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. 2021 Apr 16;51(1):167–182. doi: 10.1007/s13280-021-01553-7

Table 2.

Implicit recognition of ecological justice dimensions in the NBS literature (Source: authors)

Nature-based solutions (NBS) Ecological justice dimensions
Distribution Participation Recognition Capabilities
Designing habitat for species to flourish in urban spaces requires studying species’ needs, behaviours, and ecologies (Snep and Ottburg 2008; Nielsen et al. 2015; Kajihara et al. 2016; Deng and Jim 2017; Mugwedi et al. 2017; Nero 2019; Talal and Santelmann 2019; Tresch et al. 2019).
Capacity of vegetation to flourish despite contamination and lack of fundamental nutrients (Spencer et al. 2014; Artmann and Sartison 2018; Draus et al. 2019).
Increasing NBS multifunctionality, flexibility, adaptability, and connectivity can increase ‘carrying, adaptive and regenerative capacities of urban landscape systems’ (Schlee et al. 2012; Horta et al. 2018; Silver et al. 2019).
Social–ecological awareness, perceptions and values within inclusive, democratic, and adaptive governance systems that include and/or represent diverse stakeholders (Larson et al. 2013; Andersson et al. 2014; Burton et al. 2018; Dawes et al. 2018; Mattijssen et al. 2018; Diep et al. 2019).
Connecting fragmented urban habitat for species flow, mobility, and functional diversity (Caynes et al. 2016; Cannas et al. 2018; Alexander et al. 2019).
Nature’s integrity in relation to local urban social–ecological patterns and processes (Schlee et al. 2012; Wootton-Beard et al. 2016; Mugwedi et al. 2017; Talal and Santelmann 2019).
Noninstrumental valuation of cultural and ecological systems (Horta et al. 2018; Bush and Doyon 2019).
Develop care, stewardship and pro-environmental behaviours through awareness and ecological knowledge of biodiversity and ecological processes in cities to promote biodiversity protection and conservation through multispecies design strategies (Andersson et al. 2014; Gungor et al. 2018; White et al. 2018; Calcagni et al. 2019).
Ecosystem integrity through justice, equity and/or power imbalances recognition in design and ecology science exchange processes (Childers et al. 2015; Brink et al. 2016).
Adoption of alternative methods in urban planning to represent and ‘give a voice’ to nature (Horta et al. 2018; Bush and Doyon 2019).
Identify biodiversity and distribution patterns of often neglected ecological processes, systems and/or species that actively contribute to NBS (Schlaepfer 2018; Li et al. 2019; Marshall et al. 2019; Tresch et al. 2019).
Multiscalar understanding to unpack the local, regional, and global social–ecological impacts and effects (Chan et al. 2006; Musacchio 2009; Fletcher et al. 2014; Childers et al. 2015; Pezzoli and Leiter 2016).
Multiple ecosystem functions and benefits in balancing needs of humans and nonhumans (Chan et al. 2006; Fletcher et al. 2014; Cannas et al. 2018; Draus et al. 2019).
Spatial distribution of ecosystem services and biodiversity with scenario planning and other tools to identify trade-offs and prioritise conservation areas (Snäll et al. 2016; Dagenais et al. 2017; Fenner 2017; Mandle et al. 2017; Lanzas et al. 2019).
Recognise the biophysical baseline of ecosystems as supporting of all life (Andersson et al. 2014; Dobbs et al. 2014; Albert et al. 2017; Tahvonen and Airaksinen 2018).