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Each part of the city thereby has its own group of actors and potential for habitat development. Residential districts and business sites are unlikely places for wildlife conservation. However, in times of more attention to sustainable living, social entrepreneurship, business climate and health, both citizens and companies are becoming more interested in how to develop (natural) green in their living and working environment. In this chapter we discuss the overall phenomenon of green, biodiverse residential and business sites. We describe which characteristics of such locations provide opportunities for which type of wildlife, identify relevant stakeholder groups and accompanying arguments, and demonstrate the added value of biodiverse residential and business sites. One of our cases is the Heineken Brewery (100 ha) in Zoeterwoude (NL) where more than 20 ha of intensively managed urban green was turned into a wildlife habitat resulting in a sudden abundance of rare orchids, hover flies and other pollinators. Another case is a nature-inclusive residential area in Eindhoven (NL). We conclude the chapter with some lessons learned from studying the collaboration between site owners, local governments, NGOs and other actors in turning residential and business sites into green, wildlife-friendly living and working places.

One of the first times the effect of nature on stress relief was investigated, the results were so remarkable that the top journal Science devoted space to them. The study, published in 1984, showed that American patients who had undergone gall bladder surgery recovered faster when they could see a tree from their hospital window than when they could only see a blank wall. In 2003, in the Netherlands, one of the first epidemiological studies was conducted in which the amount of green space in the residential environment was objectively assessed and shown to be related to the health of residents. This chapter provides an overview of more recent research on the relation between nature in cities and the health and well-being of their inhabitants. Implications of the available knowledge for urban planning and design are discussed.

In the wake of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, cities around the world have been taking the lead in designing their own City Region Food System (CRFS). A City Region Food System aims to foster the development of resilient and sustainable food systems which encompass an urban centre, a peri-urban ring, and the rural areas surrounding a city. This chapter argues that a CRFS must also focus on nature and the context it provides rather than on the social and environmental indicators typically used to describe a city and its context. This includes the nature context of the rural-urban region where a city is located. A CRFS needs to include a wide range of food system actors including those who give expression to the nature context of the region. It must also focus on cooperation, decision-making, learning, and distributive leadership among the various CRFS actors. We discuss examples of emerging CRFSs from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Washington DC to illustrate these principles.

Climate change can be a driver for cities to become frontrunners in terms of both climate mitigation (for instance, in moving towards carbon-neutrality) and climate adaptation in developing green and liveable cities. In metropolitan areas, climate threats such as floods, heat and drought, have a significant impact on nature, the economy, human health and well-being. The concentration of people, infrastructure and other assets makes cities vulnerable to climate risks as they have rarely been designed with climate change in mind. In 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) introduced the concept of ‘climate services’ to improve the accessibility of the vast amount of available climate data in a way useful for those who would need them. Since then, the concept has evolved from ‘science-driven and user-informed’ to ‘user-driven and science-informed’, actively supporting climate change responses by citizens, companies, economic sectors, and cities (see for instance European Commission, 2015). Climate services are tools, products and processes that can help to integrate climate information into urban policymaking and design for improving urban resilience. Because of the long-term nature of climate change, climate services force urban developers to adopt a long-term, transformative perspective in urban planning and design. This chapter elaborates on how climate change can be a driver for green urban development, by pursuing resilience with the help of climate services. Two illustrative cases are presented: Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Lisbon (Portugal). We also illustrate the importance of the next generation of climate services to go beyond risk assessment by informing the design of response measures like nature-based solutions. The cases illustrate the modalities of climate services to trigger action: climate services have to be flexible and tailored to the specific local situation and they should be integrated with other urban challenges in order to develop i