ASSESSING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF BORNOVAS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, IZMIR (TURKEY)

Urban green infrastructure provides a wide variety of ecological, social, and economic benefits to urban dwellers. Understanding the dynamics of urban ecosystem services is essential for planning and managing the practice of urban green infrastructure. This paper aims to assess spatial distribution of urban green areas and calculate two regulating ecosystem services (carbon sequestration and runoff retention) generated by green infrastructure in Bornova, which is one of the metropolitan districts of the city of Izmir, Turkey. Results show that although almost 45% of the district is covered by components of the green infrastructure, they are mostly small and unevenly distributed in the current urban fabric with low connectivity. The total carbon sequestration capacity of the green infrastructure is estimated 8368.25 t year-1 and the total rate of runoff is predicted at 3,788,651.31 m3. It can be concluded that this finding implies that green infrastructure and ecosystem services need to be profoundly improved by adding new green spaces to the existing green infrastructure and providing linkages as well as increasing tree cover and creating retention and detention facilities.