Societal challenges highlight the need for a green urban transformation, where Nature-based Solutions (NBS) play a crucial role. Despite their potential, the integration of NBS into spatial planning remains a significant challenge. This study examines the factors influencing NBS adoption in spatial planning in the Stockholm region, Sweden. Using a two-step mixed methodology, the research combines quantitative analysis of NBS-relevant terms in municipal comprehensive plans (CPs) from 26 municipalities and two regional plans, followed by focus group discussions with planning officials from five municipalities. The findings reveal significant variation in the integration of NBS in the CPs and their practical application, with notable barriers related to political, socioeconomic, and local contexts. Key challenges for planning interventions involving extended NBS include inadequate legislation, limited resources, lack of political will, and insufficient inter-institutional collaboration. In conclusion, despite strong advocacy for NBS integration, the lack of systematic and structural support hinders a transformative shift in Swedish planning towards a broader NBS framework.

Urban development policies tend to promote denser cities that are more energy-efficient and less transport reliant than urban sprawls. This will strongly affect ecosystem services (ES) that cities are dependent on but tend to disregard. If a shift is made towards prioritizing ES and planning with nature-based solutions whilst also meeting the need for new housing, urban regions could become forerunners in planning for a sustainable transformative change. These sometimes conflicting demands need to be balanced to inform critical urban policy and planning decisions, which require planning support tools that can analyze and assess such conflicts. According to the main policy of the regional plan for Stockholm, urban densification is a leading principle so urban growth will be promoted in already established urban cores throughout the region up until 2060. Simultaneously, the County Administrative Board has launched an action plan for green infrastructure (GI), aiming to strengthen biodiversity and ES of the region. The aim of this study is to explore local and regional impacts on ES for two different future scenarios of urban development and compare them with the GI plan to discuss scale problems, spatial mismatches and possibilities for multi-functionality, related to planning practice. The study area is the southern part of Stockholm metropolitan region, embracing three neighbouring municipalities in a gradient from urban to peri-urban. The dense scenario simulated the expected urban densification with no regard to local greenery, while the green-dense scenario simulated dense housing units but scattered enough to allow at least 30% canopy coverage within 300 m from residential buildings. ES capacities were estimated for mitigation of heat island effect and flood risk, and access to local and regional nature-based recreation. This was compared to the GI plan to estimate overall regional scale impacts. The results showed that urban dense development had apparent drawbacks from a local ES perspective, while the green-dense scenario left room for local ES but instead spread more in the landscape; impacting on regional recreation values and GI. Proportions and location of nature areas related to urban densification versus sprawl need further attention for balancing different types of ES. The methodology is useful for urban planning support and will thus enable integration of ES in policy and planning decisions of metropolitan regions, with the goal to increase their sustainability.

Urban planners can address sustainability by leveraging urban potential for people and nature but face significant challenges in integrating diverse knowledge and facilitating collaboration. Geodesign, as a methodological approach, has the potential to support collaborative urban planning by managing the ‘boundaries’ between diverse knowledge holders. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence and systematic assessment of its contribution to ‘boundary work’. The latter refers to the efforts to navigate the interface between diverse stakeholders engaged in co-producing knowledge for sustainability. This paper aims to evaluate how a geodesign process facilitates knowledge co-production through boundary work and to assess the scientific credibility, political saliency, and procedural legitimacy of its outputs in sustainable urban planning. We adapt and further develop recent conceptual frameworks of geodesign from a boundary work perspective and propose a systematic, adaptable, and replicable framework and protocol for assessing boundary work in future applications. We tested our approach in a case study of a collaborative geodesign process for ambitious urban transformations with nature-based solutions in the Skarpnäck district of Stockholm, Sweden, involving fourteen planning stakeholders in a two-day workshop. The findings indicate that all geodesign steps facilitated enhanced communication by promoting discussions and collective reasoning, although to varying degrees. Participants acknowledged contributions to knowledge co-production and decision-making by mediating between different perspectives and opinions. Data quality was identified as a critical factor affecting perceived credibility. Reservations were expressed regarding the translation function. Recommendations for future applications include co-designing the geodesign process, improving capacity and skills, and facilitating more integrated planning.

Advancing towards urban futures in which both human communities and ecosystems can thrive requires transformative change (TC). Spatial planning can serve as a backbone for inspiring and fostering the desired transformation of cities. However, to support this transformation, the challenge for spatial planning is to create unconventional plans that account for the complex trade-offs and interactions of different scenarios through participatory procedures. A promising approach for addressing this challenge is geodesign, since it couples spatial co-design with impact simulations. This paper aims to explore how, and with what effects, a geodesign process can support the co-creation of transformative urban plans that enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services while meeting urban development goals. A geodesign process was developed and deployed for a case study neighbourhood in Stockholm, Sweden. Two scenario storylines were developed: one that follows the current city plan, and another one where the most transformative elements of the plan are further emphasized. Fourteen planning stakeholders divided into three groups translated the storylines into actual land use changes and explored the impacts of the two scenarios. The study findings indicate that the geodesign process enabled participants to develop transformative plans that address housing needs while also promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services through nature-based solutions. Participants showed high perceived desirability of TC scenarios in Skarpnäck but were mostly sceptical regarding the plausibility and probability of future implementation. Changes in perceived plausibility, desirability and probability comparing before and after the geodesign process were minor, with some inter-group variation. We recommend practical applications of geodesign to strategically involve key stakeholders throughout study conceptualization, scenario development, and model generation for better consideration of context. Enhancing geodesign tools for userfriendliness is also crucial. We suggest geodesign research to focus more on understanding its impacts on participants as well as scaling up for addressing complex challenges in metropolitan and landscape planning.

For metropolitan regions to become more sustainable they have to adopt urban development policies that promote urban growth that is both energy and transport effective, while simultaneously integrating nature-based solutions (NBS) that support ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity (BD). However, since space is limited in urban areas and demands on the landscape are numerous and many times conflicting it is a complex challenge to implement NBS successfully. According to the regional plan for Stockholm, urban densification is to be promoted in already established urban cores throughout the region up until 2060. Simultaneously, the County Administrative Board has launched an action plan for green infrastructure (GI), aiming to strengthen BD and ES. A planning support tool that integrates NBS and visualizes trade-offs and synergies of ES and BD whilst meeting the need of new housing would help planners to develop future urban trajectories of the region with stronger integration of the social-ecological-technological system. The aim of this study is to explore local and regional impacts on ES for two future scenarios of urban development and compare them with the GI plan to discuss scale problems, spatial mismatches and possibilities for multi-functionality. The study area embraces three neighbouring municipalities in a gradient from urban to peri-urban in Stockholm. The dense scenario simulated urban densification without regard to local greenery, while the green-dense scenario simulated scattered housing units to allow at least 30% canopy coverage within 300 m from residential buildings. ES capacities were estimated for mitigation of heat islands and flood risk, and access to local and regional nature-based recreation. This was compared to the GI plan to estimate overall regional scale impacts on BD. The results showed that dense development had drawbacks from a local ES perspective, while the green-dense scenario left room for local ES but instead spread more in the landscape; impacting regional nature-based recreation and GI. Proportions and location of nature areas related to urban densification versus sprawl need further attention for balancing different types of ES. The methodology is useful for planning support and will enable integration of ES in policy and planning decisions of metropolitan regions.

Ecosystem services (ES) assessments are rarely integrated into decision-making processes, with uncertainties often cited as a major barrier. While various uncertainties, such as modelling and data uncertainties, are inherent in ES assessments, their role in uptake of ES assessment results in decision-making remains unclear. We conducted a semi-systematic literature review of scientific papers assessing ES to reveal how uncertainties in ES assessments relate to ES uptake, i.e., the potential use of ES assessment results by decision makers. We performed logistic regressions to analyse the influence of three main sources of uncertainty on ES uptake, i.e., (i) modelling uncertainties, (ii) uncertainties related to qualitative and quantitative descriptions of scenarios, and (iii) uncertainties related to the transfer of ES assessment results into decision-making. Furthermore, we investigated if stakeholder involvement plays a role in ES uptake. First, and most importantly, the results indicate that clarifying the policy context can decrease decision uncertainty and thus improve ES uptake. Referring to a specific policy, following a decisive study purpose and documenting the intended policy entry point are factors that significantly enhance ES uptake. Second, the way how ES are modelled is related to ES uptake. Our results show that using multiple models to assess ES significantly promotes ES uptake. Third, involving stakeholders in ES assessments is significantly associated with increased documented uptake. We discuss that explicitly anchoring the assessment in a policy context increases the salience and timeliness of an ES study, assessing model uncertainties can lead to more credible results, and involving stakeholders can provide more legitimacy, which together increase the potential for ES assessments and their results to be used in decision-making. This study encourages future ES assessments to integrate uncertainties in order to support informed decision-making and promote the conservation and sustainable management of ecosystems and their services.

In rapidly growing metropolitan regions, the intensive land use changes often result in degradation and loss of nature areas, negatively affecting ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity. In Sweden, planning decisions on new housing areas are taken by the municipalities, which affect ES capacity and demand. In growing urban regions, the need for new housing often overrules the need for ES and biodiversity, but cities also have the potential to be forerunners in planning for transformative change. In the Stockholm region, the County Administrative Board launched an action plan for green infrastructure (GI), aiming to strengthen both biodiversity and ES, targeting to support planning. The aim of this study is to map the capacity and demand for selected ES, compare with the GI plan and discuss scale problems, spatial mismatches and possibilities for multifunctionality, related to planning practice. The study area is the southern part of Stockholm metropolitan region, embracing eight municipalities in a gradient from urban to periurban. We map ES potential and demand concerning heat mitigation, stormwater retention, nature-based recreation, and habitat quality, comparing these to each other and to the GI plan, in a planning practice perspective. The results show the spatial inconsistencies between ES capacity and demand due to the disparate conditions between highly urbanized landscapes with small nature fragments and more rural land use in the periurban landscapes. This relates to different planning instruments and needs. The existing GI plan mainly represent biodiversity and cover only to a minor extent the other ES, with the exception of NB recreation, while its status in planning remains unclear. Proportions and location of nature areas related to urban densification versus sprawl need further attention for balancing different types of ES. Furthermore, municipal planning needs stronger coordination with other sectors affecting ES, not at least forestry and transport planning.

Advancing towards urban futures in which both human communities and ecosystems can thrive requires transformative change (TC). Spatial planning can serve as a backbone for inspiring and fostering the desired transformation of cities. However, at least three key interrelated challenges exist for spatial planning to support this transformation: creating unconventional plans, accounting for the complex trade-offs and interactions of different scenarios, and facilitating participatory procedures. A promising approach for addressing the challenges is Geodesign as it couples spatial co-design with impact simulations. This paper aims to explore how, and with what effects, geodesign can support the co-creation of transformative urban plans. A geodesign process was developed and deployed for a case study neighborhood in Stockholm, Sweden. Fourteen planning stakeholders divided into three groups developed and explored the impacts of two alternative futures. The study findings indicate that the geodesign process enabled participants to develop transformative plans that address housing needs while also promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services through nature-based solutions. Participants showed high perceived desirability of TC but were mostly skeptical regarding the plausibility and probability of future implementation. The study findings also confirmed that Geodesign may provide effective planning support for managing ‘boundaries’ between knowledge holders, by integrating data and knowledge, and facilitating effective stakeholder collaboration. All geodesign steps enhanced communication by promoting discussions and collective reasoning, albeit to different degrees. Participants acknowledged contributions to knowledge co-production and decision-making by mediating between different perspectives and opinions. Data quality was identified as critically affecting perceived credibility. Reservations were expressed regarding the translation function. We recommend practical applications of geodesign to strategically involve key stakeholders throughout study conceptualization, scenario development, and model generation for better context consideration. Enhancing geodesign tools for user-friendliness is also crucial. Research should focus on scaling up collaborative geodesign for complex challenges in metropolitan and landscape planning.

Considerable pressure is placed on wind power in Sweden due to the country’s goal of generating 100 % of its electricity from fossil free resources. The aim was to develop the REWIND methodological framework to support wind power planning, built on spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA). In addition, the purpose was to develop a conflict score as a novel component of this framework, for handling goal conflicts. This framework includes the scoping, design and evaluation stages. It was applied in a case study of Västernorrland County with extensive involvement of stakeholders throughout the process. 

The conflict score allows a separate analysis of trade-offs between factors, highlighting potential conflicts across the landscape to increase transparency. Thus, users are allowed to decide on a threshold on how much conflict among factors should be allowed for areas to qualify as planning alternatives. Critical issues that will need further attention concern quality and availability of data, creation of representative spatial indicators for the factors, weighting methods, and uncertainty analysis. The REWIND framework is open-ended and allows for further development to provide planning support that gives more control of factors and conflicts to be acceptable in real-world planning. Capacity building involving stakeholders in the design of planning alternatives are crucial. In Sweden, it can promote a more proactive planning process in the municipalities, supported by the regional actors, leading to a more predictable permitting process for developers. This will be useful for inclusive wind power planning in any country, since it is applicable on different scales.