Urban hedges: a review of plant species and cultivars for ecosystem service delivery in north-west Europe

Urban hedges provide a number of important ecosystem services (ESs) including microclimate alteration, flood and pollution mitigation, and biodiversity provision, along with some disservices (DSs, e.g. invasiveness, allergenicity). However, hedge plant species differ in their capacity to promote different services, so it is important that the decision to plant hedges is evidence-based. The objectives of this study were thus to (i) to review the role of urban hedges within NW Europe; (ii) review the available literature detailing the ESs and DSs provided by different plant species and cultivars when used as hedge plants; (iii) identify where there is a lack of evidence for certain species or ESs/DSs; and (iv) develop a starting point for a discussion about appropriate species/cultivar selection to deliver multiple ESs, and avoid DSs. Many studies consider biodiversity and air quality ESs. There are significant gaps in the literature relating to rainfall mitigation/flood protection, but also CO2 sequestration, allergenicity and human psychological well-being impact of different species. Additionally, for noise and pollution mitigation studies, a range of methodologies and units are used, making comparisons between hedge species difficult/impossible. A number of common hedge species demonstrated high levels of ESs delivery, including Fagus sylvatica, Crataegus monogyna, Ilex aquifolium and Rosa rugosa. No species surveyed had an entirely negative association with ESs, and most provide at least some benefits in supporting ESs provision (e.g. Viburnum tinus, Laurus nobilis). We created a matrix, in a table form, linking plant species, key plant traits and ESs/DSs, which should make it easier for professionals to choose species best suited to provide multiple benefits, whilst minimising the drawbacks. Our review suggests that the relative contribution of urban hedges to ESs delivery may be under-valued currently, and calls for more research

District heating and cogeneration in the EU-28: Current situation, potential and proposed energy strategy for its generalisation

[EN] Yearly, EU-28 conventional thermal generating plants reject a greater amount of energy than what ultimately is utilised by residential and commercial loads for heating and hot water. If this waste heat were to be used through district heating networks, given a previous energy valorisation, there would be a noticeable decrease in imported fossil fuels for heating. As a consequence, benefits in the form of an energy efficiency increase, an energy security improvement, and a minimisation of emitted greenhouse gases would occur. Given that it is not expected for heat demand to decrease significantly in the medium term, district heating networks show the greatest potential for the development of cogeneration. However, to make this happen, some barriers that are far from being technological but are mostly institutional and financial need to be removed. The purpose of this review is to provide information on the potential of using waste heat from conventional thermal power plants (subsequently converted into cogeneration plants) in district heating networks located in the EU-28. For this, a preliminary assessment is conducted in order to show an estimate of the cost of adopting an energy strategy in which district heating networks are a major player of the energy mix. From this assessment, it is possible to see that even though the energy strategy proposed in this paper, which is based on a dramatic increase in the joint use of district heating networks and cogeneration, is capital-intensive and would require an annual investment of roughly 300 billion euros, its adoption would result in a reduction of yearly fuel expenses in the order of 100 billion euros and a shortening of about 15% of the total final energy consumption, which makes it of paramount interest as an enabler of the legal basis of the “Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy” future enacted by the EU-28 Horizon 2020.We are grateful to the experts contacted who gave us their support, in particular and especially to Poul Alberg Østergaard (Aalborg Universitet), Capezzali Massimiliano (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Kevin Sartor (Université de Liège), Erwin Cornelis (VITO NV), Chiara Wolter (Ambiente Italia), Alexandra Tudoroiu (COGEN Europe), Olu Ogunbadejo (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), Aleksandrs Zajacs (Riga Technical University), and Carsten Magass (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH). Without their participation, this article would not have been possible.Rosales-Asensio, E.; Borge-Diez, D. (2016). District heating and cogeneration in the EU-28: Current situation, potential and proposed energy strategy for its generalisation. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences. 3(2):107-155. doi:10.4995/muse.2016.6339.SWORD1071553