Lawn as Ecological and Cultural Phenomenon - Dr. Maria Ignatieva

Lawns are the most common elements of green city spaces across the globe, covering up to 50%–70% of urban green spaces require significant input of energy and resources and the use of seed mixtures from global lawn nurseries. This has resulted in biological and visual homogenisation of urban environments. This presentation will highlight lawn as a complex ecological and social phenomenon. It will discuss history of lawns, both the ecosystem services and disservices provided by urban lawns. One of the core objectives is to share a paradigm of nature‐based solutions in the context of lawns, which can be an important step towards finding resilient sustainable alternatives for urban green spaces in the time of growing urbanisation, increased urban land use competition, various user demands and related societal challenges of the urban environment. The author will share the experience of working within interdisciplinary research projects on lawns in different cities of Europe (Germany, Sweden and Russia), New Zealand (Christchurch), USA and Australia (Perth).