Streberová, E. Kluvánková, T. 1SPECTRA, Centre of Excellence EU 2Institute of Forest Ecology at Slovak Academy of Sciences 3Institute of Management at Slovak University of Technology

1. Ecosystem services to govern
urban commons
Streberová, E. 1,2, Kluvánková, T. 1,2,
1 SPECTRA, Centre of Excellence EU
2 Institute of Forest Ecology at Slovak Academy of Sciences
3 Institute of Management at Slovak University of Technology

2. Presentation outline
1. CC and urban areas
2. Relevance of green infrastructure
3. Urban commons in Bratislava, Slovakia
4. Experimenting with urban commons

3. Climate change and vulnerability of
cities
Urbanisation in Europe:
- today 72% , by 2020 80 %, 2100
90 % or more
- aging population,
- economic capital ↔ production of
greenhouse gases,
Urbanization + CC + socio-economic trends
→ risks for urban population:
UHI (urban heat island),
water scarcity,
floods,
droughts and heat waves
extreme weather events

4. Relevance of green infrastructure in adaptation
to CC
Fulfils the needs of a variety of stakeholder groups and policy aims (DG
Environment, 2012):
- biodiversity conservation (ecological networks)
- ecosystem services - mitigation of climate change related
impacts (and also many other benefits and goods)
Sustainable
drainage
Systems
(Sweden)
Rain gardens (UK) Green roofs and walls
(Japan, France)
Photos:internet

5. Urban GI & Ecosystem service provision
(Demuzere et al., 2014)
Physical benefits:
• CO2 sequestration,
• flood protection,
• improved water
abudance and
quality,
• air quality and temperature
regulation,
• food production
• reduced energy use,
Psychological and social benefits:
• Health and restorative benefits,
• Aesthetic appreciation
• Inspiration
• Education
• Recreation & leisure Photo:
oneplanet-sustainability.org

6. What is green infrastructure:
„Network of green spaces in which and through which natural functions
and processes are sustained.“ (EC, 2013)
In urban environment: „A hybrid infrastructure of green spaces (and
blue spaces) and build systems.“ (Demuzzere et al., 2014)
Urban gardening (Slovakia), Street trees Court-yards (Slovakia)
Green Bike paths (Slovakia), River revitalisation, Parks and ponds

7. Management effectiveness of urban green spaces –
urban commons
(new) Urban commons are publicly shared resources that have been reconceptualized as
commons, mostly human-constructed, parts of urban environment (Hess 2008, Maco,
Kluvánková, in review).
Photo: www.realtythoughts.com, www.dianliwenmi.com, www.pinterest.com, www.reddit.com, www.communitygarden.org.au,
Gated-communities (Herrod, 2011)
Parks and multipurpose public spaces (Kassa, 2008 , Poklembová, 2013)
Street trees (Steed, Fischer, 2011),
Court yards (Maco, 2015)
Community gardens (Maco, 2015)

8. Climate change in Bratislava
Vulnerability:
increase in average citizen age from 44,6 yrs in 2011 to 47,8 in 2025 in Bratislava old town
greyfication of population in Bratislava – by 2025 rise of number of retired citizens 9%
Heat exposure: heat islands due to accumulation of radiance during day by aritifical
surfaces and urbanistic structures in the city centre, lack of green infrastructre in city
center, expected rise of average annual temperature in Western Slovakia by 0,4 °C by
2030 any by 0,9 °C by 2075.
Behavioural exposure: outdoor activities in city centre , playgrounds, kindergartens,
schoolyards, etc.

9. Share of citizens over 75 yrs
of age in comparison to total
population in Bratislava [%]
(Hudeková, 2009)
Thermovision images ( in corridors) over Bratislava city centre
during a hot summer day (Source: REC Slovensko, Fotomap,
s.r.o, 2007)

10. Management of urban commons: public and semi-
public green spaces in Bratislava, Slovakia
• Public and Semi-public spaces – providing common, public and private goods
• Production services (individual & collective benefits) – urban agriculture, urban
farming
• Local climate regulation and cultural ecosystem services (collective benefits):
- cooling effects (evapotranspiration), shading, reducing heating/cooling
costs, air filtration, noise reduction, carbon sequestration (1800 € annually)
- recreation and leisure activities, etc. (617 193,23 € - 2,6 mil. €)
Horský park Courtyard Legiodomy Courtyard Slavia Community garden
Photos: Authors

11. Photos: www.cetip.sk
Experimenting with Commons
„You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of
conversation.“ (Plato)
Analyse and predict individual and group behavior under the
controlled situation: social dilemma under the complexity
and uncertainty.
Test novel instruments and decision tools in real world
situation (simplification of real life situations to zoom in on
specific decision problem)

12. Role Board Games
• Interactive agent based models (field experiment + role game)
• Repeatibility under the controlled conditions & time frame to increase
validity of experiments in real situation (Barretau, 2001, Janssen et al.,
2010)
• Learning aspect: Experience gained in playing roles foreign to one´s own
interest may provide insights hard to obtain in any other manner“ (Shubik,
1975)
• Dynamic modelling: Feedback loops – player feedback – adjusting the
simulation model & game rules
• Test the sensitivity of the consequences of given set of collective rules for
management of an ecosystem, with respect to a set of assumptions on
individual behaviours” (Barreteau, 2001).
Photo:constitutional-change.com

13. The „Green city“ role board game
• Designed on Cardenas, Janssen and Bousquet
(2008) new generation of field experiments with the
commons
• Communication and resource dynamics
Developed furter at VEEL:
• Player roles : 5 players :2 politicians, developer, 2
citizens
• Social dilema: grey/ greeen infrastructure
• Resource degradation: the fewer green spaces,
the greater the urban heat island (achieve minimum
of green to grey ration 2:1)
• Game treatments: non-cooperative, cooperative
with communication (crafting own rules) 10 rounds

14. The „Green city“ role board game
Further steps:
• Stakeholder involvement & follow up
survey
• Player (stakeholder) feedback -
whether the model's assumptions
match the stakeholders´own
representation of the system dynamics
and provide stakeholders with a large
enough range of possible
actions/competencies

15. Invitation to Game session
Friday 13:15-14:45 (CO Roma Square)

16. Thank you for your attention!
References
• Anderies, J.M., M. A. Janssen, F. Bousquet, J-C. Cardenas, D. Castillo, M-C. Lopez, R. Tobias, B. Vollan, A. Wutich . 2011.
The challenge of understanding decisions in experimental studies of common pool resource governance. Ecological
Economics 70 (2011) 1571–1579
• Barreteau, O., Bousquet, F., Attonaty J.M. (2001). Role-playing games for opening the black box of multi-agent systems:
method and lessons of its application to Senegal River Valley irrigated systems. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social
Simulation vol. 4, no. 2.
• Communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, The European Economic and
Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. 2013. Green Infrastructure- Enhancing Europe´s Natural Capital.
• Demuzere M, Orru K, Heidrich O, Olazabal E, Geneletti D, Orru H, Bhave A, Mittal N, Feliu E, Faehnle M. 2014. Mitigating
and adapting to climate change: multi-functional and multi-scale assessment of green urban infrastructures. Journal of
Environmental Management. Volume 146. 15 December 2014, Pages 107–115.
• Directorate-General Environment of the Environmental Commission. 2012. Multifunctionality of Green infrastructure (in-depth
report). 37p.
• Green. K.C. 2005 Game theory, simulated interaction, and unaided judgement for
forecasting decisions in conflicts: Further evidence. International Journal of Forecasting 21 (2005)
463– 472.
• HESS, CH. 2008. Mapping the New Commons. Published in 2008 [online]. [accessed
2012-04-20] Available at <http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/handle/10535/304>.
• Janssen, M.A., R. Holahan, A. Lee and E. Ostrom. 2010. Lab experiments and for the study of Socioecological
systems. Science 328: 613-617
• Maco, M., Kluvankova, T., Finka, M. 2015. Experimenting with Commons: Management of Semi Public Urban Spaces
Designing CPR Regimes for Urban Microclimate Regulation Contact. 15th Biennial Global IASC Conference, Edmonton
Alberta, 29th of May 2015.