compare return on investments from ‘grey infrastructure’, based on cement, with those from asphalt and green infrastructure that harness ecosystem services. City planning usually defaults to the former, but this is more costly than is assumed.
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