The environmental consequences of an ever-growing urban population are one of the major challenges of our time.Additionally, climate change will lead to more environmental, social and economic problems. Among these problems are air pollution and urban heating, which cause high morbidity and mortality rates. One of the suggested measures presented as a sustainable way to address the current and future challenges in urban environments is Nature-based solutions (NBS)
SAGE is an exploratory research project which aims to assess the short and long-term impacts of green roofs on urban air quality, under current and future climate in the city of Eindhoven (Netherlands). Taking into account changes in population dynamics, gentrification and urban compaction caused by NBS, which will affect atmospheric pollutant emissions in the long term.
NBS potential is not limited to air quality, but also to co-benefits for urban compaction and population health, these being sometimes overlooked, and of particular interest when we consider climate change future impacts. Thus, SAGE will perform a holistic assessment of health co-benefits, considering the relationship between health and air quality, but also urban heat and well-being, using available exposure-response functions.
The expected outcomes include three novelty results, which will advance the state of the art and contribute to the decision-making process regarding NBS implementation:
1. an innovative methodology to assess NBS at an urban scale;
2. a multidisciplinary view on the effects of green roofs on air quality, based on short and long-term impacts;
3. a holistic approach to assess the health co-benefits of NBS.
