The Role of GIS-Based Thematic Urban Maps in Determining the Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions

Abstract

In the current century, the rapid increase in the world population and the fact that this population is living in cities to a large extent increases the speed and scale of urbanization more and more rapidly. This situation makes today's cities struggle with environmental, social, economic, and ecological challenges. In recent years, in order to cope with these difficulties, ecology-based planning and design approaches that take nature as an example have become important; At this point, new concepts and theories emerged. Nature-based solutions (NbS), a relatively new concept, are solution-oriented, measurable, and evidence-based comprehensive studies that deal with climate change and urbanization problems by integrating ecosystem-based approaches and relatively to increase urban sustainability. In this study, firstly, the development process of NbSs and different platforms that deal with NbSs are focused on, and then the importance of GIS-based thematic urban maps in determining their effectiveness based on the measurability of NbSs. In this context, the projects in the platforms created for the promotion and awareness of NbSs have been examined. Moreover, the thematic map layers that can be used in determining the effectiveness of NbSs have been focused. Based on this information, criteria that can be used to question the effectiveness of NbS studies at different scales were determined, and suggestions were made.