A Transatlantic Lens on Green Infrastructure Planning and Ecosystem Services 257
Within the group of regulating services, the political importance of air quality and services related to climate change (climate regulation and carbon sequestration) are visible as almost all documents refer to these three services while runoff mitigation is the most frequently mentioned service in Seattle. Soil is an important topic in both areas. Services that are rarely mentioned in both areas are noise reduction, wastewater treatment, pollination, and biological control. Although noise and wastewater are mentioned as environmental issues, no connection is drawn between these impacts and the role of urban green as a potential solution. Problems with pests, invasive species, and the impacts through pest control are also mentioned in the documents from Seattle but mainly without an indication of biological alternatives.
All documents refer to the importance of urban green as habitat for species, but genetic diversity was less frequently considered.
Cultural services are frequently mentioned, most importantly for recreation and human health as well as aesthetic appreciation and inspiration. The importance of urban green for tourism is mentioned more often in Berlin, and the meaning for education and learning is highlighted more in Seattle.
13.4.2 C C Coverage of Selected Green Infrastructure Principlples
Three of five plans from Seattle and one plan from Berlin explicitly refer to the concept of green infrastructure. The heat maps for both cities express how extensively the three GI principles of connectivity, multifunctionality, and transdisciplinarity were considered in the analyzed documents (Figure 13.4). For connectivity,