Questions COMBINED aims to answer:

• How do changes in climate and nature influence each other?
• What are the effects of existing measures on climate, nature and society?
• What social, political and institutional obstacles influence the implementation of options and strategies and how can they be removed?

The COMBINED project

Climate change and biodiversity loss are major and urgent societal challenges. COMBINED investigates how these two challenges interact, which measures are successful to counteract negative effects, and what is needed from a social and governance point of view to implement these measures.

The research is carried out in landscapes with grasslands, forests and urban areas (Leiden’s focus landscape). The aim is to gain new insights and to develop tools that simultaneously contribute to biodiversity recovery and climate change resilience, and which can be implemented in a just way, considering policy goals, values and interests of society.

Increasing urban climate resilience

Leiden University focuses on the abovementioned knowledge gaps in Dutch cities, with a particular focus on The Hague. In urban areas, biodiversity loss and climate change do not only impact healthy and resilient ecosystems, but also present considerable issues for human well-being, for instance through the urban heat island effect, air quality and physical and mental health. We will work together with citizens, municipalities and field experts to develop new insights and tools for urban climate resilience in the Netherlands.

Solution to what? Global assessment of nature-based solutions, urban challenges, and outcomes

Vegetation density is the main driver of insect species richness and diversity in small private urban front gardens

• biodiversity
• climate change
• ecosystem services
• nature-based solutions

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