Building Urban Resilience Through Nature: A Systematic Review of Urban Green Spaces as Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based Urban Green Spaces (NBUGS) are increasingly recognized as essential strategies for enhancing urban resilience and addressing interconnected environmental, social, and economic challenges. Despite growing implementation, comprehensive evidence synthesis examining their multidimensional impacts and evaluation frameworks remains limited. This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 128 peer-reviewed empirical studies on NBUGS. Our analysis reveals exponential growth in NBUGS research, geographically concentrated in economically developed countries and regions. The evidence confirms that urban resilience is significantly enhanced by environmental benefits, positive social and economic outcomes. However, current research exhibits notable limitations including fragmented evaluation frameworks, lack of standardized resilience metrics, and insufficient integration of smart monitoring technologies. Realizing the full potential of NBUGS for urban resilience requires fundamental shifts toward standardized evaluation frameworks, dynamic management systems, and integrated planning approaches that explicitly address equity concerns and long-term sustainability. Future research priorities include developing modular assessment protocols, designing real-time resilience monitoring systems, establishing data-sharing platforms, and investigating synergies and trade-offs across benefit dimensions.