BBC: "Urbanisation's varying impacts on ecosystem services"

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"Our two scenarios - 'densification' and 'sprawl' - were based on classifications used in the 'UK Land Cover Map', in which urban areas were divided into either 'dense urban' or 'suburban' housing.

"Dr Eigenbrod told BBC News:

"We assumed under the 'sprawl' scenario that, in order to accommodate the growing population, the majority of people would want to live within an area of suburban housing densities, rather than dense urban conditions.

Then it was possible to calculate how much extra land was required, in order to accommodate the increase in people."

"Under the 'densification' scenario, this process was reversed.

"The team figured that densification policies would firstly try to increase the density of existing cities, meaning that suburban areas would become locations with dense urban housing.

"Dr Eigenbrod suggested:

"This would mean that there would be less or no green space, but the cities would not expand in order to accommodate the population growth,

The challenge is to have smart cities that are quite dense so they do not take up too much space, and do not have the disadvantages of sprawls (longer commuting distances, etc.), but still have enough green spaces that give all these benefits for people living there, including flood mitigation services.

There is an opportunity here, with clever planning, to try and maximise the benefits identified from both scenarios."