The exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and biosphere is an important factor in global climate regulation. Consequently, it is important to examine how carbon flows and cycles between different pools and how carbon stocks change in response to afforestation, reforestation, deforestation, and other land-cover and land-use activities.
Eco-cities and green-cities are emerging concepts for the retrofitting of our urban areas and important component in the creation of more sustainable development towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. Green infrastructure as a key part of eco-cities and green-cities contributes as a major carbon pool for. The term 'green infrastructure' refers to an interconnected network of landscape assets that are intertwined with engineered (grey) infrastructure and buildings.
The ability to assess the performance of green infrastructure, based on measurable criteria at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, is critical for defining the difference between effective and non-effective scenarios for sustainable urban development. This paper aims to identify the most relevant and applicable evaluation tools, applications and methods for quantifying the carbon performance of green infrastructure in Australia. The existing quantitative tools used to measure green infrastructure sustainability performance are varied in terms of the scale, components and input.
This study has identified and tabulated the most relevant tools for quantifying the features and carbon services of green infrastructure. The aim is to help policymakers, environmental groups and researchers to choose the most appropriate tool(s) for the intended context and it will lead them to a more useful and accurate carbon foot printing assessment outcome.
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