Smart Ecology of Cities: Integrating Development Impacts on Ecosystem Services for Land Parcels

This chapter discusses the state of building- and urban-scale sustainability assessment systems and what questions the concept of smart ecology for cities addresses, and describes a novel means of accounting for urban ecosystem services using a case study site. Ecosystem services are included in the form of carbon sequestration, PM10 removal, and other greenhouse gas removal that can be quantified while also determining the health and density of tree cover. The chapter provides details on the methodology used to calculate carbon sequestration, drainage, and PM10 filtration for Alachua County land parcels. It also discusses the implementation of development impacts in the dynamic-sustainability information modeling (Dynamic-SIM) platform. The chapter further details the assumptions and limitations that are inherent to the method that was developed, as well as speculating on potential extensions to the model that can be pursued in the future.