Towards regenerative neighbourhoods: An international survey on urban strategies promoting the production of ecosystem services

Abstract

Neighbourhoods are a fundamental urban design unit and the focus of many sustainable design frameworks. Although these frameworks were fundamental to mainstream sustainable practices, problems with their use remain, such as their unbalanced sustainability aspects. To face these problems, innovative design approaches emerge, including regenerative design, aiming for urban projects that are net-positive for society and nature. Nevertheless, there is no common understanding of how sustainable urban projects translate regenerative design principles into urbanisation strategies and produce benefits for society and nature. Through a survey with 73 international and certified sustainable neighbourhoods, we explored the use of 42 different urbanisation strategies, the role of diagnostics, the barriers, and the design teams' needs to move towards regenerative design and neighbourhoods that produce ecosystem services. We observed that projects mostly address fundamental urban challenges related to energy, water flows and vegetation, lacking focus on topics such as circular economy, soil and fauna management. We also found that doing an ecological diagnostic positively impacts the diversity of urbanisation strategies. To move towards regenerative design, it is important to formally integrate diagnostics into the design process and combine innovative strategies, like those related to closed systems, fauna, and habitat management, with conventional ones.