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This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from the King’S Research Portal At This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Climate Change Adaptation in London through Resilient Ecosystem Services Management Oh, Yu Kyung Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 Climate Change Adaptation in London through Resilient Ecosystem Services Management By Yu Kyung Oh Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography King’s College London, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Abstract As urban populations continue to grow around the world, cities and their residents become increasingly vulnerable to climate change risks. Detrimental impacts on natural ecosystems have been observed in the built environment, as well as poorer quality of life. As urban areas are characterised by complex adaptive systems, the concept of ecosystem services represents an important tool for the management of urban socio-environmental quality and can be applied to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. This thesis investigates London’s potential resilience to climate changes through ecosystem services management. In particular, the socioecological capacity of the All London Green Grid for contributing to climate change resilience via patterns of green spaces, and carbon storage and sequestration through urban street trees, will be the central focus in the research. This capacity was assessed firstly by conducting an evaluation of the landscape metrics of Greater London’s green spaces to determine the extent and quality of green infrastructure, and how this varies according to relevant socioeconomic variables. This was achieved using GIS and the spatial analysis programme FRAGSTATS. This broad-scale evaluation was then supported by greater in-depth field measurements, focusing specifically on street trees, within selected eleven Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), which are an important vehicle for the local management of the ALGG and thereby climate resilience. This local-scale assessment also incorporated greater evaluation of ecosystem service provision by vegetation, and in particular street trees and their capacity for carbon storage and sequestration. Finally, governance of green spaces within BIDs and broader understanding of resilience and climate change was assessed with qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews of different agents and agencies involved in the ALGG network. This included investigation of decision-makers’ perspectives on vulnerabilities and the prospects for further developing London green spaces, to determine the feasibility of different management options. 2 Acknowledgements This research would have been impossible without strong support and help from my supervisor, my friends and my family in the last years. During my PhD years at King’s, I have received lots of stimulus and encouragement as well as knowledge. I would like to express my sincerest and deepest appreciation to my first supervisor, Robert Francis who has given diverse and extensive advice and comments on this research as well as strong support. Without him I could not proceed with this extensive research by myself. I am also grateful to my second supervisor, James Millington, and my previous second supervisor, Federico Caproti, who gave lots of comments and suggestions for proceeding with this research. I also want to express special thanks to interviewees, and Julie Cox, Data manager, Greenspace information for Greater London (GiGL), who allowed me to use greenspace data for analysis. I am also grateful to my friends from King’s and everywhere in the world who have kept me sane in the last years, especially Sojin Park, Ahrum Yoo, Jisun Park, Jisun Lee, Sohee Chung, Kahee Cho, Dr Kihyun Ban, Leneke Kieviet, Claire Yorke, Filippo Costa Buranelli, Flavia Gasbarri, Joana Cook, Marco Rossi, Pablo De Orellana, Dr Inmook Choi, Dr Hyungguen Park and Dr Seonyoung Lee. I would like to send special thanks to my love, Thomas Bottelier, who always provided support and love and made me feel comfortable and peaceful whenever I was worn out. This PhD has been more pleasant and less painful with him. This thesis is particularly dedicated to my beloved family. My father, Jinseok Oh, who has always devoted his life to the happiness of his family. I owe him uncountable and unspoken love and trust. This journey will not be finished without his sacrifice and love. My mother, Oksoo Lee, who has always trusted me to go further. Without her, I would not even start or finish this path. During my last years in academia, she has always encouraged me to go further. Without her encouragement, I would not be here at King’s. My sister, Yuran Oh, who has always been beside me. Like a life colleague, we have encouraged each other to enrich our lives. 3 List of Abbreviations AFOLU Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land ALGG All London Green Grid BID Business Improvement District CALFED California water management project CAS Complex Adaptive System CCS Carbon capture and storage CDR Carbon dioxide removal CH4 Methane CO2 Carbon dioxide COP Conference of the Parties CSS Carbon storage and sequestration DBH Diameter at breast height EIAs Environmental Impact Assessments ES Ecosystem Service Eurostat European Office for Statistics GHG Greenhouse Gas GiGL Greenspace Information for Greater London GIS Geographic Information System GLA Greater London Authority 4 GtC Giga tonne Carbon ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change LNP Local Nature Partnerships LULUCF Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry N2O Nitrous oxide NPFF National Planning Policy Framework NUTS Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics OECD Organisation for Ecologic Co-operation and Development PgC Pentagram of Carbon ppb Parts per billion ppm Parts per million SEAs Strategic Environmental Assessments SIC Soil Inorganic Carbon SOC Soil Organic Carbon TfL Transport for London UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change WHO World Health Organisation 5 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 3 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 14 1.1. Urbanisation and urban ecosystems .................................................................................. 16 1.2. Research Problem and Objectives ..................................................................................... 21 1.3. Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................................... 25 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 29 2.1. Climate change impacts and carbon cycling ..................................................................... 29 2.1.1. Observation of global climate change ..................................................................... 29 2.1.2. The global carbon cycle and climate change ........................................................... 33 2.1.3. Urban ecosystems as carbon sinks........................................................................... 40 2.2. Responses to climate change in urban ecosystems............................................................ 42 2.2.1. Discourses on responses to climate change impacts ................................................ 42 2.2.2. Resilience in urban ecosystems ................................................................................ 46 2.2.3. Vulnerabilities in urban ecosystems ........................................................................ 48 2.2.4. Ecosystem services as a resilience tool .................................................................... 51 2.3. Carbon sequestration in urban green spaces ...................................................................
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