Abstract
Urban heat is becoming an increasing problem for many cities, especially during the summer season. Ecosystems can provide a solution to extreme heat as they regulate microclimate via shading and evapotranspiration, hence, they can cool the surrounding environment.
However, the available greenery in urban environments is usually just a small fraction compared to build-up land, resulting in urban heat islands, while the pressure on ecosystems is still increasing from the competition with urban development and construction. At the same time, the population in urban areas has been growing, thus also increasing the demand for ecosystem services such as microclimate regulation.
Since the ecosystems are usually not equally distributed across space and among the population, there are only some people benefiting from their services, leaving the others with unsatisfied demand. Moreover, different groups of people have various levels of demand for urban cooling.
This contribution aims to present the assessment of urban cooling supply-demand mismatches on the case study of Prague, Czech Republic. We assessed the vegetation cooling via Urban InVEST model and coupled it with demand for cooling, represented by the recommendations on heat exposure.
To answer the question of who are the benefiting and disadvantaged people in the city, we also included the socio-demographic variables to capture the needs of different population groups. This enabled to consider the vulnerable population and made the demand side of the assessment more robust.
The results indicate the benefiting areas and areas with the unsatisfied demand, which we discuss in the context of environmental equity and land use planning. The outcomes of the research may contribute to a better understanding of ecosystem service needs among different socio-demographic groups and help urban planners, policy- and decision-makers to prioritise the areas for implementation of green measures, hence, leading to better equity among ecosystem service beneficiaries.