The Ecological Transformation of Urban Parks in Taipei: Assessing the Transformative Capacity of Cities for Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions

Abstract

While the multiple benefits of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) for climate change adaptation, biodiversity, and human well-being are widely acknowledged, the integration of NBS innovations into mainstream urban policies and practices remains ambiguous. The mainstreaming of NBS is often impeded by place-specific structural conditions and barriers, such as the pre-existing governance model and rigid regulations hindering NBS implementation and upscaling (Dorst et al., 2022). Therefore, cities need to foster their ‘transformative capacity’ to surmount these barriers and identify levers and pathways that can drive sustainable urban transformations. In this article, we illustrate how urban parks, a common form of green infrastructure in the city, can serve as experimental sites for testing NBS innovations ‘on the ground’ and as crucial ‘game changers’ that positively contribute to urban resilience. Traditionally, urban parks are green spaces in densely built urban environments hosting diverse daily activities like sports and leisure for local residents. While their design may emphasize functional or aesthetic dimensions, a recent trend is emerging to re-nature urban parks through NBS for heat mitigation, habitat restoration, stormwater management, and social mobilization. Applying the conceptual framework of ‘transformative capacity’ (Wolfram, 2016), we explore the governance structure, key actors, experimenting and learning processes, and cross-level interactions that have the potential to mainstream Nature-based Solutions. For detailed analysis, we selected two urban parks, Daan Park in Taipei City and Zhonghe No.4 Park in New Taipei City, which represent large-scale urban parks in an East Asian urban context with high population density and limited open spaces. In Daan Park, community groups and NGOs have advocated for ecological restoration through constructed wetlands and natural habitats since 2016. The transformation of Zhonghe Park began in 2020 when the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute introduced close-to-nature forestry management as a strategy to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services delivery. To gain deeper insights into the transformative process of the two parks, government documents, newspaper articles, scientific reports, and social media posts were collected and analyzed. Interviews with government staff, landscape architects, community members, and park volunteers were conducted for understanding personal experiences and social networks. Through a qualitative assessment and comparison of the transformative capacity embedded in the two cases, we identify four main challenges that must be addressed: (1) enhance inter-governmental and cross-level integration; (2) support citizen engagement, including residents, NGOs, and the private sector; (3) facilitate knowledge translation and communication among stakeholders; (4) recognize the crucial role of intermediaries for upscaling NBS (Frantzeskaki and Bush, 2021). Although initial and partial transformation in the four domains have been observed in our case studies, these practices are far from routine activities and may face the risk of reverting to business as usual. Our findings on the transformative capacity of cities can thus inform policy recommendations and guide future research directions for mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions.