State of Green Infrastructure in the Gauteng City-Region

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1 State of Green Infrastructure in the Gauteng City-Region

2 Overview Structure of the presentation Situating the GCR Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR Government plans and initiatives Valuing ecosystem services Constructed landscapes Research pathways ahead

3 Situating the Gauteng City-Region Gauteng in the national space economy The Gauteng City-Region (GCR) is the integrated cluster of cities, towns and urban nodes that together make up the economic heartland of South Africa. The is home to some 13 million people, over a quarter of the country s population.

4 Situating the Gauteng City-Region Gauteng in the national space economy

5 Situating the Gauteng City-Region Infrastructure and resource-challenges Average annual growth Population (number) ,71% Liquid fuel (tons) ,90% Electricity provided by Eskom (GwH) ,65% Waste (tons) in Tshwane ,02% Water (ml/day) in Johannesburg ,01%

6 Green infrastructure What is green infrastructure? What is Green infrastructure? Green Infrastructure is the set of natural and man-made ecological systems, green spaces and other landscapes that form an infrastructure network providing services and strategic functions in the same way as traditional hard infrastructure e.g. trees, protected areas, open spaces, public and private gardens, parks, food gardens, ridges, wetlands, green corridors, amongst others. These ecological assets provide services in the same way as electricity lines, water pipes and drainage networks, and other hard infrastructure.

7 Green infrastructure The State of Green Infrastructure Report This report is an assessment of both natural and constructed landscape in the GCR, and an of how the services provided by these assets are perceived, understood and valued. Inspiration is drawn from the conceptual and planning framework green infrastructure. Note that this is not a state of environment report focusing on nature conservation, but rather an attempt to extend our understanding of infrastructure.

8 Green infrastructure Conceptual underpinnings The idea of green infrastructure is not entirely new (Urban Greening, Olmstead s parkways concept, Howard s Garden City Movement). The current drive for green infrastructure moves into new territory: A shift beyond environmental protection & conservation Viewing green landscape features as a network of infrastructure, something essential to city development

9 Green infrastructure Conceptual underpinnings Multi-functionality Unlike grey utilities, typically geared towards a single use, natural systems perform a range of functions including flood alleviation, cooling heat islands, carbon capture, water purification, local food production. These functions are known as ecosystem services. Ecosystem services These are the benefits supplied to humans via nature. If valued as equivalent to the services of conventional infrastructure, ecosystem services can assist society in its everyday functioning. Infrastructure that appreciates over time Valuing the infrastructural benefits of ecosystem services brings a new perspective on public infrastructure processes. Time-based depreciation rates are traditionally applied to fixed infrastructure assets, but biophysical systems provide for value that appreciates as productivity of green assets grows over time.

10 Green infrastructure Global green infrastructure plans and initiatives The New York Green Infrastructure Plan an alternative approach to improving water quality that integrates green infrastructure, such as swales and green roofs, with investments to optimize the existing system. Objectives include reducing combined sewer outflows volumes by 3.8 billion gallons per year, capturing rainfall from 10% of impervious surfaces in combined sewer outflow areas, saving taxpayers $1.5 billion over a 20 year period compared to an all grey approach. The All London Green Grid The vision is to create a well-designed green infrastructure network of interlinked, multi-purpose open and green spaces with good connections to the places where people live and work, public transport that will benefit both people and wildlife providing diverse uses to appeal to, and be accessible by all Life: building Europe s green infrastructure Combating habitat fragmentation caused by grey infrastructure and the externalities of delivering energy and transport infrastructure, such as electrical overhead cables problematic for migrating birds. Success include installing natural green bridges / ecological highways to facilitate species movement and multi-purpose land use, achieved by multi-stakeholder cooperation and trans-border planning processes and infrastructure development.

11 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR

12 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR Assessing the state of data and components of green infrastructure Data: state of available digital spatial data Landscape transformation: the multiple dimensions of transformed land in Gauteng Coverage: physical expanse and spatial extent of natural and vegetated features in the GRC landscape Access: the proximity and ease of access to different green infrastructure features Connectivity: intersections between different landscapes

13 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR DATA: The state of available digital spatial data for green assets in Gauteng Spatial data is readily available but is located in various government departments and independent consultants. There is no one repository that houses GIS data and data is often collected and created to align with particular mandates. Figures A: parks identified but corresponding land use appears to be residential A Figure B: incorrect digitization of green assets area, skewing area and measurement calculations B

14 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMATION: the multiple dimensions of transformed land in Gauteng Report undertook various attempts at a landscape change analysis, but these were challenged by the unavailability of time-series data on change in green assets. Some insight into the complexities of landscape transformation are represented in GTI 10m Land Cover data (2009). This data is coded into three classes urban, transformed & untransformed. Both built-up urban land and a series of ecological classes, such as urban trees, urban grass and cultivated areas are categorised as transformed land while dense trees, woodland and grassland are untransformed. urban = 15%, transformed = 42% and untransformed = 43%

15 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Natural vegetation: Corresponds to the grassland biome: temperate inland grasslands and Highveld grasslands, thicket, bush land, bush clumps, indigenous forests and shrub lands

16 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Planted vegetation: nonnatural trees A prominent ecological feature within the GCR is the large forested expanse that extends across the urban core. However, there is no verifiable statistic on the exact number of trees in Gauteng.

17 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Bryanston, Johannesburg Alexandra, Johannesburg Atlassville, Ekurhuleni Daveyton, Ekurhuleni Waterkloof, Tshwane Mamelodi, Tshwane

18 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Tree planting projects Some stats: Northern suburbs tree coverage 24.2% Southern quadrant tree coverage 6,7%

19 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Food infrastructure

20 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Protected areas: Botanical gardens, provincial nature reserves, conservancies and various municipal nature reserves come together as a system that has important ecological value as well as being significant heritage sites

21 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR COVERAGE: the physical expanse and spatial extent of natural & vegetated features Hydrological networks: While the GCR supports a complex hydrological network, it is one beset by various challenges brought about by poor management of natural and manmade hydrological systems.

22 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR ACCESS: the proximity and ease of access to green assets

23 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR ACCESS: the proximity and ease of access to green assets

24 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR ACCESS: the proximity and ease of access to green assets

25 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR ACCESS: the proximity and ease of access to green assets

26 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR CONNECTIVITY: the intersections between different landscapes There is a corridor of open land cutting across the north-south growth of Johannesburg; it runs from beyond Gilooly s Farm to the east, through golf courses, parks and public gardens, to the Zoo Lake, and on to Emmerentia and the west rand. Parts of the corridor have different formal uses: some public, some private. Together they make up a green belt providing a natural reservoir of plant and bird life, a buffer against urban sprawl, and a breathing space for the city (Smith, 1988)

27 Assessing the state of green infrastructure in the GCR CONNECTIVITY: the intersections between different landscapes

28 Current government plans, visions and capabilities

29 Current government plans, visions and capabilities Key findings and insights from municipal case studies City of Johannesburg: Johannesburg City Parks aims to be Africa s leading green environment and cemetery management company Environmental conservation / natural resource protection articulate in other processes e.g. Johannesburg Metropolitan Open Space Strategy, Bioregional Plan, Environment Management Framework Alternative infrastructure solutions are being explored e.g. sustainable urban drainage systems, and are some of the only explicit conceptualizations of green infrastructure but challenged by planning cultures and perceptions: although we know SUDs is the preferred approach, these still need to be verified in terms of budget and if it incurs additional costs, we will continue to convert open channels and use underground pipes (CoJ JRA Official, pers. comm, 2012).

30 Current government plans, visions and capabilities Key findings and insights from municipal case studies Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality The Greening of Ekurhuleni (2009), driven by partnerships between the metro and other stakeholders: The Greening of Ekurhuleni Project 2009 aimed to deliver trees to low cost housing units in Ekurhuleni. These trees will result in 2954 tons of carbon dioxide being sequestrated over the next 15 years (FTFA, 2009) There are some provocative propositions through marine tourism and developing marine tourism schemes through lake and dam rehabilitation. Value of green investments implicitly implied in the kind of projects that have succeeded e.g. Trim Parks and Duduza tree planting for natural disasters.

31 Current government plans, visions and capabilities Key findings and insights from municipal case studies City of Tshwane: Progressive policies and City-run research endeavours, e.g. The Growth and Carbon sequestration by street trees in the City of Tshwane (Stoffberg, 2006) But some ambiguity in how the City is planning for green assets e.g on the one hand, Tshwane's Jacaranda Policy (2003) allows for the replacement of exotics to maintain the character of the City but also emphasizes the importance of specify biomes within the city. Green infrastructure as a way to provide services is beginning to take off but in isolated forums: Green Building Development Policy (2012) Swales and SUDS 2008 Strategy for Sustainable Management of Plants for Traditional Medicinal Purposes Various strategies where trees are identified as important carbon sinks

32 Current government plans, visions and capabilities Key findings and insights from municipal case studies Sedibeng District: Bioregional plan at district level and District greening is largely focused on nature reserves and conservation mandates and a first step to think more strategically about green assets is through, A Clean and Green Sedibeng: A co-ordinated approach towards cleanliness and greening related initiatives exists in the Sedibeng region by end 2009 Trees planted for every citizen living in Sedibeng by 2012 All alien vegetation to be cleared from riverine and protected areas in the Sedibeng Region by 2012 Three projects in the Sedibeng Region to be used as best practice examples for the A Clean and Green Sedibeng focus area Yet unclear how these actually translate into action as there is little by way of reporting and monitoring to asses targets Concerning is the deficit of environmental managers in the 3 locals, which are often also without context-specific planning documents, relying on generic district level planning

33 Current government plans, visions and capabilities Key findings and insights from municipal case studies West Rand District Municipality Officials recognise values of green assets and have grounded knowledge of what works best Local municipalities are making very specific investments in ecological assets e.g. Mogale City By- Law for Urban Greening and Biodiversity (2005), Westonaria Greening and Beautification project (2013) Through Green IQ Strategy, West Rand aims to become the greenest district in South Africa (WRDM 2013). Limited fiscal support also means municipalities rely on donations: If we want to plant trees, we ask for donations from nurseries or NGOs. We mainly get support from nurseries. Our executive mayor set out to plant trees, with no budget, and we rely mainly on donations from nurseries or mines. (WRDM Official pers. comm, 2013)

34 Techniques for valuing green infrastructure Valuing ecosystem services Total Economic Value (TEV) An approach is widely used as a framework for incorporating complex and interrelated interactions between the physical attributes of the environment and the associated value flows. Category Type of goods and services Monetary valuation technique Provisioning services Fresh water provision Effects on production, Materials for crafts Fish resources (e.g. from dams) Small scale urban farming Fuel wood cost of alternative sources, benefits transfer technique Cultural services Recreation and ecotourism Travel cost, property price/hedonics, Educational values (e.g. school excursions and scientific research) Aesthetic values and sense of place contingent valuation & conjoint analysis, benefits transfer technique Provision of inspirational beauty Regulating services Water purification & waste treatment Replacement cost, Air quality regulation (local) Climate regulation (global) Erosion regulation Preventative costs, Costs of disaster, System failure, benefits transfer technique Flood attenuation

35 Techniques for valuing green infrastructure Valuing ecosystem services City of Johannesburg case study to pilot the ecosystem valuation in Gauteng through the following steps: 1. Source maps of all green open spaces under the control of City Parks within City of Johannesburg 2. Estimate the total size of these areas per open space land use type and for each of the City of Johannesburg s regions 3. Source data on the value of green open spaces estimated elsewhere on a per hectare basis 4. Apply appropriate adjustment factors to per area values from elsewhere for local applicability 5. Multiply green open space area sizes in the City of Johannesburg by estimated per area values appropriately adjusted. Region Estimated value in Rands / ha / yr % of total value Vs % of total open space area in CoJ Low Medium High Region A R R R % 11.1% Region B R R R % 11.7% Region C R R R % 16.3% Region D R R R % 13.4% Region E R R R % 10.2% Region F R R R % 16.0% Region G R R R % 21.3% Total R R R % 100.0%

36 Constructed landscapes Community and private sector green infrastructure initiatives Johannesburg is at once a city of monumental architecture and abysmal slums; a city of luxurious playgrounds for the rich and empty wastelands for the poor, a city of utopian fantasy and dystopian anxiety, and a city of collective memory and intentional forgetting [where] magnificent mansions and their luscious greenery contrasted with corrugated iron shacks forlornly sited on treeless, barren ground (Murray, 2008)

37 Constructed landscapes Community and private sector green infrastructure initiatives

38 Constructed landscapes Community and private sector green infrastructure initiatives

39 Research pathways ahead Mapping out future research There are interesting paths involved developing a future research agenda on the GCR s green infrastructure: Integrated data inventories Prioritizing ecosystem services Government expenditure, revenue and accounting systems

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